On Missing the Aoi Matsuri

 On Missing the Aoi Matsuri

In The Kimono Tattoo, main character Ruth Bennett keeps an eye on the Japanese seasons. She knows when it’s appropriate to wear unlined kimonos or to dispense with long sleeves. Knowing of her fastidiousness, I was surprised when she forgot to celebrate the Aoi...
 From There

 From There

I have a friend from Summit, New Jersey. She left when she was fifteen. Her parents moved to Raleigh, North Carolina for work, and that’s where I met her. She’s since lived in Washington, D.C., California, and now Virginia Beach, Virginia. She’s never returned to live...
Recipes

Recipes

I have an index box of recipes that I almost never consult. It’s not even a box, to be honest, but rather an old red cloth clutch that a little girl in Japan gave me back in 1976. Keeping the recipes in that pouch saved space back in the day when I lived in tiny...
Writing on the Lam

Writing on the Lam

October 2, 2012 On leave from academic duties, I have traveled to the mountains of Eastern Tennessee to spend a month in the rustic log cabin my father built by hand in the 1970s.  Here, in my “writer’s retreat” I have time to myself.  I’m supposed to be...