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August 15, 2024
 

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Leza Lowitz
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 30, 2003
Power and glory of temple ruins
ANGKOR: Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire, text by Ian Mabbett, Eleanor Mannikka, Jon Ortner, John Sanday and James Goodman; photos by Jon Ortner. New York: Abbeville Press, 2003, 289 pages, $95 (cloth).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 13, 2003
Heartfelt poetry from and inspired by Asia
EPITAPH FOR MEMORIES, by Yoko Danno. The Bunny and The Crocodile Press, 2002, 53 pp., $10 (paper). NINETY-FIVE NIGHTS OF LISTENING, by Malinda Markham. Mariner Books, 2002, 80 pp., $12 (paper).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 25, 2003
Vietnamese cuisine in a Parisian scene
The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, 261 pp., $24 (cloth). It's Paris, 1929. You're young, Vietnamese and gay. You don't speak much French, but you can cook a mean omelet. You see an ad in the paper: "Two American Ladies Wish to Retain a Cook." You answer the ad. You get...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 9, 2003
Dropping out and tuning in to the rhythm of nature
SANTOKA: Grass and Tree Cairn, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Vermont: Red Moon Press, 2002, 74 pp., $14.95 (paper) No matter how deep one's faith or religion is, one may experience feelings of resignation and defeat as well as the loss of compassion for others and oneself.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 5, 2003
Essay collection by master haiku poet wins high praise
THE NICK OF TIME: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics, by Paul O. Williams. Edited by Lee Gurga and Michael Dylan Welch. Foster City, CA: Press Here Books, 2001, 112 pp., paper ($12) What is a haiku, really? How do we know one when we see it? Are English-language haiku less authentic than Japanese haiku? And...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 8, 2002
Expat writers shoot from the lip
FACES IN THE CROWDS: A Tokyo International Anthology, edited by Hillel Wright. Printed Matter Press: Tokyo, 2002, 254 pp., 2 yen,500/$25 (cloth) "Faces in the Crowds" is a hyperkinetic grab bag that brings work by a cross section of Tokyo's expat writers, and Japanese writers working in English, together...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 10, 2002
Coming of age in Heartbreak Hotel, New Jersey
WAYLAID, by Ed Lin. Kaya Press: New York, 2002, 169 pp., $12.95 (paper) This terrific first novel by Chinese-American writer Ed Lin revolves around a 12-year-old coming of age in New Jersey in the 1970s, burdened by his virginity and motivated mainly by the desire to lose it.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 13, 2002
Confessions over a cup of coffee
ON TSUKUBA PEAK: Tanka by Hatsue Kawamura. Five Islands Press: Wollongong, Australia, z2002, 93 pp., $20/1,500 yen (paper) MEMORIES OF A WOMAN: Tanka by Harue Aoki. Mura Press, Tokyo, 2001, 204 pp., 1,800 yen (paper) Women poets have a long and industrious history in Japan, where they have been writing...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 22, 2002
Hsia Yu: modern, universal and refreshing
FUSION KITSCH: Poetry by Hsia Yu, Translated by Steve Bradbury. Zephyr Press, Massachusetts, 2001, 131 pp., $13 (paper) The title of this book, the first bilingual collection of work by Taiwanese poet Hsia Yu, is apt. In fact, translator Steve Bradbury, a professor at National Central University in Taiwan,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 28, 2002
Taking a shortcut to enlightenment
THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING BUDDHISM, by Gary Gach. Alpha Books, 2002, 408 pp., $18.95 (paper) Half a billion people in the world consider themselves Buddhists, and millions of Westerners have embraced the religion and its tenets. For the uninitiated, and even for some initiates, Buddhism...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 12, 2002
Poetry that's music to the ears of millions
POEMS OF THE GOAT, by Chuya Nakahara, translated by Ry Beville. American Book Company, Richmond, VA, 2002, 77 pp., $15/2500 yen (paper) Why do some writers get translated and others -- better, more deserving -- remain obscure? This is a question that Ry Beville, a young Virginia native, asked himself...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 30, 2001
Simple words for Zen living
TO SHINE ONE CORNER OF THE WORLD: Moments with Shunryu Suzuki (Stories of a Zen Master Told by His Students), edited by David Chadwick. Broadway Books, 2001, 144 pp., $16.95 (cloth) Is it possible to impart the wisdom of Zen through words? Or are the lessons of mindful living communicable through action?...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 24, 2001
Nagashima provides balm for the caregiver's soul
THE GIRL WHO TURNED INTO TEA, by Minako Nagashima, translated by Hiroaki Sato. P.S., A Press, 2000, 56 pp., $12. The frailties and failings of the human body and mind are not usually the stuff of poetry, but Minako Nagashima, a longtime social worker and aid to the physically and mentally handicapped,...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2001
Sounds of a poet who writes to live, and lives to write
COLLECTED POEMS OF SHUNTARO TANIKAWA, CD-ROM. Iwanami Shoten Publishers, Tokyo, 2000, 19,000 yen. It's been a recent trend in the music industry to come out with boxed sets commemorating the work of some of our most celebrated musicians, from John Coltrane to the Beatles. That such a trend has spread...
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2001
When the nightmare broke through: "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche"
UNDERGROUND: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche, by Haruki Murakami. Translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Philip Gabriel. Random House, Vintage International; 366 pp., $14.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2001
Fairy tales for modern Japan
GHOST OF A SMILE: Stories, by Deborah Boliver Boehm. Kodansha International, 2000, 288 pp., 2,900 yen (cloth). Imagine Lafcadio Hearn venturing to 21st-century Tokyo reincarnated as a single American woman with a penchant for the exotic and erotic, and you will have a sense of the stories in "Ghost of...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2000
Making mush of Meadowlark
SHOPPING: A Novel, by Gavin Kramer. Soho Press, 2000, 216 pp., $22 (cloth). It's easy for a foreigner to feel like a freak in Japan -- tall, different, culturally unaware, linguistically tongue-tied. This wickedly clever novel of manners turns its lens on the foreign protagonist as spectacle, British...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 21, 2000
Beautiful poetry from the ashes of Hiroshima
BLACK FLOWER IN THE SKY: Poems of a Korean Bridegroom in Hiroshima, by Chong Ki-Sheok. Katydid Books, distributed by the University of Hawai'i, 2000, 79 pp., $20 (paper). As the war generation grows older, casting glances back on life, poetry of witness has become increasingly urgent. Perhaps time...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 9, 2000
From nothingness, a celebration of life
A DREAM LIKE THIS WORLD: One Hundred Haiku, by Nagata Koi, translated by Naruto Nana and Margaret Mitsutani. Tokyo: Todosha Publishers, 2000, 147 pp., 2,381 yen (cloth). Dream and waking life. Reality and illusion. Where does one begin and the other end? This question radiates at the heart of Nagata...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 18, 2000
The art of hearing what lies behind words
HEART OF BAMBOO: Poetry and Music in the Zen Tradition, by Sam Hamill, Elizabeth Falconer, Christopher Yohmei Blasdel. CD and Listener's Guide (32 pp.), Copper Canyon Press, 1999; $12. "The roots of poetry inevitably return us to music," Sam Hamill writes in "Listening in the Zen Tradition," one of...
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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