About

I wrote my first article for The Japan Times in 1978, and with encouragement of the late Gyo Hani (then managing editor) continued to submit articles. In 1990, just after we built our house, I started the column titled “Crossing Cultures” — essentially a chronicle of my life as an American woman, married to an American, living and raising a family in rural Shizuoka. The column was a hit, with many readers writing to say they felt they were experiencing “the real Japan” through my eyes. Critics praised what they called my “no-nonsense approach to cross cultural living” and felt I represented a successful model of cross-cultural adaptation. I stopped writing the column in 1999 — just a few months before the JT went online, so my more than 200 columns were not archived. So, here are a few — some with updated postscripts. Although these were written more than 10 years ago, in re-reading them I find much of what I had to say still stands. Here I’ve also included photos from my personal collection. Some are chosen for relevance, and others just because I like them!