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LIFE / Travel
Nov 8, 2009

Freedoms on the outer limit

There's something special about places on the outer limits of great nations or continents; a sort of liberated and reflective space, away from it all, yet still connected to it. Think Alaska, Vancouver Island, the Koh Chang islands in Thailand, Xining in far western China or the pearl of Sri Lanka hanging...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 31, 2009

Putting a little bug in your ear

Sometimes beauty resides not to the eye of the beholder. Instead, it lives in the ear of the listener.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2009

'Watashi Dasuwa'

"A fool and his money are soon parted" and all its many variations is a common theme in films, from the heist-of-a-lifetime that ruins so many lives in "Goodfellas" to Gary Cooper handing out his inherited fortune to total strangers in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and then coming to regret it.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2009

Ibaraki turns matchmaker to curb population decline

NAMEGATA, Ibaraki Pref. — With fat black clouds hanging ominously overhead, a sludgy field of sweet potatoes in rural Japan might not seem the best place for a date with the woman of your dreams.
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Oct 28, 2009

Tarasova must go if Mao wants shot at Olympic glory

Sometimes you have to throw the game plan out the window.
COMMUNITY
Oct 24, 2009

Seasonal rules permeate daily life in Japan

I grew up in Florida, and our year divides itself into seasons of bearable and unbearable. Even the most creative mind could hardly find illumination in topics around the weather, as there are only so many ways to say "the sun is shining with ferocious force today" or "the sweat is running into my eyeballs...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2009

Unified by Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau's birth at the end of the 1900s not only affected the art world but also radically transformed the public's visual awareness, helping to propel product design, graphic design, typography and manufacturing into the 20th century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 23, 2009

'Shizumanu Taiyo'

"I am big. It's the pictures that got small," Gloria Swanson declaimed in "Sunset Boulevard." In the Japan film industry, though, the pictures are getting bigger — gargantuan, in fact. Examples include the "Death Note" duology, the "20-seiki Shonen" ("20th Century Boys") trilogy, and "Ai no Mukidashi"...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 22, 2009

Rich harvest of autumn anime

From fantasy adventures to high-school romance, this autumn's crop of anime has it all.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2009

Pulling out all the stops for an Olympic bid

In an alternative universe, here's how Japan might have won the right to host the Olympic Games in 2016 with a glowing pitch to the International Olympics Committee (IOC) in Copenhagen.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 18, 2009

Wildlife on your doorstep

To be brutally honest, wildlife photography is mostly about having the means to get to amazing places, where wildlife still abounds. Then it takes heaps of patience. And the final ingredient is a good eye to capture the moment.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Oct 18, 2009

Cirque du Soleil adds pathos and artistry to those big-top thrills

Rearing up 27 meters on Nakanoshima in the center of Osaka, the huge blue-and-white striped tent looked like a spaceship that had landed among all the concrete buildings. But the massive marquee is actually the current home of Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo" spectacular, the magical circus troupe's hugely...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2009

'Becoming Jane'

"Becoming Jane" catches Anne Hathaway at a dip in her career — in the valley terrain where the "Get Smart" series stands like midrate hotels in a remote holiday resort, situated between the high-profile "The Devil Wears Prada" and the deceptively low-rent, indie-sheen of "Rachel Getting Married." She's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 11, 2009

Sankeien: Great love in a garden almost grows

Miho leans out over the Lotus Pond to get a good photo of one of the bright-red flowers when the camera slips out of her hand. Standing next to her, I instinctively lean forward, stretch out my hand (my reflexes, even if I say so myself, are very good) and pluck the camera out of the air with ease.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 9, 2009

'My Sister's Keeper'

"My Sister's Keeper" unfolds around Kate Fitzgerald, a 14-year-old girl with leukemia, but it is fundamentally about the dynamics of a family defined by her illness. Based on the best-selling 2007 novel by Jodi Picoult, it's difficult to keep the floodgates from swinging open and drenching the eyes even...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Oct 9, 2009

Introducing the Californian dream

Swilling an elegant Pinot around your glass, the landscape before you, verdant with vines, undulates in the soft evening light. The little wine you've imbibed sets your senses aglow as you contemplate the cinematic beauty of California's wine country.
OLYMPICS
Oct 2, 2009

Mills: IOC voters face difficult choice for 2016 Olympic bid

Running legend Billy Mills, a tireless ambassador for the Olympic movement and one of the world's greatest motivational speakers, took time out of his busy schedule to offer his thoughts on the 2016 Summer Olympics bid.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2009

Shin hanga bringing ukiyo-e back to life

The great print works of ukiyo-e, by the likes of Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro, became fine art almost by accident. Originally mass produced for the popular market, their status was roughly equivalent to that of illustrated calendars and posters of pop stars today. But, ironically, the fact that they...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2009

'The Limits of Control'

Anyone who's ever seen a film by New York indie auteur Jim Jarmusch knows that the director's work is an acquired taste. With his minimalist, deadpan sense of humor, his fixation on crossed signals and miscommunication, and that curious blend of existentialist angst and laconic cool intercut with moments...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2009

'Homecoming'

A favorite aunt of mine used to try one diet fad after another and upon the failure of each one, pull out her old standby excuse: "Marie Antoinette worried over her weight her whole life. In which case there's just no help for the rest of us!" Never mind the lack of logic, I believed her. Now a similar...
Reader Mail
Sep 17, 2009

Accept your not being accepted

Regarding Debito Arudou's Sept. article, "Meet Mr. James, gaijin clown": So, we are again faced with the fact that the Japanese are rather clueless about foreigners. My consistent reaction to Arudou and others on these pages is, indeed, to get over it. You do not have a right to be treated exactly as...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2009

Tigarah "The Funkeira goes BANG!"

When Japanese emcee Tigarah emerged in 2006, she shouldered great expectations. Her gritty Brazilian baile-funk party sound, created together with a Swiss-German producer she met on one of many inspiring trips to Sao Paolo, had her labeled "the Japanese M.I.A.," and she built up a firm following with...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 2, 2009

Kohjinsha monitors get moving; Sony hits Blu-ray potential

Now screening: Netbooks too often are like a range of cars. The varying bodywork makes them look deceptively different from each other, but turn the key and you find that where they count, under the hood, the differences are all but nonexistent. Maybe the engineers at Kohjinsha are into motorcycles....

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?