Tokyo Off Time!

Welcome to the Tokyo Off Time! series

Hi, this is James Liu, author of the Tokyo Off Time! series. I created this series of articles as a way to record my personal observations about life in Tokyo. This series is the 1996 version based on the originals I began writing and putting on the Internet in 1993. I have since returned to my "homeland" - the United States, much more sober about the realities of life in Japan. I arrived in Tokyo in September 1993 on a Post-Doctoral fellowship to do research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. After a year, I found work as a consultant for a financial systems integrator. This series continues on from my academic adventures and includes more personal views on working life in Tokyo. For those contemplating the joys of potential life in Japan, I've heard this said: "Your mileage may vary." In that sense, please take these only as a personal glimpse of life in Tokyo and enjoy if you will, what these are ... simply stories.

James Liu, March 1996

Copyright notice: This article may be freely copied and distributed provided that the header and authorship remains unchanged. No part of any of the Tokyo Off Time! series may be commercialized without the author's permission (address given at the end of the article). This work is non-fiction. Any similarities to other characters, fictitious or real is purely coincidental. Opinions expressed in this article are solely that of the author and do not reflect the opinion of any institution, company or corporation. - May 1994

Contents:

Origins

The concept for Tokyo Off Time! is something borrowed. A few years back, a good friend living in New York, was a big time producer of the series: New York Off Time!. This show aired once a week on Japanese television, and if I recall, the show was sponsored by Toshiba. Each weekly segment was 4 minutes and showed an aspect of New York that was more of the insider's tour of NYC. I've seen the video clips and it's good stuff. In fact, I liked it so much, I borrowed the name.