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LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 28, 2000

Trendy slurping in Azabu-Juban

All things must pass -- especially, it seems, the good stuff. So a final farewell, then, to the old Azabu-Juban we used to know and love, with its funky, friendly mom 'n' pop stores, cheap nomiya and overpriced wine bars, and its faintly musty smells of onsen and kimchi.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 27, 2000

A surprise of size in Bruges

BRUGES, Belgium -- For a small city, many things are surprisingly big in Bruges.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 27, 2000

Mysteries and majesties of Mount Hiko

The Mount Hiko region has long been an important training ground for yamabushi, itinerant Buddhist monks. Today, other pilgrims on quests of naturalism, heroism or masochism join the white-clad mountain mystics climbing the steep, forested flanks of 1,200-meter Mount Hiko.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 27, 2000

Japanese scientists question mineral-accretion technique

A Japanese researcher who conducted a project in Okinawa to explore the effectiveness of growing reefs via mineral accretion in 1989, says he remains unsure of the effectiveness of the technique.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 27, 2000

Old memo presages present struggles

Japan wasn't an "unprovoked aggressor" in the 1930s. China and the United States were to a considerable extent responsible for a sequence of events that led to Japan's actions in Manchuria and, to a lesser degree, in China.
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2000

More facts, less politics, on education

At first glance, the interim report from the National Commission on Educational Reform, an advisory panel of the prime minister, appears cautious about revising the 1947 Fundamental Law on Education. In marked contrast to an earlier subcommittee report that explicitly supported a revision, the panel's...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2000

Aussie singer-songwriter finds an authentic musical voice

"I must admit the music I do is a bit daggy," says Tokyo-based singer-songwriter Donna Burke with a laugh, rejecting any slick, "groovy" image in favor of the old-fashioned, down-to-earth comfort the colloquial Australian term implies.
OLYMPICS
Sep 26, 2000

Observers stunned by Takahashi's feat

SYDNEY -- The Olympic host nation has taken a break from self-aggrandizement to applaud Naoko Takahashi for raising the standard for all marathons to come with her record-breaking time in the women's marathon Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 25, 2000

Weak unions, weak economy

The collapse of the department store operator Sogo Co. came as a shock to Japan's recovering economy. Even more shocking are reports that the company's union leader has been fired for disrupting "order" in the organization.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2000

A feminist ties the knot

A lot of fun has been had this month at the expense of longtime American feminist icon Gloria Steinem. After decades of pointing out the drawbacks of marriage, the 66-year-old Ms. Steinem recently surprised and titillated the world by going off and getting married.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 24, 2000

Grand old men give grand concerts

Hiroshi Wakasugi, 65, recently conducted a presentation of Benjamin Britten's opera "A Midsummer Night's Dream," sumptuously staged by the Nikikai Opera. Hiroyuki Iwaki, 68, recently conducted Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in a brilliant program opening with a clever arrangement by Yuzo Toyama, 69, of...
CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2000

Impressions made in paper take form

When the semioticist Roland Barthes came to Japan, he decided to do what many foreigners do, which is to base his impressions of Japan on exactly that, his impressions. His book "The Empire of Signs" is ostensibly about Japan, but the author acknowledged (with no shame) that it actually was a collection...
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 23, 2000

An old tradition with a modern twist

NEW YORK -- Puppet troupes from around the globe are taking to New York stages this month as part of the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater. The Japan representative is the extraordinary yet little-known OtomeBunraku Troupe, an all-female puppet troupe which derives from the mainstream male...
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2000

China surmounts a WTO hurdle

The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to grant China permanent normal trade-relations status. That will provide an impetus to international negotiations on China's bid to join the World Trade Organization. Those talks are entering the homestretch with the start of the final round of negotiations in Geneva....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 21, 2000

Hanae Mori's gems shine brightly

Let's begin with the keywords: graceful, feminine, sharp, inspired.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

Whaling issue not black and white

Incensed over Japan's expanded whaling program, Washington has threatened Tokyo with trade sanctions in what the media have largely portrayed as a black and white issue.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Sep 21, 2000

The healing power of ginger

This is a good time of year to bring out the ginger. As we move into autumn and the days get shorter and the air cooler, ginger is a great way to replace sunshine and summer heat and warm things up a bit. I've written about ginger before, but like a few other special classics in the botanical medicine...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 20, 2000

I want my RTV

While on vacation in the States, I found myself watching the finale of "Survivor," the climax of a summer of reality TV. I could have turned it off. I could have returned to my book. But no. I had been (blissfully) ignorant of all that had gone on before, but that didn't matter. I watched both it and...
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2000

Council's proposals bode well

For an inside view on how Japan Inc. really operates, take a look at the workings of the National People's Council on Education Reform, now winding up its discussions and of which I was made a member, although I am not a Japanese national.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Sep 20, 2000

Harry Potter, Castles and Voodoo

www.cesnur.org/recens/potter_00.htm One of the best Harry Potter sites comes from an organization that fights censorship of modern-day culture. There's chapter-by-chapter notes for "The Goblet of Fire," the latest in the series. But most of the site is dedicated to news articles (culled from all over...
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2000

A welcome slowdown

The biggest concern among economists in the last year has been the prospect of a "hard landing" for the high-flying U.S. economy. They feared that either because of a crisis or by design, the United States would stall and knock the wind out of the global economy. That danger seems to be abating: The...
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2000

Kinder, gentler animal farms

It's funny how McDonald's -- the much-reviled little hamburger stand that grew -- has become the world's handiest barometer of social change. It is the standard-bearer, or more often the whipping boy, for economic and cultural globalization, with progress or regress thereto measured in degrees of "McDonaldization."...
OLYMPICS
Sep 18, 2000

Japan's Narazaki denied gold

SYDNEY -- Japan's dream start on the Olympic judo mat stumbled Sunday night when world champion Noriko Narazaki had to settle for the under-52 kg silver in a tightly fought rematch with the woman she defeated to become world champion last year.
COMMENTARY
Sep 18, 2000

Toward peace with Pyongyang

While North and South Korea are moving dramatically toward rapprochement as a result of the inter-Korean summit in June, Japanese and North Korean officials are set to meet again next month to discuss ways to normalize relations. Establishing diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, along with settling the territorial...
CULTURE / Art
Sep 17, 2000

Sometimes a shower stall is just. . .

With his bathroom in a suitcase, MK Kahne has turned the most utilitarian dreams of wandering wayfarers into reality. Not just any old utility, this is a sexy, transportable washroom which could have been designed for Maxwell Smart, complete with dismountable plumbing that packs neatly away in the leather...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 17, 2000

Ted Turner

CNN says that for 20 years it has been bringing you the world. As the world's first 24-hour news network, it signed on the air in June 1980 to 1.7 million cable households in the U.S. Since then it has gone on to notch up an impressive list of more firsts. Its news services around the world now reach...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2000

World's eyes on Australia

SYDNEY -- With the Sydney 2000 Olympics in full swing, the country is getting used to having 3.5 billion TV viewers around the world watching our every move. This city's 4 million citizens are positively basking in the glory of staging the world's best Games yet. And to the south, Melbourne is just as...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 17, 2000

Fusing technology, arts in fabulous future shocks

Omote-sando's cafe-restaurant Las Chicas needs no introduction. But few realize that the two-floor building in which it is situated was once a consulate, designed to wrap around the central courtyard -- one of the nicest places to eat in town. Under the umbrella organization Vision Network, the complex...

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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