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November 22, 2024
 

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Burritt Sabin
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 21, 2009
Enoshima: Stepping back into 'old Japan'
Crossing Enoshima Benten Bridge to Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay, 80 km south of Tokyo, I was stopped in my tracks by a pair of mustard-eyed dragons slithering down gray granite lanterns. A man dismounted his bicycle and asked if I needed help. No, only his story, I replied.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 19, 2009
On the trail of the ancients
Today, most visitors to Kamakura reach the former shogun's capital by rail. But the railway was not blasted through hills until 1889, and in shogunal days travelers arrived via the seven kiridoshi, passes cut through hills as entrances to the city. Deciding to enter Kamakura like the ancients, we took...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Mar 1, 2009
Following the footsteps of the famed in Nikko
Behind the front desk of the Nikko Kanaya Hotel hang photos of an unlikely trio: James Curtis Hepburn, Isabella Bird and Zenichiro Kanaya. Hotel President Takayasu Akiyama connected the dots over a cup of java in the Maple Leaf Lounge.
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Mar 1, 2009
Following the footsteps of the famed in Nikko
Behind the front desk of the Nikko Kanaya Hotel hang photos of an unlikely trio: James Curtis Hepburn, Isabella Bird and Zenichiro Kanaya. Hotel President Takayasu Akiyama connected the dots over a cup of java in the Maple Leaf Lounge.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Dec 12, 2008
Echoes of the footfalls of soldiers
I was looking for a pillbox pockmarked with bullet holes in the Kudanminami district of Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. That's what an elderly friend told me I'd find in front of the area's Kudan Kaikan hotel.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Oct 24, 2008
Jogashima: Awash with thousands of cherry blossoms
The escalator at the Keikyu Line's Misakiguchi Station transported me to a windswept hilltop where a booth provided information on places to pick mikan (tangerines) and shops sold tuna, toasted laver bread and horse mackerel seasoned with mirin (a rice wine). I boarded a bus. As it descended between...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Sep 5, 2008
The Parnassus of Surugadai
Ochanomizu, the Tokyo neighborhood stretching from Yushima, Bunkyo Ward, to Kanda, Chiyoda Ward, gives good vibes. Jazz, rock and reggae spill from music stores and guitar shops lining Meiji-dori as it drops south toward Yasukuni-dori. Mid-slope is Meiji University's Liberty Tower, where one drizzly...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Aug 1, 2008
Romancing the West: Kamakura's charming boutique hotel
The symmetrical beauty of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, the meditative colossus of Kotokuin, and the Zen-inspired splendors of Kenchoji and Enkakuji may win Kamakura inscription on the World Heritage List. Comparatively unknown are its Western-style buildings constructed after Kamakura became accessible...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
Jun 6, 2008
A grande dame on the waterfront
Urban planning can be a zero-sum game. A case in point is Yokohama. The city redeveloped the waterfront to create Minato Mirai (Port of the Future), where visitors shop in boutiques, revolve on a Ferris wheel and whoosh in one of the world's fastest elevators to the top of Japan's tallest building, the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / GRAND OLD HOTELS
May 2, 2008
High in the Mampei
In mid-April, Karuizawa is quiet but for the buzz of saws and taps of hammers readying shops for the tourist season. Many shops, few of which rise higher than two stories, remain shuttered until then, and the streetscape surprises after the lofty skylines of Tokyo. But Karuizawa, in eastern Nagano Prefecture,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 4, 2008
The marvel of Miyanoshita
Guests stroll through the Fujiya Hotel like wide-eyed tourists drinking in the sights in an exotic port of call. They gaze at the dragon spiraling around a banister, the snake slithering up a support atop which sits a monkey, the elaborately carved tableau of Shogun Minamoto Yoritomo hunting wild boars,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 21, 2008
Then there were ghosts
Uraga Station, on the Keikyu Line, deposits passengers at the end of a narrow valley. The road ahead bifurcates.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 29, 2008
Splendor falls on castle walls
Snowcapped Fuji drops behind the humps of the Hakone range in central Honshu as a southwest-bound train approaches Odawara Station. With mountains on the west and the ocean on the south and east, Odawara was a natural fortress. The first to exploit this topography was the Kobayakawa clan, who built a...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 21, 2006
Lurking in the shadows, following in Edgar Allan Poe's footsteps
THE BLACK LIZARD AND BEAST IN THE SHADOWS, by Edogawa Rampo, translated by Ian Hughes, introduction by Mark Schreiber. Fukuoka: Kurodahan Press, 2006, 284 pp., $15.00 (paper). Edogawa Rampo, the pen name Taro Hirai (1894-1965) adopted in homage to Edgar Allan Poe (think phonetically), is the father of...
Features
Dec 25, 2005
The stuff of legend
She was named after the capital of Japan's first court. She was said by her crew to be more beautiful than a woman. She was the largest battleship in the world. She was the Yamato.
Features
Aug 28, 2005
Surrender seen close up
Col. Hervey Bennett Whipple was made logistics officer for U.S. Forces in the Southwest Pacific, operating from bases in Australia, in February 1942. In the following month he came to work for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who had arrived in Australia after a daring escape from Corregidor in Manila Bay.
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004
Glimpsing the essence of Hearn's Kamakura
Apropos Hearn's "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan," Basil Hall Chamberlain, the Meiji Era Japanologist, wrote: "Never perhaps was scientific accuracy of detail married to such tender and exquisite brilliancy of style."
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004
Abandoned misfit who found peace in prose and his new land
In the West, Lafcadio Hearn is largely unknown outside of small circles of Japanophiles and aficionados of Gaelic writers.
COMMUNITY
Aug 15, 2004
Barbed organ of delights
"Whereas women were created solely for amusement of men it ill becomes them to emancipate themselves," begins an article in an 1873 edition of Japan Punch. "As our slaves they are the most delightful of animals, but when they attempt to assume airs of superiority, then they become hateful."
Japan Times
Features
Aug 15, 2004
Barbed organ of delights
"Whereas women were created solely for amusement of men it ill becomes them to emancipate themselves," begins an article in an 1873 edition of Japan Punch. "As our slaves they are the most delightful of animals, but when they attempt to assume airs of superiority, then they become hateful."
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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