Japanese — Stories

Announcements in Korean, Chinese, English and Japanese haunt the three-quarter empty passageways that are usually full…

COVID-19By Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)13 February 2021TCK, TCA, third culture adult, third culture kid, TCK TOWN, Japanese, Japan, HONG KONG, HARROGATE, Seattle, USA, Travel, COVID-19, coronavirus Comments

Announcements of Love

I’m sorry. I’ll miss you terribly. You look at me hurt…

Not Another KFC Christmas

I was mortified to learn that a Tokyo Christmas meant cozying up over a bucket of KFC…

I Will Carry That Rice Cooker Out Like a Purse

My “real” boyfriend has his family coming from Brazil. He politely tells me to “move out” for the duration of the trip. I pay half the rent…

Moving, Food, RelationshipsBy Cherysh Sullivan (From Hawai'i & Germany. Living in Tokyo)28 December 2019tck, TCK TOWN, TCK, Tck, third language, moving, world, Japanese, Japan, city, station, boyfriend, culture, cultural, divorce, new place, boxes, pack, packing, friend, unpack, Perth, Melbourne, Brazil Comments

My Tuxedo Shirt

It’s my favorite choice for our annual Christmas brunch at one of the hotels in Tokyo…

Let's PartyBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)25 December 2019Japan, TCK, fashion, Malaysia, Christmas, brunch, Tokyo, malay, Malaysian, third culture kid, TCK TOWN, Americans, Texas, tck, American, JapaneseComment

Japanese American on the Flip Side

My blue eyes and straight nose a legacy of Northern Europe and gifts from my ancestors…

FamilyBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)7 December 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, identity, family, parents, sterotypes, Japanese, American, America, language, Tokyo, poemComment

Not Just Halloween Pumpkins

Woody persimmons sit on a small Japanese table with dark marker grimaces. Acrid pumpkins from China are baskets for treats...

Bridging My Two Worlds

I adapted to the new environment, but life never became easier. As I walked down the street, students from my school would yell, calling me Chinese…

The Great Tohoku Earthquake

March 11, 2011. Just an ordinary day. Then earth fell away beneath us…

My Pidgin is Better Than Yours

Of course, I envy your ability to switch from Japanese to English and back again, like a ping pong ball ricochets and zings out of a corner.

AngerBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)8 May 2019tck, TCK TOWN, TCK, Tck, third culture kid, cultures, culture, prejudice, students, Pidgin, language, Japan, Islander, JapaneseComment

Hijab and the Doppelgängers

There shouldn’t be an issue of not accepting another culture or religion just because you don’t like it or because you don’t understand it. Is this lack of tolerance something we might eventually be proud of? I shudder at the thought…

AngerBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)30 March 2019anger, TCK, TCK TOWN, third culture kid, friendship, racism, prejudice, Islam, muslim, hijab, Tokyo, winter, Japanese, Japan, KoreaComment

Awash With Anger

You pour your heart out. List your every reason, incident and rebuke. And still my little boat has not swamped and floundered. But now my shoes are wet and my socks are falling down in water weight…

By Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)20 March 2019TCK, TCK TOWN, third culture kid, anger, relationships, Japanese, American, Alaska, emotions, fight, growth, cultural, lessonsComment

The Real Folk Blues

"愛してたと嘆くには (I was in love once, I sigh) あまりにも時はすぎてしまった (far too much time has passed me by)." There's an uproar in the karaoke box...

Music, AsiaBy Ashleigh Leyshon (From Melbourne, Tokyo & Nagoya. Living in Kharkiv)6 February 2019TCK TOWN, tck, TCK, third culture kid, music, karaoke, Japan, Japanese, Nagoya, Australian, Australia, school, lyrics, sing Comments

Words By The Sea

On the silted shores of that Kashmiri lake from my childhood - my shoes slowly ruining in the slush of snow, mud and plum blossoms - I stood beside the houseboat we were staying in (which once hosted Henry Kissinger). That was the month Indira Gandhi was voted out and my whole family got stuck in India.

The Steam Bun Shell Game

I couldn’t make up my mind so I bought one of each. My fingers were the worse for wear because the bags were only big enough to cover them, not carry them…

FoodBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)1 December 2018TCK TOWN, TCK, Tck, steam buns, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Kowloon, sweet bean, Japanese, Seoul, philippines, Thai, Thailand, kombiniComment

I Broke Up With Alabama

"Hi. Where are you going?," a man asked me as he sat across from me at the bus station in Alabama.

We just got off the same bus from Atlanta to some city in Alabama, Birmingham, maybe? I don't know the geography of Alabama at all. I still can't look at maps of Alabama without crying...

Where Haven’t I Been Yet?

My passport tells an improbable tale of birth, country of origin and address of emergency contact….

Where Are You From?By Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)19 September 2018tck, TCK TOWN, third culture kid, where are you from, Nebraska, Americans, America, USA, Japan, Japanese, parents, family, languageComment

It's a Japanese Thing

I’m quite certain that was the moment I realised that it wasn’t just the language I had absorbed…

Why Live Abroad?

I am Dutch, grew up in Germany and went to an American international school. My husband is Japanese, grew up in Ecuador and went to both Japanese and American international schools there. We often joke that our family is like the UN with all its different cultures and languages…

College Sex in Tokyo

My perceptions on sex have been hammered and scratched and polished. Although I still admit to catching myself admiring ankles from time to time…