Search - things-to-do

 
 
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2003

Scholars fear dangers of igniting patriotic fervor

Scholars from Japan, South Korea and China warned against a resurgence of nationalism in Japan when they gathered at a symposium on history textbooks and related issues this week in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 1, 2003

Seven riddles suggest a secret city beneath Tokyo

During the Gulf War in 1991, Shun Akiba was one of only two foreign journalists reporting from Baghdad, along with Peter Arnett of CNN. With such experience and expertise, it would be reasonable to imagine him in great demand right now. Wrong.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 28, 2003

Maruichi: Bettering the bistro

Maruichi is so intimate and unpretentious that it has chosen to call itself a bistro. But that gives the wrong impression entirely. You will find no red checkered tablecloths here, no tourist posters, Pernod ads or guttering candles jammed into empty wine bottles. Instead it espouses a quiet simplicity...
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2003

New BOJ head's main task

On March 20, former Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Toshihiko Fukui will replace current BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami as head of Japan's central bank. Mr. Fukui, now director of the Fujitsu Research Institute, will be assisted by two new deputies: Mr. Toshiro Muto, former vice minister of finance, and Mr. Kazumasa...
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2003

Blair gives lesson in courage

LONDON -- For anyone with a sense of history, it is impossible not to admire the tireless conviction and the lonely valor of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2003

What Arabs fear the most: aftermath of a war on Iraq

BEIRUT -- All Arabs, regimes and citizens agree on one thing: War on Iraq may affect the entire world, but they and their region will pay the highest price by far.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 26, 2003

Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Tim Sparks:"Masada Guitars"

'Masada Guitars" finds three very unusual and accomplished guitarists -- Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Tim Sparks -- interpreting the simple, elegant tunes from John Zorn's Masada songbook. Zorn began composing this material in 1993 and, by the time he finished, he'd written 208 of his most lyrical songs....
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 25, 2003

Bidding a farewell to arms in Japan

When a bullet strikes the car in which one is riding, the sound -- a sharp, metallic "WHAP!" -- is unmistakable. This writer has heard it twice in his life, and I hope the second time will be the last.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2003

Sanitary infant environment suspected for high allergy incidence

Some 86 percent of people born in the 1970s have allergies against things such as mites and cedar pollen, researchers at the National Center for Child Health and Development in Tokyo estimated Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2003

Mountain queen not done yet

Imagine all the possibilities. Open up a world map. Decide where, when, how and with whom. Then pack your knapsack and go. It's that simple for Junko Tabei when it comes to climbing mountains, no matter how high.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 24, 2003

NEC downs Suntory to capture C'ship

The T-shirts worn by the NEC players at the end of the 40th All-Japan Championship summed it up - "NEC Miracle 7." Having finished seventh in the Kanto League and being forced into a playoff to reach the national stages of the Company Championship, NEC finished the season as champion of Japan following...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 24, 2003

Gold Allure shines in year's first jewel

FUNABASHI, Chiba Pref. -- Dirt specialist Gold Allure outshone the competition Sunday to capture the year's first big race, the February Stakes, by a neck over Biwa Shinseiki at Nakayama. Eagle Cafe finished in third place 3 lengths off the runnerup with Kanetsu Fleuve in fourth place 2 lengths later....
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2003

G7 cool to Japan's deflation concerns

PARIS — Japan's efforts to highlight concerns of a global deflation and the impact of a cheap Chinese currency on the global economy fell flat at the meeting of Group of Seven financial chiefs.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2003

Singing the karaoke blues

Japan has given much to world culture. Kimono, anime, sushi and ikebana are just some of the words that have become so well-known abroad they don't even need translating. But one pastime has come in the past few decades to represent Japan perhaps more authentically than any other activity -- and that's...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 23, 2003

Takahashi gets OK to resume training

Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi's hopes of competing in the Tokyo International Women's Marathon in November were given a boost Friday when she was given the green light to resume training.
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2003

Don't ignore greater threat

HONOLULU -- The big debate raging in Washington these days is over which country poses the greater threat: North Korea or Iraq (with some throwing Iran into the mix, just to keep the old "axis of evil" intact).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 23, 2003

Poet reaches for a world beyond reality

THE VILLAGE BEYOND, Poems of Nobuko Kimura, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Vermont: P.S., A Press, 2002, viii + 54 pp., $10 (paper) Nobuko Kimura has published six volumes of poetry, the first, "Collected Poems of Kimura Nobuko" (Kimura Nobuko Shishu), in 1971, and the most recent, "Going Around the Day"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 23, 2003

The picture of innocence?

Sex, nudity and violence -- there's a lot of it happening in Kobe.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 23, 2003

More fun than a tube of monkeys

Recently, performing primates have made a big comeback in Japanese show business, thanks mainly to the Nikko Saru Gundan (Nikko Monkey Army), and the human/monkey comedy team Taro-Jiro. Both acts are the latest additions to the traditional Japanese performance art known as saru-tsukai, which almost died...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 22, 2003

Time proves relevant for aging Japan hands

"Oh really?" the girl says to me -- with the "r" stretched so painfully the word sounds as if it has been ripped from the back of her throat.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2003

Keidanren calls for hike in sales tax

Senior members of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) called for a hike in the consumption tax in a meeting Thursday with New Komeito executives.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 21, 2003

Sasano: A hidden gem of an izakaya

It's always a pleasure to revisit a favorite haunt after a gap of a couple of years, and even more so to discover that it's just as good as ever. In the case of Sasano, that doesn't just mean premium sake and fine quality provender -- after all, those are the sine qua non of any self-respecting izakaya...
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2003

No cause to celebrate GDP growth

It may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that Japan's sluggish economy expanded for four straight quarters in calendar 2002. The truth is, though, it expanded only after the effect of deflation, or the continued decline in the prices of goods and services, was applied. The nation's deflation-adjusted...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2003

Don't fear deregulation failures: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged his Cabinet on Tuesday to consider the hundreds of proposals by local municipalities nationwide seeking to create special deregulated zones.
COMMENTARY
Feb 19, 2003

Missile defense is an offense

BRUSSELS -- It is difficult to understand the Bush administration's determination to deploy a national missile defense system, or NMD. All test launches to date -- to prevent theoretical nuclear missile attacks -- have been either failures or "partial successes."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 19, 2003

Liars: "They Threw Us In a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top"

It takes more talent than guts to defy categorization, but Liars, an art-punk quartet based in Brooklyn, has done so seemingly through sheer force of will. Out of the band's blend of angular beats, grating effects, compressed vocals, and nonlinear song structures comes a recognizable sonic manifesto...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 18, 2003

A kind word, visa sponsorship and tax refunds

A kind word I was sitting in the NTT Telephone shop waiting to have a telephone repaired and a bit discouraged.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Feb 17, 2003

"Holes," "Love That Dog"

"Holes," Louis Sachar, Bloomsbury; 2000; 233 pp. It's hard to say why life is so downright unfair to some children. Take Stanley Yelnats: He gets bullied at school and is ignored by his teachers. And then one day, he gets hit on the head by a pair of sneakers that seems to fall out of the sky. He doesn't...
SOCCER / World cup
Feb 17, 2003

Japan cancels U.S. friendlies

The head of Japan's soccer federation said that two international friendlies in the United States in March will be canceled regardless of whether a U.S.-led coalition goes to war in Iraq.
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2003

Korean stability matters most to China

HONG KONG -- "China should step up and defuse the situation," an American official in Washington said to me in December, referring to the North Korean nuclear issue. "That's what a great power would do -- exert its influence and defuse the problem."

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat