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December 22, 2024
 

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Stephanie Gartelman
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2002
Ramen reborn as noodles nouveaux
Could ramen, Japan's answer to the greasy spoon, go gourmet? It started out simple -- this dish of Chinese-style noodles in soup was conjured up by cooks in Yokohama's Chinatown in the 1920s. Its present association with drab 24-hour diners and poor nutrition gives it a low rank in the food hierarchy:...
COMMUNITY
Feb 10, 2002
A true poet of the people ...
Coming soon to a sidewalk near you is one of Japan's most original street artists, Hiromitsu Noriyasu, along with his growing cult of fans. The spirited 34-year-old has covered more than 16,000 km over the past seven months on his bicycle tour of Japan, raising funds to finance a film by composing poems...
COMMUNITY
Jan 13, 2002
Fukuoka fish are jumping
FUKUOKA -- First-time visitors to this sunny city are often told with a certain friendly belligerence that Fukuoka's seafood is the best in Japan. Usually, just a glimpse of its sparkling harbor and rugged natural coastline is enough to whet their appetite to test this claim.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 14, 2001
Green tourism: where town and country meet
Ajimu in Oita Prefecture isn't exactly a major tourist destination. Yes, it has luxuriant fields and picturesque farmhouses boasting unusual basque-relief paintings called kote-e, but most visitors spend a half-day at most in Ajimu, perusing its stone Buddhist carvings or the African Safari nature park,...
COMMUNITY
Sep 9, 2001
Still healthy, after all these years
FUKUOKA -- Passing your twilight years in Japan used to entail long days of contemplation and an austere diet of tofu. Sound dull? The good news is that doctors these days recommend an active social life for a happy, healthy old age. The bad news is, according to medical practitioner Magoe Ando, you'll...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001
Natural resources
FUKUOKA -- More than 100 years of mining has given the town of Tagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, a masculine, working-class character, with widespread associations of gangs and violent crime. Abandoned concrete plants and mines line its hilly outskirts, and a coat of dust covers its many boarded-up shops....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001
Activists in the name of art
FUKUOKA -- "Art doesn't have to last forever -- otherwise it's like a topic that's discussed to death," says Takahiro Ogata, an architect involved in Fukuoka's annual Tomyo Watching event. The organizers, nonprofit organization Museum City Project, have kept Fukuoka's citizens on their toes since 1978...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 5, 2001
If at first you don't succeed . . .
FUKUOKA -- Divorce and remarriage have been possible in Japan since feudal times, though until recently shame and social stigma ensured that few unhappy couples formalized their differences -- let alone took the plunge again.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 29, 2001
Shochu appeal goes supersonic
FUKUOKA -- Kyushu folk are feeling quite tickled about something at the moment: a shochu boom in bars around Japan. The surging popularity of this once-lowbrow spirit, which originated in Kyushu, suggests that its old-fogy image may be disappearing for good and that lucrative times lie ahead for the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 17, 2001
Fukuoka's 'Asian' flavor
FUKUOKA -- B day Fukuoka shows a sleek, modern face to the world, but when the sun goes down its complexion changes to something more timeless and intriguing as nearly 200 wooden yatai (food stalls) are towed into its downtown area.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 27, 2001
Sip your way to a green, healthy state of mind
URESHINO, Saga Pref.-- Green tea is back.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 21, 2001
Where there's a spark, there's green tourism
If the thought of an entire mountaintop in flames sounds like a nightmare or a Dali painting, you'll be surprised to learn that noyaki, a land conservation technique in Kumamoto Prefecture's Aso county, looks exactly like that from a distance. Local environmental group Aso Greenstock has been teaching...
COMMUNITY
Mar 1, 2001
Spreading the word of Zen
They don't hold formal conferences or seek out media coverage of their more than 20 years of charitable work in Myanmar. Rather, members of the Asian Buddhist Association put their time into the project itself and traversing Japan drumming up interest among grassroots Buddhist groups, nongovernmental...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 22, 2001
Fukuoka's waterfront looks west again
FUKUOKA -- Fukuoka Harbor's public foreshores grew again last October with the opening of a new designer outlet and shopping mall, Marinoa City Pier Walk, in the city's west.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 3, 2001
The simple pleasures of Karatsu
KARATSU, Saga Pref. -- Best known for its deceptively simple pottery, Karatsu is a peaceful coastal town on a western tip of Kyushu. It's quiet year round except for summer, when holidaymakers crowd the long sandy beaches nearby, and November, when several hundred thousand visitors flock to see giant,...
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 21, 2000
One tall organic latte, please
If you started your day with a cup of coffee, think about how you selected the beans for your brew. Perhaps they were on sale, or your favorite roast from Brazil or Colombia. Chances are, however, you didn't have the option of buying organically farmed coffee.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 20, 2000
Rapt in the spell of a castle town
There's something exotic about a castle town, and Kumamoto is no exception. Kumamoto Castle's enormous fortifications and steps give an immediacy to the thrills and spills of history, and tower knowingly above its surrounds today.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 7, 2000
Popularity of Aso region both blessing and burden
FUKUOKA -- Kumamoto Prefecture's mountainous Aso region is a place where you could get drunk on nature's immensity. Swing your car onto Aso's Panorama Line road, step on the accelerator and you'll fly past grassy plains stretching upward to the green-tipped crags of Mount Aso and its five peaks. Here,...
LIFE / Travel
Nov 1, 2000
A stroll through ceramic country
FUKUOKA -- Driving from Fukuoka to the fertile northeast of Saga, the landscape suddenly changes. Gently stepped rice terraces and fields give way to short hills that rise abruptly like sugar lumps and end in craggy, chalky rocks. Towns with square brick chimneys loom, and signs begin pointing to artsy...
COMMUNITY
Oct 19, 2000
Kyushu reaches out to Asia through education
FUKUOKA -- For years it's been said that Kyushu's economic nerve center, Fukuoka, is one of Japan's most promising areas when it comes to forging new business and cultural links overseas. The city's proximity to the East Asian continent, as well as government and business activity, have all contributed...
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
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.
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono
The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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