Anthony Head is a writer and editor who has lived for much of his life in Tokyo. His articles have been published in numerous journals, including The Edinburgh Review, The London Magazine, The TLS, Lowestoft Chronicle and Hinterland. His poetry has appeared in Outposts, Orbis, The Frogmore Papers, Acumen and other journals. He is the editor of three volumes of the letters and diaries of John Cowper Powys and several collections of essays by Llewelyn Powys.
Foreigners who live for any length of time in Japan soon discover that many of their experiences, both the delightful and demoralizing, prove to be not merely commonplace but identical to the experiences of most other foreigners. This may be equally true of ex-pats living in Ecuador or Senegal, and therefore a banality;…
