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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 16, 2018

Canoeing with a twist on Hokkaido's volcanic Lake Kussharo

To experience the best of canoeing in Japan, many choose Hokkaido for its wide-open spaces and relatively easy access to wilderness. Hokkaido boasts six national parks, 12 prefectural parks, and countless wetlands and undisturbed forests. Lake Kussharo is in Akan National Park and is the largest caldera lake in all of Japan.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2017

Going electric: Celebrating Japan's powerful e-bikes

With electric bikes accounting for nearly 6 in 10 bicycles manufactured nationwide last year, the future looks especially bright.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 30, 2017

Slovenia's Ana Ros on Japanese cuisine and gender equality among chefs

Early one September morning, Ana Ros, Slovenia's most famous chef, is receiving a crash course in Japanese seafood at Tsukiji fish market.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jul 9, 2017

Tributes to Jean Pearce, who shaped the foreign community's experience of Japan

Jean Pearce, who for decades helped Japan's foreign community feel more at home in their adopted country through her columns in The Japan Times, passed away peacefully on June 14 at the age of 96 in Washington, D.C.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2016

Starbucks and the pursuit of snobbery

It is not love that makes the world go 'round, it is a compound of envy and pretentiousness.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
May 24, 2016

OkanoTV

In a light-hearted yet informative way, YouTuber Chris Okano (known online as OkanoTV) gives viewers insight into many aspects of Japanese society and culture — from the usual guide videos to humorous takes on the more more left-field aspects of this country.
BASKETBALL
Nov 21, 2015

Dynamic duo lead B-Corsairs past Wat's

The more they play together, the more effective they will become.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 22, 2015

'Top Hat' musical takes film classic to happy new heights

"There may be trouble ahead / But while there's moonlight and music /
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 14, 2015

How smuggled workers power 'Made in China'

On a quiet river bend on the China-Vietnam border, a group of people clambered up a muddy bank. They had just glided across the river from the Vietnamese side in a longboat, guided by men on both banks signaling with flashlights.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 28, 2015

Backcourt stars Karimata, Jones carry Fukushima past Yokohama

The Fukushima Firebonds put on a shooting clinic from 3-point range at Yokohama International Swimming Pool on Saturday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / 'SUMMER DAVOS' SPECIAL 2014
Sep 10, 2014

Ranking restaurants, food a centuries-old tradition

When it was announced some years ago that the Michelin Guide had awarded more stars to restaurants in Tokyo than any other city it covered, it made international headlines. But rating and ranking restaurants in Japan is nothing new. In Tokyo and in Japan in general, people have been writing about and...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2013

Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier

How can writers make themselves heard in the age of blog and self-publishing saturation? Japan-based authors offer a diverse range of views
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 11, 2011

God's own country

Everywhere around Kerala in southwest India there are signs emblazoned with the state motto: "God's Own Country" — and certainly no supreme deity could have chosen a better place to call home.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 12, 2009

Japan's isle of exiles — and gold

Shaped like the Mark of Zorro, a rugged "Z" slashed across the Sea of Japan, Sado Island lies in the inhospitable Sea of Japan off the coast of Niigata Prefecture. Strangely, it warrants surprisingly little space in most guidebooks — which to my mind makes it an alluring place to visit.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 11, 2008

Molecular morsels

Nothing turns a woman on more than a room full of excited men. No, this was not the Super Bowl, but the International Chefs Congress, a "show and tell" held last September in New York City by some of the world's most influential chefs. The display of techniques and trends was impressive, with a roster...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Oct 21, 2007

Get on the bus: An Asian neighbor's view of Japan

Mr. Zhang, a businessman from Wuxi with a passing resemblance to Steve McQueen, is what his countrymen refer to as "a proud Chinese." Kicking pebbles outside the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, where our tour bus has dropped us for a 30-minute wander, he announces, "Japan is a small country. We Chinese are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2007

Faces of the screen queen

The screening of "I'm Not There" at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month left many in the aisles whispering "Academy Award" in reference to just one member of the ensemble cast — Cate Blanchett.
COMMENTARY
Jun 19, 2007

Giving China the red hook

LOS ANGELES — U.S. Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer has a tiger by the tail. And since he hails from the mean streets of Brooklyn, you can count on the fact that he's not about to let go soon, no matter how loudly the tiger roars.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 8, 2006

LONDON CALLING

Home to some 50,000 people born in Japan, London has been well served for some time with aspects of culture and lifestyle from the Land of the Rising Sun.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 23, 2006

Detective fiction written for the love of Tokyo

THE SNAKE THAT BOWED, by Edward Seidensticker, based on works by Okamoto Kido. Tokyo: Printed Matter Press, 2006, 144 pp., 1500 yen (paper). Edward Seidensticker, the most eminent translator from Japanese to English, is a man of many parts. Not only has he given us "The Tale of Genji," "The Makioka Sisters,"...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

An innocent abroad brings his twisted genius to Japan

I first heard about Momus, the alter-ego of the Scottish musical maverick Nick Currie, in 2002, when a writer friend directed me to an article that Currie had written on the coolness of Tokyo's up-and-coming Nakameguro district.
Japan Times
Features
May 8, 2005

It's time to get out there and grrrrrrrill!

Years ago, at a friend's house in Kobe, an intense argument broke out between the Americans and Australians present. It turned into quite a searing row, and for a while it threatened to inflame tempers and disrupt the otherwise festive occasion.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 6, 2005

Tokyo as fragmented as its observers

KUHAKU & OTHER ACCOUNTS FROM JAPAN, by various artists, edited by Bruce Rutledge. Chin Music Press, 2004, 224 pp., 3,500 yen (cloth). TOKYO FRAGMENTS, by Ryuji Morita, Tomomi Muramatsu, Mariko Hayashi, Makoto Shiina, Chiya Fujino; translated by Giles Murray. IBC Publishing, 2004, 206 pp., 2,100 yen (cloth). "To...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Dec 2, 2004

The biggest game of the year

I look at "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," a new urban crime role-playing game for the PlayStation 2, about the same way I might view gorgeous graffiti painted on my front door.
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2003

From ancient to modern

As quintessentially contemporary as manga may seem, the oldest extant manga-style drawings actually date from the eighth-century zare-ga (play pictures), scrawled graffiti-like in the attic of the Horyuji Temple in Nara.
COMMUNITY
Mar 17, 2002

Yokohoma vs. Kobe: bright lights, big beacons

Yokohama and Kobe have much in common. Busy ports, both have swanky shopping streets named Motomachi, Chinatowns, Western-style houses on the hill and monument-dotted former foreign settlements. Tweedledum and Tweedledee? Some think so.
LIFE / Travel
May 31, 2000

Unclimbable peaks in Kuala Lumpur

In pictures, the Petronas Towers looked like ornamental salt and pepper shakers, or sometimes, taking into account the skybridge halfway up, they resembled rugby goalposts.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2022

To fight monkeypox and other viruses, look harder in the sewers

Health authorities rely on a patchwork system for testing wastewater, often missing important information about virus outbreaks such as monkeypox.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Mar 9, 2022

Sanctions and sanctuary: Japan responds to Russia's war in Ukraine

As Vladimir Putin's grim war in Ukraine escalates, The Economist's Tokyo bureau chief, Noah Sneider, joins to discuss the reasons for the conflict, the lengths to which Japan is supporting Ukraine, and how the war will redefine relationships between Japan and its northern neighbor, Russia.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / Longform
Jan 17, 2022

Beneath the surface: Are Japan’s iconic hot-spring resources sustainable?

The public and private use of hot springs is leaving a significant imprint on the environment.

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