Search - life

 
 
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2006

Adventures in Gerontology

THE OKINAWA DIET PLAN by Bradley J. Willcox, D. Craig Willcox and Makoto Suzuki. Three Rivers Press, 2005, 432 pp., $14.95/2,300 yen (paper). In works like "Awakenings" and "The Island of the Color Blind," neurologist Oliver Sacks showed how serious medical subjects could, in the right hands, be turned...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 16, 2006

Umi no Hi special: NTV's "Seimei no Umi — Chi-kyu Judan and more

July 17 is a national holiday -- Umi no Hi, or Day of the Sea. Ostensibly, it commemorates a famous day when the Emperor Meiji returned from an extended sojourn in northern Japan to the Port of Yokohama, and is meant to instill appreciation for the sea's bounty. However, it was established as a national...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 16, 2006

Hair today, gone tomorrow

"Does that hurt?" asks the doctor. "Err, not really," say I. "Right, turn it up to 40," she tells the technician. Then it does kind of start to hurt. It feels as though somebody is firing a tiny laser beam into my cheek. Indeed, that is exactly what is happening.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2006

Rich, elderly to gain most from interest rate hike

The Bank of Japan's interest rate hike Friday will likely increase interest income by about 420 billion yen, and the wealthy and elderly will benefit the most, according to a private think tank.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 15, 2006

Alison Pockett

In 1995, Alison Pockett of Britain set up Magellan, her own personal financial advisory company, in Tokyo. She said, "When I came here, this country shocked me deeply, positively. I didn't expect so many opportunities to set up on my own and go as far as I could. There are so many things to do here....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2006

'Comfort women' issue far from closed

NEW YORK -- V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls, is putting the "comfort women's" crusade for reparations in its spotlight for 2006. As part of the activities, in the summer of 2006 the Global Campaign will include celebrity benefit performances of "The Vagina Monologues"...
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2006

Moral boost for Mr. Putin

Russia's most wanted man is dead. Shamil Basayev, the leader of Chechen rebels who has masterminded acts of terror that have claimed hundreds of lives, was killed this week in an explosion. His death is a victory for the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a blow to the cause Basayev headed;...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 13, 2006

Antiestablishment for all

Founded in 1970 by director Sho Ryuzanji, the Engekidan company was a natural bridge between two major theatrical movements in postwar Japan: the 1960s underground scene of dramatists such as Shuji Terayama and Juro Kara and the so-called "small-scale theater movement" started in the 1980s by the likes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 13, 2006

Soaking up the 'male gaze'

What to make of photographs of blue tarpaulins, mobiles of cigarette butts and bathroom sponges folded to suggest a woman's derriere?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2006

Osaka activist's arrest lays bare yakuza ties with 'burakumin'

On the night of Jan. 26, 1985, four hit men from the Ichiwa-kai crime syndicate drove up to an apartment complex in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 11, 2006

Lippi salutes players

BERLIN -- Marcello Lippi is no stranger to success, but winning soccer's biggest prize topped all his previous triumphs, the Italian coach said Sunday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 11, 2006

Multitasking recluses find route to respectability

There are many factors behind the shoshika (the declining birth rate) trend. One is mistrust on the part of Japanese women toward child rearing. The feeling is: Why have children and divest the best years of one's life bringing them up when they're likely to metamorphose into shonen-hanzaisha (underage...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 9, 2006

There's a price to pay for flaunting wealth in Japan

For its annual World Wealth Report, finance firm Merrill Lynch circles the globe and counts the number of millionaires. Though a million dollars -- 114 million yen, as defined by the survey -- ain't what it used to be, it's still a distant dream for the vast majority.
LIFE
Jul 9, 2006

Fashionistas relish rumor over top job

Paris last week was rife with gossip over whether the menswear world's leading light, Hedi Slimane, was about to exit hyper-cool brand Dior Homme when his contract expires at the end of the month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 9, 2006

Wild times in the Lost World

The scene looks straight out of Jurassic Park. Huge vehicles thrash through the churned earth burdened with winches and cranes, steel crates and giraffes. Tough guys in uniforms bellow instructions or saunter about holding guns, netting, ropes to restrain buffalo, and all sorts of other neat "boys' toys"...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 9, 2006

Looking at Westerners' accounts of the salaryman blues

THE BLUE-EYED SALARYMAN by Niall Murtagh. Profile Books, 2006, 228 pp., £7.99 (paper). The phenomenon didn't start with Lafcadio Hearn, but in his day he became best known for it -- the foreigner who comes to Japan and writes a book about his experiences. His female contemporary, Isabella Bird, was...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 9, 2006

See the "Kekkon Dekinai Otoko on Fuji's drama series and more

Model-turned-actor Hiroshi Abe is the perfect person to play the title character in Fuji TV's summertime drama series "Kekkon Dekinai Otoko (The Man Who Couldn't Marry)" (Tuesday, 10:15 p.m.).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 8, 2006

On the train, the English teacher is 'out'

I often hear foreigners complain that Japanese people will not sit next to them on the train. The perception is that this is some form of discrimination, or perhaps more simply, that we just plain smell bad. Or maybe foreigners feel this is a form of ostracizing, leaving them feel all alone.
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2006

Spending cuts, deferring sales tax hike, get nod

The Cabinet on Friday approved an economic policy guideline for 2006 aimed at shoring up the government's woeful finances with spending cuts and tax revisions, but leaves the dreaded consumption levy hike for a later administration to deal with.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2006

Heart attack? Defibrillator may be nearby

Defibrillators increasingly are being found outside hospitals, used to resuscitate people who have heart attacks in public places.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2006

Abe receives threat over Yasukuni

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Thursday he received a letter from someone in Hong Kong earlier in the day that he claimed threatened his life if he visits Yasukuni Shrine.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2006

ESG keep on moving

Drugs and violence were rampant. Teenage pregnancy was common. Opportunity was scarce. An office clerk named Helen Scroggins, who lived in a housing project with her four school-age daughters in New York City's South Bronx in the mid-1970s, was anxious.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2006

Deejay U-Roy's still-righteous chat

"Wake the town and tell the people" rings the trademark battle cry of Jamaican deejay extraordinaire U-Roy, who plays three live dates in Japan this weekend.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 7, 2006

Finding Africa in the heart of Japan

We explored the Africa Remix exhibition at the Mori Art Museum the other day and came back buzzing with inspiration, hungry for more of the vibrant cultures and flavors of that great continent. There aren't a lot of options here in Tokyo, but at least there's Calabash.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2006

Through the looking glass with Gilliam

At age 64, Terry Gilliam continues to confound. "Tideland," his latest and perhaps most challenging film, was an excursion into low-budget and fast shooting for the director, who is known for tortuous production difficulties. (See the documentary "Lost in La Mancha," about his failed attempt to shoot...

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