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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 19, 2011

Summer's joys in snow country

If you'd only ever experienced Niseko under a four-meter blanket of snow, you'd barely recognize Hokkaido's most cosmopolitan winter-sports resort in summer — in the best way possible.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 16, 2011

Waraku Ensemble serve up some summer classics

Despite a day of torrential downpour to kick off Japan's rainy season, Junnosuke Uehara is grinning from ear to ear. He's got his shamisen with him and he says he's excited to introduce a new person to the instrument. In fact, his love for the shamisen is so strong, he clings to it as if it were his...
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2011

A life in the coal mines

This May brought unexpected news of the selection by UNESCO of annotated paintings and diaries by Sakubei Yamamoto of life in the Japanese coal mines for entry in its Memory of the World Register.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 12, 2011

Eccentric wanderer discovers his destiny in Meiji Japan

"Japan," asserts the fictitious character Lafcadio Hearn on page 97, "has chaos at its core. The closer one approaches that core, the deeper one fathoms the world of illusion and warped contradiction. Such a country is begging for citizens such as Yakumo Koizumi, that is, me."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 10, 2011

"People Who Lived in the Azuchi-momoyama and Edo Periods: Portraits, Genre Paintings and Ukiyo-e"

Nara Prefectural Museum of Art has in its collection nihonga (Japanese painting) works mainly from the Edo Period (1603-1867), which were donated to Nara Prefecture by Kanpo
CULTURE / Art
Jun 9, 2011

World's third-largest art fair ups profile of Asian works

For Japanese artists in need of international exposure, Hong Kong, it seems, is their closest window to the world. Last month, the city's international art fair, ART HK 2011, now in its fourth year, attracted art-lovers from all over the world, including many from mainland China, where the booming economy...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 5, 2011

Doomed self-obsessive remains iconic to some in the Japan of today

"It's not that I'm weak, it's that the suffering weighs down on me too heavily."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 3, 2011

"The 30th Anniversary of Ito Cultural Foundation — Highlights of The Donation"

The Ito Cultural Foundation was established in 1981 according to the wishes of Denzo Ito, the founder of Itoham Foods. Itoham Foods' headquarters is in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and the foundation was set up near Himeji to help Hyogo museums and cultural facilities offer the public better access...
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2011

Postdisaster reading

Unsurprisingly, Japanese readers are seeking books about the March 11 disaster and about how to overcome it spiritually. In bookstores now can be found many works of reportage — for example, volumes in which major newspapers have reproduced their pages devoted to the disaster.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 29, 2011

Electrifying one-act lives

The late Meiji Era (1868-1912) to early Showa Era (1926-1989) saw the creation of a body of short, one-act dramas akin in their electrifying impact to the 1960s in Japan, with its upsurge in theatrical experimentation. This book begins with a telling quote from the playwright and director Osanai Kaoru,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 29, 2011

Evessa's Washington is greatest player in bj-league history

Six years is a long, long time in professional sports. In a word, it's an era.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 27, 2011

Farming without chemicals — or radiation

Yasunori Toyoguchi peers under the netting protecting a small rice paddy. "See," he says, pointing to some grassy shoots, "here's this year's crop, just starting to emerge." He scoops up a little of the water trickling over the mud with one hand. "See how clear and clean this is?" he asks. "The frogs...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 26, 2011

'Golden age' of kayoukyoku holds lessons for modern J-pop

On April 21, 2011, the actress and singer Yoshiko Tanaka, aka Sue from 1970s idol group the Candies, died after a relapse of the cancer that she had been living with for 20 years. A tragedy, at the relatively young age of 55, and one that comes during a period of deep soul-searching for the Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 22, 2011

Untouchable lays bare a divided nation

With ebooks increasingly dominating the publishing market, it is a pleasure to hold a printed book so gorgeously designed as this one; the cover alone would make it a welcome addition to any Kenji Nakagami collection.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 22, 2011

One of a kind: Bob Dylan at 70

Bob Dylan, the single most important artist in the history of popular music, will be 70 years old on Tuesday, May 24.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 22, 2011

Up close and personal: Why Dylan is so big in Japan

It was the fall of 1963, when — in what seemed like a flash of lightning — I became a fan of Bob Dylan the moment I heard "Blowin' in the Wind" on the radio. I was in my first year of high school.
CULTURE / Art
May 20, 2011

"Prints by Futami Shoichi"

Copperplate print artist Shoichi Futami's work is known not only in Japan but also in Germany and other parts of Europe. This exhibition presents approximately 100 of his works from the 250 housed in the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura's collection.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 20, 2011

Ryukyu's Palmer hoping to add to title collection

For a guy whose collegiate career concluded at little-known Southern Utah, David Palmer is living a dream.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 19, 2011

Online Maltine learns old-school tricks

Tomohiro Konuta didn't have lofty ambitions when he and his friend Syem started the online music label Maltine Records in 2005. They were just two teenagers looking for a little attention.
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2011

Japan's rich heritage

At long last, Japan received a bit of bright news May 7, when it was announced that two sites in Japan, the historic Hiraizumi area in Iwate Prefecture and the Ogasawara Islands some 1,000 km south of Tokyo, were almost certain to be designated as World Heritage Sites at meetings next month of the UNESCO...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 15, 2011

Strawberries and shoguns in Shizuoka

It's a clear spring morning and the view over Suruga Bay just outside of Shizuoka City is captivating. At least, that's what my travel companions say.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2011

"Excellent Techniques of Metal Crafts, The Late Edo And Meiji Periods"

From the end of Edo Period (1603-1867) into the Meiji Era (1868-1912), Japanese arts and crafts experienced major changes. Sword and sword-accessory-related metalwork, in particular, was affected by the opening of Japan to the West and its influences.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2011

"Kazuyoshi Miyoshi Photo Exhibition: The World Heritage Yakushima"

A Tokushima Prefecture native, Kazuyoshi Miyoshi started taking photos when he was a junior high school student. His first photo collection, "Rakuen" ("Paradise"), a series of images taken on tropical islands such as the Seychelles and Maldives, won him the 11th Kimura Ihei Photography Award. At age...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 12, 2011

'Yu Kiwanami Solo Exhibition'

imura art gallery, kyotoCloses May 28
CULTURE / Books
May 8, 2011

Unfractured folk tales, and fantastic fables

SPECULATIVE JAPAN 2: "The Man Who Watched the Sea" and Other Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy. Kurodahan Press, 2010, 269 pp., $16 (paper) A good anthology, particularly one that aims to provide an overview of an unfamiliar subset of a nation's literature, should not please all its readers...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 8, 2011

Pedal-power pleasures on Kansai's byways

Spring is the perfect season to explore Kansai by bicycle. Going with the flow along largely flat cycle routes beside the Yodo, Katsura and Kizu rivers, it's possible to chart a comfortable six-day trip — or, in my case, a rather challenging four-day one — between the cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Nara....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 7, 2011

Pillow for the fairy tale princess discovered

Breaking news: Pillow belonging to the princess of the tale "The Princess and the Pea" by Hans Christian Andersen has been found.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 7, 2011

American's food import firm has grown organically

Jack Bayles, owner of Alishan Organic Center and founder of Tengu Natural Foods, has lived within a 5-km radius his entire time in Japan in the shadow of the verdant, hazy mountains of Chichibu near the Koma River in Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

Verbal wants to hit the reset button on pop

In the middle of her recent Japan tour, pop superstar Kylie Minogue surprised her fans by announcing a new song on YouTube. The song, written by Japanese rapper and producer Verbal, is called "We Are One" and is the pair's effort to try to raise donations for Unicef following the March 11 earthquake...

Longform

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