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Sumiko Oshima

COMMUNITY

Aug 24, 2000

A new deal for man's best friend

Theta was a month-and-a-half-old puppy when she first came to live with Fuyumi Morita and her husband in the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, one year after the couple's marriage. Morita remembers Theta's little paws scrabbling at her when she picked her up, Theta's little eyes looking into her...

COMMUNITY / BODY AND SOUL

Aug 21, 2000

Homocysteine a new heart attack threat

Even if your regular medical checkup shows a low cholesterol level, don't celebrate too soon: Recent medical research has revealed another bad guy in the blood.

COMMUNITY

Jul 31, 2000

Taking the bitter with the sweet

It looks scary at first -- more like Godzilla's back than like something you'd eat. Nor does the first taste come easy. A bite sends a bitter flavor along the tongue.

COMMUNITY

Jul 13, 2000

Groping: the proof is in the accusation

When a station attendant tapped his shoulder to lead him into a nearby police box shortly after he got off the last train of the day, Roberto (not his real name) thought the police just wanted to check if he had overstayed his visa.

COMMUNITY

Jul 3, 2000

It's a drink and a snack: black soybeans

Japanese health enthusiasts are pursuing another lead in their quest for healthi er living. Following the green-tea boom, they are now drinking a much darker "tea," prepared not from tea leaves but from black soybeans.

COMMUNITY

Jun 8, 2000

Pageants losing face with public

Mari Nishihama, 20, a native of Oshima, an island located 100 km south of Tokyo, had always lived a peaceful, if somewhat uneventful, life in the small tourist resort town. But all that suddenly changed last fall, when town celebrities voted the local bank clerk Miss Oshima 2000.

COMMUNITY

May 1, 2000

New treatments can save stroke victims if diagnosed in time

It creeps up on you unawares and attacks suddenly. One day you are fine and leading a nation. The next day you are in a coma at a hospital.

COMMUNITY

Apr 27, 2000

Outdated male views hamper care

In early April in a Tokyo suburb, a group of in-home caregivers -- all women -- were absorbed in a conversation about their elderly clients.

ENVIRONMENT

Apr 17, 2000

Germinating a new attitude toward brown rice

A new way of eating rice may revolutionize the Japanese diet in the next century.

LIFE / Food & Drink

Apr 5, 2000

Take your vitamin C -- but how much?

The message is everywhere -- take vitamin C.

JAPAN

Mar 21, 2000

'What ifs' haunt families of Aum's sarin victims

Even five years after the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways, many questions remain.

JAPAN

Mar 14, 2000

Tokyo budget sidesteps asbestos

After having recently provoked outrage in the trucking industry over a controversial plan to regulate diesel cars, "environmentally friendly" Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has just submitted a budget proposal to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly that has one less allocation for green initiatives: that for asbestos...

CULTURE / Art

Mar 11, 2000

Antique restorer teaches old furniture new tricks

Western antique furniture has an ambivalent reputation. Some people are so enchanted with it that they become collectors, while others simply think of it as old, dirty -- and often unreasonably expensive.

CULTURE / Art

Feb 26, 2000

Religious art meets shamanism

People in the village of Monobe, Kochi Prefecture, nestled deep in the mountains, have passed down from generation to generation a mysterious folk religion that worships paper gods.

COMMUNITY

Feb 24, 2000

Home is where change is

A visit to Tobetsu would surprise anyone looking for a glimpse of "old Japan" in the countryside.

CULTURE / Art

Jan 29, 2000

Traditional art gets the seal of approval

You need them to register a birth certificate, to marry, to open a bank account and even to receive a parcel. You might say the hanko validates every official occasion in Japan.

CULTURE / Art

Jan 1, 2000

Leaving an impression for time to come

Children can't wait for that moment on New Year's Day when they can snatch at the small, colorful envelope appearing from the purse or pocket of the gift-giver. Some sit upright before their parents and swear to behave well or study more during the year, while others happily speculate about how much...

JAPAN

Dec 27, 1999

Nuclear plant jobs lure unwitting day laborers

Staff writer The death last week of a JCO Co. employee who on Sept. 30 was working at the scene of Japan's worst nuclear accident, reminded the nation of the health consequences of an atomic accident. According to Yuko Fujita, associate professor of physics at Keio University, accidents like the one...

CULTURE / Art

Nov 26, 1999

Reflecting prosperity, deflecting evil

Every year in the middle of December, thousands of people flock to Tokyo's Asakusa Sensoji Temple for the annual hagoita market to buy oshie hagoita, a decorative battledore that serves as both a New Year's decoration and a good-luck charm.

CULTURE / Art

Oct 2, 1999

Winged labors of love

Bird carvings have typically been thought of as a Western art form, but Haruo Uchiyama is challenging this assumption. Even the birds that have come into contact with his carvings have been made believers.

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.

The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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Festival overcomes a nuclear accident and COVID

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