Dispatch № 106: Snow Bridge

Instead, it belongs to a rail-thin teenager who isn’t sure what he wants to do in life…

Dispatch № 105: A Perfect Day for Pounding Rice

The air was cold and crisp, filled with the sounds of easy conversation and the rhythmic, sticky thuds of rice being pounded into mochi.

Dispatch № 104: Possibility

With less than a week left in the year, and with less than a week left for me in my thirties, I am feeling an uncharacteristic sense of hope and optimism.

Dispatch № 103: Nothing for the Sake of Something

To my left runs a long row of houses. To my right is a chain-link fence, woven and fringed with weeds. Beyond it, a profusion of railroad tracks.

Dispatch № 102: You’re Doing Me a Favor

Already, I’ve given away a half dozen old film cameras, a flash, a tripod head, two avocado trees, a couple old messenger bags, the fountain pen and ink, and a small variety of other things.

Dispatch № 101: Festive

Which brings us back to the baby castella.

Dispatch № 100: Going Deep

Mounds of burnable garbage, bundles of cardboard, stacks of old clothes bound with twine, old furniture broken down into pieces, sandwich bags full of old batteries—just about anything you can imagine, really, and the volume increases strikingly as December’s days run out and the new year approaches.

Dispatch № 99: Decompression

A walk and a comedy podcast on the quiet back streets between the school and the station.

Dispatch № 98: Ode to the Kotatsu

A poem about my favorite piece of furniture

Dispatch № 97: So Much Shouting

Meanwhile, in the library on the eighth floor of the mall, a place that is usually a quiet and happy refuge, I could still hear him bellowing down below.