VueAsia/F.J. Brown

"When I first got to Japan, I was living alone in a drafty wooden apartment building, and I couldn't speak or read a word of Japanese. I caught cold and went to the store to buy some tissues. I picked up what I thought were tissues and took it up to the cashier. It seemed a bit strange to me at the time that when I made my purchase the young lady at the register put what I'd bought in a brown paper bag. But when I got home, I discovered that I had just purchased my very own pack of feminine napkins! And the young clerk hadn't even cracked a smile!"

Almost every non-Japanese in Japan has a favorite story about something foolish they have done. But few have portrayed the "gaijin experience" as humorously as cartoonist Tim Ernst.

A native of California, Tim first arrived in Japan and caught cold eighteen years ago. "My first involvement with Japanese was teaching English to a group of students at my university in California. Out of curiosity, I came to Japan to teach English in Yamagata for one year, and my 'brief' stay turned 'permanent' when I married an English teacher I had met in that first group in California. We moved in 1981 to Akita, her native area, and we've been here teaching English ever since."

How did he begin his career as a cartoonist? "My mother swears to this day that I was drawing in the womb. I have always drawn, and it has always been fun for me. Back in college when I was chasing girls full time, I always had a standard line: 'I'd love to draw you some time.' So my drawing got me a lot of laughs in school and lots of dates. Come to think of it, more laughs than dates."

The laughs keep coming, much to the delight of Tim's fans. Starting with cartoons in English-language newspapers, he later collected some of his favorites in the volume "Gaijin" (Tokyo: The Japan Times, 1987). Twelve years and twenty-three reprintings later, his portrayal of the foreigner struggling to cope with the local culture still rings true. A favorite cartoon among those Westerners in Japan who have been complimented on their skill with chopsticks includes an illustration of a Westerner speaking to a Japanese at a lunch counter with the caption: "Gaijin Revenge: 'You use a spoon very well!'"

Through his cartoons capsulizing the common experiences of non-Japanese - and supplementary commentary written in Japanese - Tim has made his own contribution to cross-cultural understanding. It is a bridge that he maneuvers skillfully, neither offending the Japanese, who are the majority of those who buy his books, nor apologizing for the foreigners, who send copies of his books to the folks back home, saying, "This is just what it's like to live here!"

Tim's themes and his styles have evolved over the years. "Whenever a flash comes to me," he says, "I draw it out. I have to because I have a terrible memory. I think I bruised it trying to learn Japanese." Be that as it may, Tim has teamed up with writers like Mike Marklew, Tommy Uematsu, and Takashi Matsumoto, in producing books of cartoons and illustrations that poke fun at both Japanese and non-Japanese.

In "The Japanese: A Field Guide" with Mike Marklew (Tokyo: The Japan Times, 1992), for example, Tim turned from cartoons to illustrations of various "species" of Japanese, including the "O. L." (office lady), the Elevator Operator, and the Samurai Actor. A figure anyone will recognize is the typical "TV Caster," a smiley female with stylishly short hair, eagerly embracing a mike who, the description tells us, is "always exceedingly excited about everything from an 80-kilometer traffic jam to the latest antics of Ueno Zoo's pandas."

To balance the equation, the same illustrator and writer take on the foreign community in Japan in "Types: The Foreigners You Are Most Likely to Encounter, Or Be!" (Tokyo: The Japan Times, 1994). Residents can find themselves and everyone else they know among such caricatures as the Esoteric Type, the Deadbeat Type, and the Come-As-You-Are Type. One favorite is the kimono-clad, cosmetic-less young Western woman known as the Gone Native Type, who is described as being able to "read menus in Japanese - upside down."

Whether his drawings are caricatures or actual portraits of real people, his skill as an artist is apparent, but he humbly notes that there has always been a certain amount of tension between his serious side and his humorous side. "My first art teacher took a look at my cartoons and said, 'Get serious!' When I showed my fine art to my second art teacher, he replied, 'You've got to be joking!' And I've been pulled back and forth between the two poles ever since."

Living in Akita, an hour by plane and a full four hours by train from Tokyo, Tim seems to be permanently ensconced in Tohoku. "The advantages of living in Tohoku," he explains, "are fresh air and far enough away from Tokyo. The disadvantages are, too much fresh air and too far away from Tokyo." The distance has not prevented him, however, from holding one-man shows in Tokyo at the Hilton Hotel, the British Club, and the American Club; the Kobe Club in the Kansai area; and at the Daiwa House in central London.

Asked what advice he might have for the foreigner coming to Japan, he replies, "I think the foreign experience is a great adventure for anyone with the courage, the sense of humor, the open mind to jump at it. There is, however, the unforeseen danger of staying too long and never wanting to go back."

His fans hope that he, for one, will be here for the duration.

Tim Ernst can be reached in the wilds of northern Japan at Maison Ishikawa B302, 16-26 Yabase Shinkawamukai, Akita-shi, Akita-ken 010-0965, by phone at 018-863-7253 or email ernst@mwa.biglobe.ne.jp