Search - u_times

 
 
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 29, 2007

Gorilla snot and Tokyo sauce

TABLOID TOKYO 2, by Geoff Botting, Ryann Connell, Michael Hoffman, Masuo Kamiyama, Mark Schreiber; Illustrations by Hirosuke Ueno; foreword by Mark Schreiber. Toyko: Kodansha International, 2007, 288 pp., profusely illustrated, 1,400 yen (paper) The success of the first volume of "Tabloid Tokyo" has...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 28, 2007

Homeless jet-setter brings life, hope to scores

A little over a year ago, composer and songwriter Joseph (Joe) Curiale had a residence in Hollywood with a flashy car parked in front. Now he is technically homeless. A homeless jet-setter, he jokes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2007

'Shindo'

How do you portray genius on the screen, if all you have to work with are gifted, but ordinary, humans? If the genius is a real person -- a Mozart, Beethoven or John "A Beautiful Mind" Nash -- the job becomes fairly straightforward: Cast an actor who can suggest the original subject physically and emotionally....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 27, 2007

Melt-Banana take aim again

'It was my first time to kill so it affected me a lot," says Melt-Banana's vocalist Yako, before breaking into a cackle befitting a Shakespearean witch. "But it wasn't a cute bambi. It was a big deer. You told us about (the Sex Pistols song) 'Who Killed Bambi.' It's you who made us keep thinking about...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 27, 2007

Under the lonesome trees

Picnic areas. Fishing holes. Camp grounds. Onsen. Hiking trails galore. The Okutama area, with all that it has to offer, might be called the playground of Tokyo, and a weekend visit proves that the great outdoors on the capital's doorstep is a crowd-puller.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2007

Drought dampens Aussie economic boom

SYDNEY -- Weird is the only word for it. In the midst of its biggest-ever economic boom, Australia is drying up. Underground, minerals are being dug up and shipped to Asia at record rates for record prices. Above ground, a drought is so bad that this food-exporting country may not be able to feed itself....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

Art imitates life, waking or otherwise

Wildly creative film director Michel Gondry unveils the delightful oddity of his inner selfin his latest movie, 'The Science of Sleep'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

Japanese/Chinese production tackles history

In 2002, the FIFA World Cup of soccer hosted by Japan and South Korea boosted already flourishing cultural exchanges between the two countries in areas such as pop music, shopping and television dramas. The same year, the scriptwriter and director Oriza Hirata, who founded the Tokyo-based Seinendan Theater...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 25, 2007

Nuggets, Bulls to pull upsets in 1st round

NEW YORK -- The playoffs -- the NBA's bridge abutment between the high drama of the regular season and the cold sweat of Secaucus -- are once again upon us.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 25, 2007

Moving with the times -- electronic paper lets watch change its face

Loggers aren't exactly reaching for the job ads cursing the new wonder technology of electronic paper for rendering them as employable as horse-drawn carriage drivers. But the promise of flexible sheets of electronics that can do everything paper can do -- only better and without having to fell the timber...
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 2007

Whole world is weeping

News that a young man with two guns took 32 lives in a coldblooded rampage at a U.S. university has triggered shock and dismay around the world. Revelations about the life of Seung-Hui Cho that emerged after the killings have compounded fears and concerns and raised questions about immigrant dreams and...
COMMENTARY
Apr 23, 2007

Restoring the military's honor

I was disappointed by two recent moves by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration to whitewash Japan's war responsibility, although I was not really surprised. After all, Abe comes from the most conservative faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as did his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi....
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Apr 23, 2007

Japan and Germany: partners in labor pain

Although the word "arbeit," meaning work, is commonly used in Germany and Japan, which adopted the word, recent debates on labor in these countries show that their attitudes toward work are markedly different.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 22, 2007

Indian schools make a mark

Every day at the Global Indian International School (GIIS) in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward starts with yoga. All the students -- from kindergarteners to 14-year-old ninth-graders -- have a 20-minute session in their classrooms. The focus is on breathing, which it's thought helps them to relax and concentrate...
Japan Times
SOCCER
Apr 21, 2007

Osieck's Reds face Asian allies Frontale in league

After finishing champions and runners-up in the J. League last season, Urawa Reds and Kawasaki Frontale have a newly forged domestic rivalry -- which means Saturday afternoon's clash at Saitama Stadium will be a keenly contested one.
BASKETBALL
Apr 21, 2007

Evessa primed to retain bj-league title

When you win a league's first-ever championship, you establish a standard of excellence for your coaching staff, your players and your fans.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 20, 2007

Bryant analyzes bj-league's 'final four'

Tokyo Apache coach Joe Bryant knows the ins and outs of each of the bj-league's seven other teams.
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2007

Tragedy in Nagasaki

A nightmare has descended upon the city of Nagasaki again. On Tuesday evening, a gangster shot and mortally wounded Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito. The mayor was campaigning for a fourth term in a Sunday election. Seventeen years ago, Mr. Ito's predecessor Hitoshi Motojima was seriously injured after being...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 20, 2007

The wax and wane of Uchiko

To the enormous surprise of absolutely no one except the most irrepressible Pollyannas in or closely connected with the construction industry, the 19 years since the opening of the first of the gargantuan civil-engineering white elephants that go by the name of the Honshu-Shikoku bridges have not witnessed...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2007

'Profile ads' riding back of SNS boom

If in recent days you happened to visit the Mobile Game Town community, a social networking site for cell phone users, you may well have bumped into a character named Fanta.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 19, 2007

"Fiona Tan: News from the Near Future"

Wako Works of Art Closes in 23 days
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 19, 2007

Works beyond Osaka's sun

If your knowledge of Taro Okamoto's work begins and ends with the sculpture "Tower of the Sun" that he created for the 1970 Osaka Expo, a visit to "Taro Okamoto and His Contemporaries in the Post-War Era," now at the Setagaya Art Museum, is in order.
BASKETBALL
Apr 18, 2007

Veteran Hasegawa confident Albirex can make bj-league final

Even at age 36, Makoto Hasegawa is still on fire.
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2007

Depiction of Japanese history

In his March 29 article, "Abe needlessly fans the flames," Francis Fukuyama is right to assert that the Yushukan museum adjacent to Yasukuni Shrine is the bigger problem of the two because of its nationalist depiction of Pacific War history.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 17, 2007

SDF emerging as the military it truly is

The government has steadily expanded the activities of the Self-Defense Forces since the 1990s as the nation sought to play greater roles in international political and security affairs. Public perceptions toward the SDF have also changed in line with changes in the security environment, espe cially...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 17, 2007

Stalking: readers respond

Japan Times readers wrote in to express their opinions about the Zeit Gist column headlind "Reported stalking cases likely just tip of iceberg" by Thomasina Larkin published on April 10. Here's what they had to say:
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2007

Preserving the countryside

LONDON -- In Britain we have not yet quite lost the battle to preserve the countryside, but it is far from won. In Japan, however, it looks to many outsiders as if preservation is a lost cause.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 15, 2007

Igawa may learn hard way how tough New York fans can be

New York Yankees lefty pitcher Kei Igawa made a less-than-spectacular major league debut at home on April 7, giving up seven runs in five innings against the Baltimore Orioles, though he was bailed out and saved from taking a loss by Alex Rodriguez, whose "sayonara" grand slam eventually won it for the...

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