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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 8, 2005

TBS's drama special "Yao" shows a young man in the world of host clubs, and more

Women with no money or job prospects often become bar hostesses, where the only skill required is an ability to make men part with their money. Lately, the tables have been turning, with male hosts trying to get well-to-do women to buy expensive drinks by engaging them in flattering conversation.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 8, 2005

The urban underclass of a modernist Tokyo

THE SCARLET GANG OF ASAKUSA, by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Alisa Freedman, foreword and afterword by Donald Richie. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 2005, 231 pp., $17.95 (paper). "Art is bad," Guy Davenport posited, "when it is poor in news," and it is not surprising...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 30, 2005

Standing still in time and place

For my money, there are two "not-to-miss" sights in the overall Kanto area.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2005

Private rail firms check safety after JR crash

OSAKA-- Kansai's major private train firms said Tuesday they are reviewing safety procedures in the wake of the train crash near Amagasaki in Hyogo Prefecture that killed 73 and injured more than 450.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 13, 2005

Vision of a 'superflat' future

NEW YORK -- Murakami-mania hit New York last week as the "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture" exhibition at the Japan Society opened to much media fanfare.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 6, 2005

From Zen to story, a tale of artists East and West

The Mori Art Museum in Roppongi is not yet two years old but the two new Mori shows that opened last weekend -- "The Elegance of Silence: Contemporary Art from East Asia" and "The World is a Stage: Stories Behind Pictures" -- suggest a space now comfortable with its potential and its limitations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2005

The rebirth of a salesman

For Atsushi Yamada, conductor of the New York City Opera, his presentation of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly" to be staged in Tokyo and Nagoya in May will be something of a triumphant return.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 23, 2005

A great selection from the Electors' finest treasures

Dresden -- from the Sorbish, meaning "dwellers in the marshy forest," was transformed in the late Renaissance from a Slav village to the jewel in the crown of the Duchy of Sachsen. This evolution had much to do with the art patronage of two monarchs, Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony (1670-1733)...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 20, 2005

The earnestness of being important

THE HEREDITY OF TASTE, by Natsume Soseki, translated by Sammy I. Tsunematsu, introduced by Stephen W. Kohl. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2005, 201 pp., 1,300 yen (paper). MY INDIVIDUALISM and THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF LITERATURE, by Natsume Soseki. Translated by Sammy I. Tsunematsu, introduced by...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 18, 2005

Hakone museum displays the true genius of Lalique's glasswork

An inspirational new attraction is coming to Hakone, the highland resort in Kanagawa Prefecture renowned as a stomping ground for the rich and famous. In addition to its luxury hotels and ryokan, the curative powers of its spa water and astoundingly beautiful scenery, Hakone will soon offer another attraction...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 18, 2005

Pristine paradise an hour from Tokyo

Thanks to the newly opened Noto International Airport, Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture is now just a one-hour flight from Tokyo, making one of the Hokuriku region's most popular tourist spots -- famed for its hot springs, local festivals, beaches and mountain scenery -- far more accessible.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 9, 2005

Lost metallic art revived at last

After some 50 years of trial and error in Akita, a remote northern city, Biko Hayashi, 67, has succeeded in reviving a rare metal craft known as kin gin mokumegane (literally, "gold and silver wood grain metal"), a skill that was developed and then promptly lost almost 300 years ago during the Edo Period....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 2, 2005

Miracles of the moment in Saburo Teshigawara's dance

Dancer, choreographer and artist Saburo Teshigawara works in a time zone of his own. In the 24 years since he came on the dance scene, Teshigawara has transformed the definition of movement. His work with his group Karas and major international companies, including the Frankfurt Ballet and the Opera...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 30, 2005

McLaughlin: a mind-set for music

Guitarist John McLaughlin burst onto the jazz scene in the 1960s as a member of Miles Davis' cutting-edge electric groups. On famed works like "In a Silent Way," "Bitches' Brew" and "Jack Johnson," his guitar work very much helped define Miles' sound. Then in the early '70s, his own jazz-rock fusion...
Japan Times
Features
Jan 30, 2005

'Secret' writer joins Diet drama

There are lawyers-turned-politicians. There are bureaucrats-turned-politicians. There are professors-turned-politicians . . . sports players-turned-politicians . . . actors-turned-politicians . . . and so on.
Features
Jan 23, 2005

Island voices

The Mayor Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa, or "Petero" as he is known, has been mayor of Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui's only settlement, for 12 years, and won re-election last November. He has an open-door policy at his office on Hanga Roa's main street, and welcomed this writer dropping by to talk about the preservation...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 16, 2005

A fleeting visit rich with eastern symbolism

KNOWING THE EAST, by Paul Claudel, translated by James Lawler. Princeton University Press, 2004, 138 pp., $17.95 (paper). The Catholic poet Paul Claudel (1868-1955) first came to what was then known as the Far East in 1895 and at once began writing down his impressions. In 1900 he gathered them into...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 16, 2005

When details of war stories metamorphose into tall tales

ZERO OVER BERLIN, by Joh Sasaki (translated by Hiroko Yoda with Matt Alt), New York: Vertical, 2004, 346 pp., $22.95 (cloth). BLACK WIND, by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. New York: Putnam, 2004, 532 pp., $27.95 (cloth). "Zero over Berlin," translated from Joh Sasaki's 1988 novel, is based on the premise...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 12, 2005

Stars come out in plays of love and loyalty

Kabuki is flourishing in Tokyo at the beginning of the year of the cock as the four of the city's major theaters vie with one another to present the best kabuki performances. At the Tokyo National Theater in Hanzomon, there is a three-hour production of "Gohiiki Kanjincho" (literally "Our Favorite Kanjincho"),...
COMMUNITY
Dec 26, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Humanism

What could be said for the human being after Nanking, Dresden, Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Whatever the motivation, this is what we did to each other, and continue to do to this very hour. How can a writer write about goodness when people of all nations, autocratic or democratic, take up murder...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2004

Cuts should start with civil service: experts

The Cabinet approved a 82.18 trillion yen budget Friday for fiscal 2005 that experts say falls short of the drastic cost cuts needed to curtail spiraling public debt.
COMMUNITY
Dec 25, 2004

Shades of capella, Yale sabbatical and key-lime pie

Peter Hasegawa is on the Tokyo run . . . conducting postgraduate research, studying at Keio University, tutoring Japanese students at international schools in English, and trying to organize a visit by the Yale capella group, Shades. But only until Dec. 23, when he flies home to Connecticut for the Christmas...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 25, 2004

Last-minute gifts for discerning foreigners

Merry Christmas! If you are one of those people who waits till the last nano-second to do your Christmas shopping, don't worry. You've still got till midnight tonight to get a Christmas present for that special gaijin you forgot about.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2004

Better ways to share tax money

Local governments in Japan, like the central government, are heavily in debt. The deficit problem is adding to difficulties in budget talks between the Finance and Internal Affairs ministries. The key question is how much national tax revenue should be transferred to local administrations in fiscal 2005....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 15, 2004

Servants of too many masters

The Tokyo National Theater is currently showing a three-hour bunraku performance drawn from the play "Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami" (literally translated as: "Sugawara Certifies a Disowned Disciple to Perpetuate His Line of Calligraphy"), written by Takeda Izumo and collaborators in 1746.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2004

Anti-Disney style of 'manga' and 'anime' appeals to Americans

Animation in the United States once meant Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Winnie the Pooh.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 8, 2004

Trading in a master for an agent

When Yasuo Kitai first attempted to introduce Japanese calligraphy into Western art markets, he discovered he was up against thousands of years of tradition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 24, 2004

The heyday of body art

"Traces: Body and Idea in Contemporary Art," a new exhibition showing at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (soon to be seen in Tokyo) fleshes out what has been distinctive in art since the postwar '50s right up to recent times.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 23, 2004

Class action

What would you do if you were sacked for "clicking your pen too much in class," or for "talking to yourself during your break" . . . or how about for "only eating the topping on your rice during lunch?"

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