Fantastic Voyage
Nichi Bei News columnist Jeff Asai, a Yonsei who grew up attending the San Jose Betsuin Buddhist Church, writes from the town of Asuka, Nara Prefecture, where he serves as an assistant minister at a Jodo-shu temple, Jokokuji, teaches English and lives with his wife Yae Hosokawa with their children Madoka and Yui. He can be reached via e-mail at jeffasai@gmail.com. The views expressed in the preceding column are not necessarily those of the Nichi Bei News.
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FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Obon in Japan, compared to America
Jeff Asai, Nichi Bei Weekly Columnist
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I’d been trying to think of how to compare Obon festivals in Japan and America, but for reasons I couldn’t quite put my finger on, it was very difficult. On […] READ MORE
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FANTASTIC VOYAGE: The process of becoming a better minister
Jeff Asai, Nichi Bei Weekly Columnist
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Happy New Year! It has been two years since I last wrote, and in that time I finished my Buddhist training and have become an assistant minister in my village. […] READ MORE
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FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Becoming a monk
Jeff Asai, Nichi Bei Weekly Columnist
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Waking up at 5:30 a.m. has never been my thing. And waking up in a temple, throwing on monk robes and saying Buddhist chants for an hour on my knees […] READ MORE
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FANTASTIC VOYAGE: The road to naturalization in Japan
Jeff Asai, Nichi Bei Weekly Columnist
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Few things in life are irrevocable, but renouncing your citizenship from the U.S. is one of them. And yet that is what I plan to do in order to gain […] READ MORE
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FANTASTIC VOYAGE: ‘99 Nen no Ai’ – A popular Japanese drama about Japanese Americans
Jeff Asai, Nichi Bei Weekly Columnist
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Any Japanese American would immediately understand what you meant if you said 442nd, E.O. 9066, or camp. But how many Japanese people living in Japan would know? Before November, not […] READ MORE
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FANTASTIC VOYAGE: Japan’s 2009 at a Glance
Jeff Asai, Nichi Bei Weekly Columnist
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A new political party in power, another World Baseball Classic title, a Japanese movie winning an Oscar, the yen soaring to the highest yen-to-dollar rate in decades, North Korea continuing […] READ MORE
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