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 Kris Kosaka

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Kris Kosaka
Kris Kosaka, a resident of Japan since 1996, contributes regularly to The Japan Times. She is a lecturer at Meiji Gakuin University in the Faculty of International Studies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013
On the beat with a cultural detective
The recent success of Barry Lancet, first time author and resident of Japan for over 25 years, reads like a bar-stool fantasy for any wanna-be writer, and Lancet's definitely enjoying the dream-like reality. With the TV rights optioned by Hollywood, positive reviews surging in across the globe, six countries...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 11, 2013
Strays become woman's calling
It's a typical evening in the Mercer-Tojo household. Susan Mercer, 37, has just settled down their 2-year-old for the night, tucking him in as he cuddles with five or six cats. Several dogs prowl restlessly, eager for a pat or a kind word. Scooping a kitten off the floor, Mercer settles down to wait...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 26, 2013
Poetry event to tap into global discussion
Think global; act local. Kyoto residents have a chance this weekend to act on this aphorism, joining a global cultural event without even leaving Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 13, 2013
Briton relies on samurai spirit as he sets out on 126-km walk for charity
Like many before him, Trevor Skingle became fascinated with samurai ethics while learning a martial art. But for this Briton, the samurai respect for the arts in traditional Japan resonated with his own life choices.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 12, 2013
Short films to get screen time in Sapporo
The eighth annual Sapporo Short Fest received 3,746 submissions from 94 countries. Organizers have whittled that number down to 99 films that will screen during the competition.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 30, 2013
Organizer of annual writers' workshop helps others find artistic way
John Gribble gives a part of every day to creating. Whether it's pinpointing the perfect word for a poem or plucking out a ditty on a guitar, his life and livelihood in some way proves creative. As a poet and teacher, Gribble has spent the last 20 years in Japan organizing others to find their artistic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 24, 2013
Collection of American Zen koans for quiet contemplation
American Zen Koan No. 96: A student once asked Zen teacher Steve Allen, "If you were given a wish-fulfilling jewel, what would you wish for?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 9, 2013
Film helps heal A-bombing, and family, wounds
In a poignant scene in the award-winning 2010 documentary "Atomic Mom," filmmaker M.T. Silvia tells the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima atomic bombing victim, as she presents 1,000 paper cranes to Silvia's mother, Pauline, a former U.S. Navy biologist involved in radiation testing on animals in the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 2, 2013
Housewife takes time to make a difference volunteering in Tohoku
Sometimes making a difference just means making the time. Kerry Shioya, 49, travels two or three times a month to the Tohoku areas hit by the March 11, 2011, disasters. Sometimes setting out alone, sometimes bringing one of her five children, interested English students or other volunteers, Shioya continues...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 19, 2013
Pioneering Australian's outdoor adventures invigorate Hokkaido
Australian Ross Findlay is a doer. Name any outdoor sport and chances are he's done it, from kayaking to rock climbing to snowcat skiing and snowshoeing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2013
A diary washed ashore opens up a world of multiple realities
A good read transcends into the eternal, melding the real now with a timeless present. Ruth Ozeki's "A Tale for the Time Being" is all that and more: a quietly amazing achievement, a careful construct bridging quantum physics and the role of the reader/observer, a Zen eternity of multiple realities...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 5, 2013
Mom who blogged about tsunami wants people to remember
Stranded for three days after March 11, 2011, with her mother-in-law and young children on the second floor of their home near the industrial port of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Naoko Nakayama fought panic by communicating the only way she could: scribbling on torn scraps of paper.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 4, 2013
'New' Royal Ballet spans the frontiers of dance
For the first time in three years, one of the world's most esteemed ballet companies is bringing its talent to one of the world's most appreciative audiences, as part of a tour that explores the parameters of dance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 16, 2013
Historical biography captures the spirit of early feminist Japan
Time distorts, concealing the individual drops of humanity within the great tide of history. "Beauty in Disarray" attempts to reveal one such individual threatened to be lost in time, a woman named Noe Ito. In telling Ito's tragic story, biographer Harumi Setouchi (now known by her Buddhist name Jakucho)...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 8, 2013
Yoga teacher finds creative voice — and success — in 'surreal' Tokyo
While hammering nails and cutting planks in the prop department at New York's Lincoln Center for the Metropolitan Opera in the early 2000s, Barry Silver never dreamed of a life in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 30, 2013
K-ballet brings back 'Giselle' and introduces new leads
As summer approaches with the misty other-worldliness of Japan's rainy season, Tokyo's K-Ballet graces the stage in June with a revival of the hauntingly romantic masterpiece "Giselle." Six different ballerinas will perform the lead role as the production synthesizes K-Ballet's changing image from a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 26, 2013
Women's writings provide window on Tokugawa life
The Edo Period in Japan seems pretty much a feminist's nightmare. Samurai rule and strict societal boundaries confined women within the neo-Confucianistic bonds of a deeply patriarchal society.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 11, 2013
Head of international short film festival finds fertile ground up north
Toshiya Kubo consistently gravitates to the peripheral. As a teenager, while his friends rushed to buy Beatles records, Kubo searched for lesser-known musicians; the mainstream in media flocked to Tokyo while Kubo preferred Hokkaido, the prefecture of his birth; producers look toward feature films as...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 30, 2013
Samurai moms and the art of brood maintenance: a mother from the West's lessons from the East
May in Japan is the perfect month for mothers. Wreathed in the fertile blooms of spring, bolstered by days of absolute perfection, May is also a month of muddy contradiction.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Apr 27, 2013
Trendsetting restauranteurs succeed in bringing bit of Bohemia to Osaka
You're in a breezy, open space, bathed in light. Frothy indoor plants and burnished wood surrounds vibrant splashes of azure. While sipping a "green fairy," that traditional spirit of artists around the world, someone passes you a shisha, or water pipe, and you inhale sweet, fruit-soaked tobacco. You...

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