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OLYMPICS / LONDON POSTCARD
Jul 29, 2012

Sports pub provides for a delightful night

There are — believe it or not — a few instances of non-Olympic routines on display in England.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 27, 2012

Sisi stars in new exhibition

More than a century after her death, Austria's Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898) has built a big fan base in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 26, 2012

Rembrandt still outshines Vermeer

The first exhibition at the newly renovated Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art (TMMA) was always going to be an important one. After a two-year closure to let the builders in, it wouldn't have sufficed to just have a run-of-the-mill exhibition. Something special was required, and with "Masterpieces from...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jul 25, 2012

Making the move away from smartphone snaps

For aspiring photographers looking to step up their game from a point-and-shoot camera or smartphone, there have been a number of exciting new options released in recent weeks. Whether you want to take the leap to your first DSLR, opt for a more evolved point-and-shoot, or go with something in between...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 22, 2012

Power spots and prehistory in beautiful Aomori Prefecture

The government of Aomori Prefecture which straddles the whole of the northern end of Japan's main island of Honshu — and is best known as the nation's apple capital — broke new ground in its tourism promotion campaign late last year, when it announced it would start selling the prefecture as the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 16, 2012

Rickshaws roll back into style

The trendiest way to get around town on two wheels without breaking a sweat? Hand-pulled rickshaw.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

High price of the most gorgeous show in town

Note to self: Never be a young woman in Japan. It's just too harrowing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 12, 2012

Various Artists "Ripple"

It seems that every indie scenester in Japan wants a piece of Nagoya these days. Buzz is growing around the city's bands, and it's fast becoming an essential first stop away from home for Tokyo artists and DJ events. One of the reasons for this new love affair comes from the efforts of the label Knew...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 12, 2012

"Journey through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead"

Believers of eternal life after death, the ancient Egyptians considered their existence on Earth as a preparation period for the next world. The "Book of the Dead" is the name given to the funerary manuscript — a collection of texts that contained spells believed to help safely guide the dead into...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2012

"Invitation to the Monster World: Tales from Mythic Past"

When it comes to mythical monsters, our wild imaginations often envision human-animal hybrids involving intimidating creatures such as lions, snakes and eagles. Such creatures served as inspiration for folk tales and artwork worldwide. Some of these beasts were seen as gods to be worshiped in order to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2012

"Eiji Mitooka Railway Design Exhibition: From Ekiben to Shinkansen"

Eiji Mitooka is one of Japan's leading train designers, and he is particularly well known as the designer for the Kyushu Railway Company. His work has been highly acclaimed and won him many awards in the industry, not to mention fans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 5, 2012

The Beauty "Love in the Heart of the World Shout" / Faron Square "Willys Heartbeat"

At this time last year, Tokyo's Cuz Me Pain label was a collection of artists recording dark and dreamy dance tracks from their bedrooms, and that got them a smattering of overseas attention from various music blogs. In 2012, a lot has changed. Various projects under the imprint's umbrella have signed...
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2012

Better disaster planning needed

The Noda Cabinet on June 19 adopted a 2012 white book on disaster prevention that deals with not only the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis but also major earthquakes expected to occur close to the Tokyo metropolitan area and in the Nankai Trough, a 900-km subduction...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012

"Japanese Ghosts and Eerie Creatures"

This exhibition invites visitors into a world of "comical horror" and highlights spooky works from the collection of well-known painter Kanpo Yoshikawa (1894-1978).
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 24, 2012

Over the top ambitions in Mukogaoka

The neighborhood of Mukogaoka — literally, "Yonder Hill" — huddles under clouds clustered like violet hydrangea blossoms the morning I arrive to explore.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 17, 2012

Hunting ivory netsuke carvers is like a big game

Netsuke are the diminutive works of art that dangled from cords attaching purses or other pouches to a kimono's obi sash before Western garb ousted traditional dress after the modernizing Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 17, 2012

Easy does it on Taketomi

Consulting a map of Okinawa, you might be forgiven for thinking that the Yaeyama Islands group comprises fragments of Japan and China that have become loosened and detached. It's an impression confirmed at every turn once you set foot on these remote littorals.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 16, 2012

Ryukyu's Newton named JT's top player for second time

With non-stop, nonsensical expansion since the first games were staged in the fall of 2005, the bj-league's ranks have swelled to include a growing number of solid players, including an abundance of former NCAA Division I performers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 15, 2012

Tokyo Prince Hotel's beer garden

The Tokyo Prince Hotel's open-air Beer Restaurant Garden Islands is open now until Sept. 28.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2012

In the light of Rinko Kawauchi

It's quite surprising to find out that "Kawauchi Rinko: Illuminance, Ametsuchi, Seeing Shadow" is Rinko Kawauchi's first solo exhibition in Tokyo. For a winner of prestigious photography prizes, who has published multiple books — not to mention held major exhibitions overseas — this mid-career show...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jun 10, 2012

Paradise found in Renaissance man's footsteps

Continental Micronesia airlines operates an island-hopper run to Majuro in the Republic of the Marshall Islands via Guam, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae and Kwajalein — a great way to see fantastic scenery and sample the flavors of each airport.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 10, 2012

Matsue: 'City of Water ' with a history set in stone

The train from Okayama to Matsue took nowhere near as long as the one the English writer Sacheverell Sitwell boarded in 1959 to the same destination: "Nine hours from Osaka, into a remote and little-visited part." The region still feels faintly remote, the train carriages clickety-clicking over rivers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2012

"Roses by Pierre-Joseph Redoute"

Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1759-1840) was a botanist and an official court artist to Queen Marie Antoinette of France. He worked through both the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror and, despite the political turmoil of the era, he was successful enough to become one of the most famous botanical painters...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2012

tengal6 "City"

Please show sympathy to all those involved in tengal6. The six-person pop-rap group is "supported" by Tenga, a Japanese adult-toy company (first line of their online concept: "The future of masturbation is here!"). I can just imagine the members of tengal6 dreaming of pop stardom, of seeing their own...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jun 5, 2012

Guestists, Haters, the Vested: Apologists take many forms

Last month's column on "microaggressions" was my most debated yet. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 3, 2012

Making a life after surviving the war

My Postwar Life: New Writings From Japan and Okinawa, edited by Elizabeth McKenzie. Chicago Quarterly Review Books, 324 pp., $19.95 (hardcover) The first entry in this new anthology begins with the blackened image of a watch, its hands stalled at 11:02 a.m., the precise moment of atomic implosion in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2012

What lies behind our love of clothes?

There's something counter-intuitive about photographic artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. While most artists are happy to achieve a distinctive style and enjoy the rewards that this brings, Sugimoto is forever reinventing the wheel by developing, then abandoning, one style after another.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?