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April 01, 2025
 

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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
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 10, 2012
Paper artist Gannon cut his own niche
Patrick Gannon admits he loves puzzles. As a literature major and aspiring writer in university, he delighted in deconstructing ideas and consciously pulling together disparate pieces to make a whole. Twenty years later, as a "cut paper" artist in Japan, Gannon, 40, employs the same intellectual techniques,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 18, 2011
Laughs from the past still hitting the spot
Any well-aimed dart of wit depends upon accurate release. Timing is all, and at first glance a collection of 1990s humor from "The Alien," a popular Nagoya-based ex-pat magazine featuring irreverent satire and visual gags, may seem dated. That the compilation still makes the reader laugh aloud, while...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 16, 2011
Tokyo Ballet's top principal readies a final dance
On his second-ever professional tour in Europe, dancer Naoki Takagishi fought through injuries as he worked with modern-dance choreographer Maurice Bejart for the first time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 3, 2011
A graceful hand to help elderly Japanese in Holland
In 1941, in the then Dutch East Indies, thousands of people were forced into internment camps by the invading Japanese army. It is a slice of history almost forgotten today, along with so many other wartime atrocities. It is something Chieko van Santen remembers every day, as the Japanese widow of a...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 12, 2011
Searching for connections drives young documentarian
Megumi Nishikura, a young documentary filmmaker in Tokyo, consolidates her goals under one main theme: "I want to remind us of our common humanity, to remember that we are all humans with the same hopes and desires and we all deserve to be respected.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 5, 2011
Hokkaido roots spur woman to bring folk tales to masses
For Deborah Davidson, Hokkaido is not only home, it is a door to other worlds. As a child, she played with Ainu children and watched them care for the frolicking cubs of the "iomante" (bear ceremony). As a translator, she now focuses on bringing Ainu folk tales to an English-speaking audience.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 29, 2011
Longtime Kyoto resident relishes Irish music scene
Jay Gregg, a resident of Kyoto since 1980, starts each day with a "bowl of matcha and a few tunes." The music drifts through his living space, across his Kano School art collection, and brings back memories of his banjo-strumming university days at Colorado State.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 16, 2011
The hills of Kotsubo hide the tombs of fallen samurai
No matter how warm and sunny the day, there's always a chill in Mandarado Yagura, a samurai graveyard in Kotsubo, right at the boundary between Kamakura and Zushi in Kanagawa Prefecture just south of Yokohama.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 9, 2011
Hymns for human potential
March and After, by Jon Mitchell. Printed Matter Press, 2011, 34pp., ¥1,000 (paperback) "March and After" brims with pithy song, but it is not merely a collection of poetry. The slim volume cuts with journalistic economy and biographical precision.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 8, 2011
Communication skill, beyond language, called key necessity
When Mark Rubiner drove tens of thousands of kilometers from Arizona to Mexico and through South America when he was only 21 years old, his high school Spanish skills became a key tool for survival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 7, 2011
Helping Japan with a dance
Take any teenager nearly 10,000 km (6,000 miles) from home on their first-ever overseas trip and you are bound to reap wonder. For 16-year-old French ballerina Sylvie Guillem, who came to Tokyo with the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1981, that wonder grew into 30 years of mutual admiration.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 10, 2011
Swiss tries to bring foreign tourists back to Japan, a step at a time
The undulating sea observes the solitary walker. A triangular bamboo farmer's hat shades his face as the infinite horizon stretches ahead, marking out his path.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2011
Fate's path led Canadian to Kamakura
Rarely does life offer a clear-cut crossroads, but Heather Willson, a 34-year resident of Japan, faced one squarely when she was 22 years old.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 13, 2011
Young dancers reap fruits of choreographer's expertise
Kimiho Hulbert danced before she could talk. Crawling backstage between dressing rooms of her Japanese mother and British father, both professional dancers in Belgium where she was born, Hulbert even disdained her first official ballet class at 2 years old as "too babyish."
CULTURE / Books
Jul 31, 2011
Literary sludge insults child abduction issue
IN APPROPRIATE: A Novel of Culture, Kidnapping, and Revenge in Modern Japan, by Debito Arudou. Lulu Enterprises, 2011, $10, 149 pp., (paper) That prickly gadfly of gaikokujins, Debito Arudou, has done it again, diminishing a worthy topic — in this case, international child abduction — into dross...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 16, 2011
Canadian martial artist finds the way to tea of tranquility
The intricate stained glass window in the heavy wooden door provides an artistic and unusual welcome. Stoop inside the restored Kyoto machiya (town house) and step into a future melded with the past. Drinking in the Art-Deco/Taisho roman decorations, your eye moves away from the geometric stained glass...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 10, 2011
Watch your manners!
MANNERS AND MISCHIEF: Gender, Power and Etiquette in Japan. Edited by Jan Bardsley and Laura Miller. University of California Press, 2011, 245 pp., $22.95 (paper) Don't let the cutesy Hello Kitty cover fool you. "Manners and Mischief" disdains frivolity and stands firm as an academic text for students...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 25, 2011
'Reluctant' musician blows success his way with horn
Over half his lifetime ago, reluctant horn player Jonathan Hammill, at 15, slumped in the back seat of the family car. Sweaty and bored on a family trip to his grandparents' house in Florida, Hammill watched as his mother impulsively popped in a tape his music teacher had given him as encouragement at...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 28, 2011
CARE official helps Tohoku after a career of hot spots
Futaba Kaiharazuka, an assistant program director with the aid organization CARE International Japan, remembers clearly the first time she visited a refugee camp in Pakistan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 21, 2011
Fusing aikido and language studies a potent combination
Literally across the globe, martial arts fans flock to their favorite dojos and disciplines, thanks to the fluid strength and cool demeanor of the activity's many superstars. Equally as important to fans are the philosophies behind the physical aspects of martial arts.
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
Alert raised for volcano in southwestern Japan
Shinmoedake, a volcano located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in November 2019
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
Nankai Trough earthquake could kill 298,000 people, government says
Residents participate in an evacuation drill held with West Japan Railway in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, in January 2024 to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake and a possible tsunami following the quake.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
Who among the opposition would join the ruling coalition?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Friday.
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Scenes like this snow-covered bridge leading to the village of Shirakawa-go are what make the Three-Star Road worth traveling — its name notwithstanding.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.

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