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April 04, 2025
 

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Tomoko Otake

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Tomoko Otake
Tomoko Otake is a senior writer with a strong interest in health, medical and social issues. A native of Nara Prefecture, she obtained an M.A. in journalism from The University of Montana.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / WEEK 3
Aug 19, 2007
Beauty beheld in brutalism
No matter how wild or wacky their hobbies or obsessions, in the age of the Internet no one need feel isolated any more, and by casting all inhibitions aside almost anyone is assured of finding like-minded others out there in cyberspace — if not just around the corner from home.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 26, 2007
The village of the dammed
Shortly after being relocated to other towns in the late 1980s to make way for Japan's largest dam, about 10 aging former residents defiantly returned to the abandoned village of Tokuyama, in western Gifu Prefecture, determined to live there as long as possible. They sheltered in their old homes or makeshift...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 17, 2007
How to survive summer fatigue
Imagine being in a sauna for a few hours. Then imagine getting out of it and walking straight into a giant freezer for another few hours. Do this several times a day and continue the routine for a couple of months. Some people say that's what spending summer in Japan is like.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 1, 2007
Kotaro Sawaki: Writer on the road of life
Kotaro Sawaki is one of the most popular nonfiction writers in Japan. He made his name with "Shinya Tokkyu (Midnight Express)," a reportage of a yearlong overland trip through Asia and Europe he took when he was in his mid-20s. Those stories — whose title refers to a euphemism for "prison break" used...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 19, 2007
Creating calm in children's minds
It's no big secret that children in Japan need to relax a bit more. With many undergoing entrance exams at age 12 — some even at age 6 — today's pre-teens are pressured to compete with their peers and be stellar academic performers from early on. Then there is ijime (bullying), a perennial problem,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 17, 2007
Japan's master of an ancient Muslim art
For Kouichi Honda, writing a beautiful line is what life is about. Getting every detail right — the subtle curves, the varying thicknesses and the density of the ink — matters to him as much as life itself.
LIFE
Jun 10, 2007
When and how you slumber is not as simple as it may seem
Getting up early is one of those things that people older and wiser always say is "good for you.''
Japan Times
LIFE / QUEUING
May 27, 2007
Disney bids to make the waiting fun
If you are looking for some long, hot lines, Tokyo Disney Resort, comprising the Disneyland and DisneySea theme parks, surely beats all others as your destination of choice.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 1, 2007
Blasting off for Golden Week
Tired of sitting in front of computers all day long? Sick of sucking up exhaust as you walk down the street? Have you been pondering life's meaning and, above all, our meager existence in this world?
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 22, 2007
Mutual benefits as East meets East
Prior to the 1990s, most people in Japan probably knew little more about India than it was the home of curry, snake-charmers and the Taj Mahal.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 15, 2007
Train fan's dream buy is derailed online
Internet-auction sites allow people to sell and buy, at the click of a mouse or with a push on a cellphone button, almost anything from brand bags to resort condominiums to moldy Imperial Japanese Army uniforms. And, according to a 2005 report by Nomura Research Institute, in Japan it's a market that...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 20, 2007
Tragedy swirls around Tamiflu
On Feb. 4, 2004, on a cold, snowy day in Gero, Gifu Prefecture, Haruhiko Nokiba's 17-year-old son fell sick. The fevered teen visited a local doctor, tested negative for a flu virus but was prescribed an antiviral drug called Symmetrel. He took a capsule that evening and another the following morning,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 11, 2007
What happens when blog bullies get hot under the collar
In April last year, Jiji Press technology reporter Tsuruaki Yukawa felt as if he had enemies all around him.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 20, 2007
TV shows spur 'health' food fads
How many people would believe a doctor who says eating two packages of natto fermented soybeans every day helps you lose weight?
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 23, 2007
'Listen' to your nose: sniff out a calming custom
Swing by any variety store and you will notice how popular aromatherapy has become. There you will find a wide variety of shiny little bottles containing oil extracts of rose, lavender or sandalwood. Along with foot massage, onsen (hot springs) and the music of Mozart, inhaling aromas has in recent years...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 21, 2007
Personal style gurus for common people
When Japan's star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka inked a $52 million deal to play for the Boston Red Sox in mid-December, one of the most memorable comments he made in a packed news conference on his return from the United States was that he was frustrated with having to go through an agent in the negotiations....
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 31, 2006
Eyeing Japan's new year and far, far beyond
The future may be fundamentally uncertain, but people's appetite for predictions of what will be happening in days, weeks, months, years or even decades to come is one thing, at least, that is certain to be part of it.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 31, 2006
Shaping our future along with robots
Yoshiyuki Sankai is a professor of engineering at Tsukuba University in Ibaraki Prefecture and a front-runner in the field of "cybernics," which combines robotics with a wide array of academic disciplines, including neurology, information technology, behavioral science and psychology. Now aged 48, he...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 24, 2006
Sutra-writing by hand to boost the brain
Amid the current national craze over anything that might boost brainpower -- or at least help its legions of elderly to retain their mental functions -- a relatively low-key, centuries-old Buddhist practice has lately been attracting a lot of attention.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 19, 2006
Take note: You needn't always think straight
'How-to" business books are stacked knee-high in bookstores and advertisements for motivational seminars continue to multiply through commuter trains.
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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