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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 15, 2010

Breathing life into the mythical shachihoko

In 1610, as ordered by Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, the shogunal main office of Owari province (present-day Aichi Prefecture) was moved from Kiyosu to Nagoya, where a new castle was built. To commemorate the beginning of this magnificent castle's construction, which boasted a five-storied...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
May 15, 2013

Kids love park life in the summer

At long last, warm weather has arrived, which means more playtime in Tokyo's parks — from your scrappy, local patch of dirt to the manicured opulence of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. My family's favorite is Yoyogi Park. While not the most pristine public space Japan has to offer, it's certainly the...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jan 27, 2010

Toshiba Blu-ray recorders, mCube90 make life more compact

Blu-ray recording: If you can't beat them, don't join them — just copy their ideas and improve them. Toshiba is endeavoring to do just that having abandoned its HD-DVD format and instead opted to craft versions of Sony's brainchild, Blu-ray. Nobody can accuse Toshiba of not doing a wholehearted about...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 11, 2008

Offering shelter from life's storms

"It's the single most stressful job I've ever had. It's also the best job," says Briar Simpson of Tokyo's Animal Refuge Kansai.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 3, 2007

Veggies of the world unite

Yakitori, "donburi," "shabu shabu." Pig feet, cow tongue, whale bacon. Even salads in Japan are usually topped with chicken, wee fishies or eggs.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Nov 15, 2000

A democratic farce

www.infoplease.com/spot/closerace1.html Infoplease goes all the way back to the 1876 election to explain what happened the last time the U.S. Constitution overruled U.S. voters. As in last week's presidential race, the voters elected the Democratic candidate only to see their government overturn their...
Japan Times
JAPAN / IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition
Sep 14, 2018

Nation hopes to share international water technology

Tokyo will host the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2018 from Sunday to Friday. The event is expected to attract 6,000 people from more than 100 countries to discuss technology, public policies, international collaboration and other subjects to achieve sustainable water management practices.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 17, 2006

Finding space in gay Japan

At first glance, homosexual life in Japan can seem quite repressed. Public displays of affection are next to nil, gay Japanese men often live secret lives and it's hard to notice a gay presence at all unless by venturing into Tokyo's "gayborhood," Shinjuku Ni-Chome.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Jul 25, 2011

Majestic bamboo is firmly rooted in ancient kanji

My first exposure to bamboo in Japan, as a newcomer from the United States in the early 1980s, was the jaw-dropping sight of tabi-clad construction workers deftly scampering about on bamboo scaffolding ten stories high. Although this versatile natural resource — utilized in Japan and China for thousands...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 18, 2006

Musical match for Japan Goliath

Tetsuo Tanaka has been protesting his dismissal from an electronics company for a quarter of a century. Now his struggle, one of the longest one-man campaigns in Japanese history, is to be the subject of a documentary
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Nov 19, 2013

Preparing your kids for the Big One

Earthquakes and aftershocks are a fact of life in Japan, and since the tragedies of March 11, 2011 remain fresh in many of our memories it's easy to understand how each significant temblor can weigh on the mind of a Tokyo parent. Nearly everyone in this city has had some sort of preparedness training...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 25, 2009

A revolution in lighting, Japan's Kindle and an on-the-go theater

Light fantastic: The traditional light bulb in this period of global warming is seen as wasteful: It uses too much electricity and has too short a life span. Bulbs that use light-emitting diodes (LED) are seen as leading candidates to replace the incandescent bulb. Toshiba is promoting this technology...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 15, 2002

Chushingura Chushingura

Snow has been the backdrop to some of Tokyo's most colorful and epoch-making events.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Apr 15, 2015

Family overcomes learning and health challenges to make cafe dream a reality

Originally a nurse by profession, Rhonda Tezuka is overcoming cultural barriers and helping others to take charge of their own health and welfare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 27, 2012

Junko Tabei : The first woman atop the world

Almost exactly 37 years ago, on the morning of May 16, 1975, then 35-year-old Junko Tabei and her Sherpa guide Ang Tshering reached the 8,763-meter South Summit of Mount Everest — their final halt before pushing on to the 8,848-meter peak itself.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
May 9, 2012

This summer, take your gadgets camping, too

With the balmy weather and a relaxing pause from hectic day-to-day life during Golden Week, I'm sure many people have been inspired to start planning some kind of getaway to the countryside when things really heat up.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 13, 2012

New Zealander loses legal fight over crippling med addiction

When Wayne Douglas arrived home in New Zealand from Japan in early 2001, his own mother didn't recognize him at the airport.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Jan 9, 2012

The Kanji of the Year for 2011: human ties that bind

Every November, in its Kanji of the Year poll, the Japanese Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation invites the public to vote for the character that best symbolizes the year drawing to a close. It then announces the winner in mid December.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 11, 2010

China's modern art that grieves for the old

The art on display in "From the 11th Chinese National Art Exhibition 2009: Contemporary Fine Art from China" at the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art is of a different species than the headline-grabbing pieces that have propelled Chinese art into a much sought-after commodity frequently at the forefront...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2009

Bringing SecondLife into the real art world

Born in Guangzhou in 1978 and now based in Beijing, Cao Fei is one of China's most prominent young artists, known for photographs and videos that combine elements of fantasy and documentary to reflect on cultural shifts since the country's economic opening at the start of the 1980s.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 27, 2008

A very green afternoon cuppa

Whenever I travel to Tokyo I make it a point to spend at least a good part of one day on a visit to Shibamata in Katsushika Ward. This lovely neighborhood tucked away in the remote northeastern corner of the city on the banks of the Edogawa River still retains some of the flavor of the Edo Period (1603-1867)....
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 17, 2007

From Big Brother marketing tools to powered Kitty-chan collectibles

Looks alone might not determine a person's character, but for marketing they are at least a good start. NEC certainly believes in the power of appearances, with its new FieldAnalyst camera. The device, in essence, judges passersby on the basis of their looks, determining their gender and approximate...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 20, 2007

Gadgets to the rescue — vibrating pillow curbs snoring; toothbrush tracks your hygiene habits

Snoring is like the common cold — they both prove that the world's scientists are clueless about what is important in life. Rather than building a better spaceship, how about just removing these banes from our lives? Francebed, the name of which is only half truthful as it is the moniker of a Japanese...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 11, 2006

Sick, desperate Japanese turn to booming Chinese organ trade

When Kenichiro Hokamura's kidneys failed, he spent four years on dialysis before going online to check out rumors of organs for sale.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Apr 19, 2001

Calling all Internauts...

www.zingasia.com An Asia travel site that for some reason wants to be a portal. The only other shopping experience on the Net that offers so much to contemplate is Amazon. But looking for vacation possibilities just isn't the same as browsing through books, and the reams information and suggestions can...
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 1999

Web site attaches yen sign to one's personal worth

Staff writer Reiko Ishikawa feels worthless, but it has nothing to do with having no boyfriend, disliking her job, or misplacing her Prada handbag.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Web site attaches yen sign to personal worth

Staff writer
Japan Times
Places
Apr 19, 2019

Things to do in Tokyo during Golden Week

This year's unprecedented 10-day-long Golden Week is a chance for people to travel and see the world. Unfortunately, with sky-high plane tickets and sold-out bullet trains, many of us will be staying in Tokyo for long staycation. If you are living in the capital and have seen most of the big tourist...
Context has always been the key to successfully translating a video game from Japanese to English. Recently, though, cultural sensitivities come into play as well.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 17, 2024

How your favorite Japanese video games are translated into English

Localizers have to grapple with challenging issues of tone and nuance. Even a simple "thank you" may not be what it seems.
Chinese leaders seem to believe the country has a narrow window of opportunity to achieve global preeminence before unfavorable demographic and geopolitical trends catch up with it.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2023

China’s dangerous secrets

China's secretive approach to projects and activities, including its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, should be a significant concern.

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition