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December 22, 2024
 

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Simon Bartz
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 26, 2010
Merpeoples bewitch; The Party's . . . party
Four cute young women clad in ghostly white robes prance around in a forest holding twigs: No, it's not an outtake from the classic 1973 pagan spookfest "The Wicker Man." Yes, it is the excellent video for the Merpeoples' spankingly sublime song "Sherman."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 29, 2010
Mad, bad and surreal to know
Long, long ago . . . in a distant age . . . there was no karaoke (cue twang of shamisen and cymbal flutter).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 22, 2010
Sweat to a girl riot; soak up Gypsy jazz
"What's that smell in here?" I ask The Harpy's in the dressing room of the livehouse Motion, which lies at the butt end of the sleazy Kabukicho entertainment area in Tokyo's central Shinjuku district.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2009
Downtown Tokyo's fiery love
"Deep in the Valley," which was made in downtown Tokyo and appears to have had a budget of ¥5 plus, probably, a box of persimmons for all involved (random gifts are very downtown), is an accident. And I mean that in a good, romantic way.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Oct 23, 2009
Astro Boy
Director: David Bowers
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 11, 2009
Sankeien: Great love in a garden almost grows
Miho leans out over the Lotus Pond to get a good photo of one of the bright-red flowers when the camera slips out of her hand. Standing next to her, I instinctively lean forward, stretch out my hand (my reflexes, even if I say so myself, are very good) and pluck the camera out of the air with ease.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 27, 2009
Guitar Wolf return to silence the lambs
"We've come back and we're going to attack your planet with humongous love," says Seiji (that's Mr. Guitar Wolf himself) as he downs vegetable juice at a Jonathan's family restuarant near Yoga Station in western Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Mar 22, 2009
A rose among roots on Awajishima
I'm bent over double, throwing up water I've just drunk. I can't keep anything down.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 27, 2009
True icon of indie
The Wedding Present's latest album, "El Rey," is one of the best records I've heard over the last few years and has also been widely lauded in the British music media. Criminally, it has not been picked up for distribution in Japan. But you'll be able to hear the new songs at the band's upcoming Japan...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Feb 8, 2009
Storming the keep of Himeji Castle
"What are your three favorite things about Himeji Castle," I ask my guide, Ayumi Miyazaki, an elegant middle-aged lady, as we slurp down tempura soba in the dungeons of Himeji Station in Hyogo Prefecture, prior to walking the 15 minutes up the main drag to the town's famous fortress.
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Feb 8, 2009
Storming the keep of Himeji Castle
"What are your three favorite things about Himeji Castle," I ask my guide, Ayumi Miyazaki, an elegant middle-aged lady, as we slurp down tempura soba in the dungeons of Himeji Station in Hyogo Prefecture, prior to walking the 15 minutes up the main drag to the town's famous fortress.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2009
School's out
Matilda isn't waltzing. She's sprinting toward me outside Shinsaibashi Station in Osaka with the speed of a Jamaican Olympian chewing cheetah gonads. A meter from me she screams "Simon!" and takes a flying leap, so I instinctively reach out and I'm holding this tiny 18-year-old in my arms like she's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2009
School's out
Matilda isn't waltzing. She's sprinting toward me outside Shinsaibashi Station in Osaka with the speed of a Jamaican Olympian chewing cheetah gonads. A meter from me she screams "Simon!" and takes a flying leap, so I instinctively reach out and I'm holding this tiny 18-year-old in my arms like she's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Jan 4, 2009
It's Astro Boy to the rescue
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No such luck. It's just another humongous dark-gray cloud and it's spitting at me. "Hey!" I scream, waving my fist in the air at the darkening sky. "Leave me alone, you big gray bully!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 17, 2008
Meet a band 35,000 years in the making
When The Cro-Magnons played at this year's Fuji Rock Festival, you could have sworn the Big Quake had hit, with its epicenter at the main Green Stage. The ground shook, minor tsunami were recorded in the streams running through the site and squirrels fell unconscious from trees as about 15,000 punters...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Sep 12, 2008
He rides and he rides (and survives)
It's so hot, I've stripped down to my Y-fronts and with sweat dripping into my eyes and obscuring my vision I cycle east from my hotel near Sawara Station in Katori, Chiba Prefecture, along a path that runs beside the vast Tone River to my destination: Katori Shrine. It was built in 1700, is dedicated...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Aug 29, 2008
The naked and the (almost) dead
The feast of fish being delivered to our table is fit for the Emperor, as is the price of the room I'm eating it in at Inubosaki Kanko hotel in Choshi, a small seaside town in northeastern Chiba Prefecture. But I'm not complaining about forking out ¥36,000 for one night as it's the biggest and best...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 11, 2008
Sympathy for the Maries
All the boys are in their birthday suits and beautiful long-haired Ryohei Shima is mincing up toward me. Just think of a naked Mick Jagger — a 26-year-old one, that is — entering stage right on the set of a gay porn flick and you'll get the picture. Ryohei theatrically swivels his hips upon approach,...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 20, 2008
Babyshambles "Oh! What a Lovely Tour"
If Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty farted out Britain's national anthem accompanied by a barking dog, I would fork out cash for it. Pete is not just a rock star — he's a religion.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2008
Kiyoshiro Imawano at Fuji Rock Festival
Legendary rip-roaring rocker Kiyoshiro Imawano — who bears the soul of Otis Redding and the flamboyance of Marc Bolan — hasn't had the best of times over the last few years. The keen cyclist first had his bicycle stolen, which seemed a threat to future Fuji Rock performances as he has been known...
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Mother hopes for reunion with daughter ensnared by Tokyo host clubs
The Kabukicho district in Tokyo, where the daughter of a woman in her 60s fell deeply into the host club culture.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

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