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August 15, 2024
 

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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 18, 2001
On top of the world -- but not feeling like it
The high Andes road down the Los Yungas valley from the Bolivian capital, La Paz, loses 3,000 meters altitude in just 80 km.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 4, 2001
Getting high on Bolivia's peaks
It's impossible not to notice the altitude here in La Paz, capital of Bolivia. There are such a lot of mountains around, for one thing. And they're all so high!
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 20, 2001
Mysteries of the Matopos
The Matopos Hills near Bulaweyo have always had the reputation of being a little special, a little uncanny.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 6, 2001
A portal to another green world
In 1752, the Earl of Bute and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha called gardener John Dillman in for a little chat. Their instructions to Dillman were simple: Design a garden. It should, of course, be attractive; a classical English garden, blending the formal decorative with the new fad of naturalism, which...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 30, 2001
The holiday that never began . . .
Romania has more brown bears per square kilometer than any other country in the world. Unspoiled forest covers 80 percent of the Carpathian mountains. Transylvania is home to thousands of wolves and 30 percent of Europe's lynx population. Wild boar, chamois, eagles and red deer abound.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 16, 2001
Where turtles swim in the slow lane
It is one of the prettiest boat trips in Central America: up the mangrove canals north from the Costa Rican port town of Limon to Tortuguero National Park.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 2, 2001
A natural cure for beer-induced exhaustion
Well, it's that time of year in Munich again. The liter-sized steins are being filled by beefy barmaids. Lederhosen and silly hats are being donned. The plaster demons of Herr Schichtel's horror show are fresh with newly sprayed cobwebs, while the calliopes roar and roller coasters whirl and turn.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 25, 2001
To know them is to love them
High summer. Sarasota, western Florida, and the bridges linking the Keys (off-shore islands) hum with traffic. Boutiques throng with tourists, construction cranes loom high, the beaches are peppered with sunbathers courting melanoma and the surface of the Gulf of Mexico is torn by Jet-skis.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 4, 2001
Where the diamonds aren't, any more
If you missed the last column, here's a brief recap. We were about to enter the Namibian Sperrgebiet (lit. "Restricted Area"), a vast southwest African coastal wilderness, off limits for nearly a century due to its dense concentrations of diamonds.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 21, 2001
The diamond town that time forgot
Morning dawns on Luderitz, but you'd barely notice. A dense bank of sea fog has rolled in overnight, and the small German colonial town near the southern tip of Namibia is lost; a place of shadows, half-glimpsed Gothic churches, haunted-house mansions and the ghostly glimmer of muted lights.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 7, 2001
Rubbing noses with a musk ox
The Northwest Territories cover approximately one-third of Canada. Given that Canada is the second-largest country in the world, it can therefore be said without fear of contradiction that the NWT is rather large.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 24, 2001
Temporary water, but it greens the desert
The San Bushmen call the Central Kalahari "The Land God Made in Anger," and most of the time the description holds good.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 10, 2001
Where pachyderms on the run find haven
A thumping makes the banana-flower curry shiver in the bowl. The cutlery rattles, and there is an excited rush of diners to the second-floor windows of the restaurant. Bellows and borborygmus* rise from below. The air is pungent with a dusty, thunderous aroma.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 12, 2001
Spirit travel on Myanmar's Mount Olympus
Mang Po To was eaten by a tiger, Mintha Maung Shin fell to his death from a swing, and instead of putting down a rebellion, She Sit Thin squandered his time cockfighting and was subsequently buried alive by his furious father. Even more peculiar was the passing of King Mingaun, who succumbed to a combination...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 5, 2001
Risking your life at Victoria Falls
While Zambia's side of Victoria Falls is sedate, a little backward, but calming, the Zimbabwe banks of the Zambezi River draw adrenaline addicts from across the world.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 15, 2001
History and old home comforts in Zambia
Every mud hut in Songwe Village Lodge is named after a chief. Our hut, for example, is called Shichichele.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 1, 2001
Devolution from concrete to marshland
For years it was a concrete reservoir in Barnes, southwest London. The kind of concrete reservoir that accumulates stolen supermarket trolleys, rusting oil drums, glue sniffers and dead cats.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 17, 2001
Travel from lions to sharks by luxury train
It is 2 p.m. on a cloudless, Friday afternoon. Windhoek's colonial-era station simmers sleepily in the hot sun of Namibia, southwest Africa.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 3, 2001
Namibian desert's barren fruitfulness
The San bushmen knew it as "the great white place" or "the white place of dry water." It is Etosha, one of Africa's most dramatic national parks. Price-wise, it is one of Africa's biggest safari bargains.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 21, 2001
Elat, Israel: This place is for the ornithologists
Perched on the southern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, Elat is a hedonistic cluster of high-rise hotels and bronzing beach bums surrounded by blue sea and burning desert. Basically, it's as close to Las Vegas as Israel gets -- without the gambling.
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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