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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 25, 2005

What could have been from what was seen

KANNANI AND DOCUMENT OF FLAMES: Two Japanese Colonial Novels, by Katsuei Yuasa, translated and with an introduction and critical afterword by Mark Driscoll. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2005, 193 pp., $19.95 (paper). The odd rightwing extremist excepted, it is difficult to find anyone...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Sep 18, 2005

Block-rockin' beats hit town

Few things were as emblematic of 1980s America as "breaking," the inner-city dance style whose head-spinning and somersaulting acrobatics became a world sensation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 17, 2005

Talking about the modern Japanese woman

Meeting last Monday, Barbara Hamill Sato is not sure how many women won seats in the previous day's general election, but suspects it may be the most ever.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 11, 2005

Assemblywoman puts sex on the agenda

In April 2003, 28-year-old Kanako Otsuji became the youngest person ever elected to the Osaka prefectural assembly when she won the seat for Sakai City. It was a distinction made more special by the fact that there were only six other women in the 110-member assembly at the time. However, another distinction...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 1, 2005

"Cross Your Heart, Connie Pickles," "Hunter's Heart"

"Cross Your Heart, Connie Pickles," Sabine Durrant, Puffin Books; 2005; 247 pp.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 28, 2005

The face of joy and happiness

OTAFUKU: Joy of Japan, by Amy Sylvester Katoh, photographs by Yutaka Sato. Singapore: Tuttle/Periplus, bilingual (English and Japanese), 2005, 192 pp., many illustrations, 1,700 yen (cloth). Most of us know Otafuku without knowing her name. She is the full-faced folk figure we see all around us in Japan,...
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2005

Comedienne Tomochika is quite a character

Along with comedy duos who do manzai (two-man standup) or short skits, a rise in "pin geinin (solo comedians)" is another dimension to the current owarai boom.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 25, 2005

Right for the wrong reasons: deflation dilemma at the BOJ

What do you do when things turn out right for all the wrong reasons? Do you laugh? Do you cry? Do you do a bit of both, or none of either? This must be the kind of mental acrobatics that observers of consumer price developments at the Bank of Japan are going through at this particular moment.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005

There's nothing quite like a good Indian argument

THE ARGUMENTATIVE INDIAN: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity, by Amartya Sen. Penguin, 2005, 356 pp., £25 (cloth). "We do like to speak," admits Amartya Sen, citing a well-known fact about Indians in the opening paragraph of "The Argumentative Indian." But what the Nobel Prize-winning...
MORE SPORTS
Jul 13, 2005

Marines' Valentine firmly against MLB's new international event

Bobby Valentine is not the kind of guy to hold back his feelings. He never has been.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2005

Eastern Europe in the Far East

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia For generations of expatri ates in the days before jet travel, the first stop on the journey back to Europe from Japan was Vladivostok, Russia's easternmost city and the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 8, 2005

Taking the art out into the garden

From actresses imprisoned in vitrines and sharks suspended in formaldehyde to plaster houses that deteriorate with the rain and artificial shorelines made of pebbles and plastic -- contemporary British artists seem, after 10 years, to be taking art out of the glass case and into the environment -- wholesale....
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2005

Standing up to the death industry

Maple trees are famous for the gaudy show they put on each fall as their leaves change color. But they put on a spring show, too, as you may have noticed lately. In their anxiety to propagate, maples have evolved a stunningly efficient method of seed distribution. Winged pairs of seeds are released en...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2005

Memoirs of an activist

RESTLESS WAVE: My Life in Two Worlds, by Ayako Ishigaki. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2004, 286 pp., $16.95 (paper). Those who know something about Ayako Ishigaki (or who have cheated and read the afterword to "Restless Wave" before the text proper) will find the first...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 16, 2005

Culture shock, or mere static cling?

Culture shock, similar to an electrical shock, is something one experiences when moving to a foreign country. One can also experience reverse culture shock when returning to their home country after having lived abroad for an extended period of time. The culture shock I experienced coming to Japan for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Apr 8, 2005

Honest, Doc, I can still dance

I missed everything in the doctor's explanation of my condition after she used the "A" word.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Mar 27, 2005

Swing is the thing for bassist Nakamura

Not many Japanese jazz musicians have played in front of a President of the United States, but Kengo Nakamura is one. After leaving his hometown of Osaka to study at Boston's esteemed Berklee College of Music in 1988, where he switched from electric to acoustic bass, and struggling for a while to find...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 23, 2005

Duty calls

Special to The Japan Times In the United States, it's said that the Vietnam War was lost on TV. As the first armed conflict to receive graphic coverage on nightly news shows, the war seemed closer than it was. Consequently, questions surrounding its legitimacy eventually came to the fore and, for many...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 12, 2005

Oh give me a home where the roaches won't roam

For years I took my dog on walks into Saitama Prefecture so she could go pee, among other things. Now I have found similar use for Saitama myself.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 10, 2005

Glimpsing the 'big picture' at the heart of gray matter

It is a commonly held belief that we don't tap into the full power of our brains. Self-help gurus make millions by exploiting this belief, separating people from their money by making them think there is a secret to tapping mysterious, unused reserves of brain power.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 27, 2005

Where there's magic, there's Buddha

THE DHARMA OF DRAGONS AND DAEMONS: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy, by David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew, foreword by Jane Hirshfield. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004, 155 pp., $14.95 (paper). David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew's "The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons" is subtitled "Buddhist Themes in Modern...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 20, 2005

Sugar frosted, the Thai way

VERY THAI: Everyday Popular Culture, by Philip Cornwel-Smith, photographs by John Goss, preface by Alex Kerr. Bangkok: River Books, 2005, 257 pp., color illustrated, 995 baht (cloth). All countries have something of their own, something the dictionary calls "a kind or sort, especially in regard to appearance...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 26, 2005

Concert of 1,000 cellists looks set to raise the roof in Kobe

World-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich will conduct a concert for 1,000 cellos during a weeklong international cello convention in May in Kobe, which is currently commemorating the 10th anniversary of the devastating Great Hanshin Earthquake.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 18, 2005

Hurting Japan's hungry

'We got kicked out of Sumida park three times for delivering food. I went to talk to the people in Taito-ku ward office and basically (it) came down to, 'well, you just can't deliver food here anymore,' " says Charles McJilton, executive director of Second Harvest Japan.
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2004

A Christmas admonition

Last Sunday Pope John Paul II said something that, while directed to Roman Catholics, perhaps deserved a wider audience. Speaking in the runup to the Christmas season, the pope expressed regret at the suffocation of the holiday by what he called "material things" and called for a simpler, more community-minded...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 19, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Iconoclasm

In many senses the Japanese people have been in denial since the end of World War II.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2004

Recycling of household appliances 'going smoothly'

YASHIRO, Hyogo Pref. -- A Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. plant that recycles household appliances in the town of Yashiro, Hyogo Prefecture, attracts 10,000 visitors annually.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 29, 2004

Remains of the Occupation mentality

NEW YORK -- Sometimes a perception formed during an era, however unthinking, never seems to leave you. When I read, in a detailed chronology of Yukio Mishima (1925-70), that Meredith Weatherby visited Mishima at a New York hotel for an all-day discussion about his translation of Mishima's "Confessions...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 23, 2004

Do Japanese unions have much power?

Colette McGarry Teacher, 40 I think it's important that they're there to voice the opinions of the teachers who have difficulty in their jobs, but I wish they had more influence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 17, 2004

Power of hope

Toshiko Akiyoshi's Jazz Orchestra is one of the most innovative big bands in jazz -- not just in Japanese jazz, but worldwide. Her work has received both critical praise and consistent popularity over the course of 50 years of live performances and some 40 recordings.

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