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Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jan 14, 2009

New cameras aim to make kids more than just a blur

Focused product: Gadgets can help transform the difficult into the routine and make the impossible possible. In the world of home movies, the current challenge is developing the technology that drives autofocus in video cameras. This is tougher than it seems, because the average camcorder user makes...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Dec 27, 2008

Couple's multinational backgrounds make 'good match'

Although Tomoko and Riki Melwani both hold Japanese passports, by background they are multinational.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Dec 25, 2008

People Tree products pioneering fair trade in Japan

The hand-knit sweaters and scarves and hand-woven bags with an ethnic look are nothing like the products sold to the masses of consumers in most big shopping malls.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 23, 2008

Handwriting expert Koshu Morioka

Koshu Morioka, 75, is the founder of the Japan Graphologist Association and the nation's foremost authority on the study and analysis of handwriting. Morioka started out as a psychologist, until his love of calligraphy eventually drew him to graphology. In his illustrious 30-year career, he has examined...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 20, 2008

Blackburn makes smart decision by naming Allardyce new manager

LONDON — We will probably never know why Sunderland did not consider Sam Allardyce to be the right man to succeed Roy Keane, who resigned (by mobile phone text to chairman Niall Quinn) earlier this month.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2008

Never mind the mistletoe: the finest hits of the Festival of Lights

If you're sick of songs about reindeer with red noses and jolly, bearded fat guys coming to town, here are some Hanukkah albums worth digging for.
LIFE
Dec 14, 2008

Progress, and war, arrive

Terrified of death, having inflicted it on many, the Chinese ruler Qin Shi Huang (259-210 B.C.) sent his court sage, Xu Fu, across the eastern seas in quest of the elixir of eternal life. Xu Fu's 60 ships, carrying (says one version) 3,000 virgin boys and girls, left port in 210 B.C., never to return....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 13, 2008

A frosty reception

It's getting cold , a bit frosty, you might say. But I'm used to having frost on the windows of my house, even in the summer time. This is due to an amazing phenomenon in Japan called frosted glass.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 9, 2008

'Tokyo Two' fight to clear names

Six months ago Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were ordinary men looking after young families. But in June they were arrested by a large group of uniformed police, taken to a detention center in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, and held for 26 days.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 6, 2008

Sending out smoke signals to the gods

While November is fire prevention month in Japan, on our island we are out deliberately starting fires. And during this dry time of year with crispy leaves and fallen twigs, the likelihood of setting the entire island on fire is at its highest. But fire is one of the many ways the island people communicate...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 5, 2008

In Fukuoka, we're walking in a winter ramen land

Winter whistles through the streets, slips its icy fingers down your coat, and you search for something, just about anything, to ward off the damp chill of a Japanese winter. Suddenly, you know with all certainty the one true cure — ramen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 30, 2008

Gems of Asia: hotels worth the splurge

I admit to an incurable travel addiction, which I have been lucky enough to feed by journeying around Asia since 1980, driven by an abiding interest in the wonders and troubles of the region.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 25, 2008

¥100 shops — consumers' common denominator

With the economy in recession, it should be no surprise that ¥100 stores are thriving, wowing shoppers both local and from far afield with their variety of goods all set at one price, plus the ¥5 consumption tax.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Nov 23, 2008

J. League title chase enters home stretch

The J. League title race going down to the wire is nothing new, but this year's championship is shaping up to be the tightest yet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 20, 2008

You and whose Ami?

When singer and actress Ami Suzuki appears in the TBS drama "Love Letter" this month, she'll finally realize the end of a remarkable comeback.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Nov 16, 2008

The Griso 8V can walk the walk

Many motorcycle manufacturers are larger than Moto Guzzi, but few have as rich a heritage. Founded in 1921, the legendary Italian marquee has been continuously producing motorcycles longer than any other European maker.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 15, 2008

Drogba case: Punish the perpetrator not the victim

LONDON — The thug from the section where Burnley fans were seated who threw the coin which struck Chelsea striker Didier Drogba will probably never be arrested and charged.
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2008

Hu touches base with Obama on economy

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Guess who telephoned Barack Obama for one of the first, if not the first, substance-packed reachout to the next U.S. head of state. It was Chinese President Hu Jintao. The conversation focused on the global economic freeze, but Hu knew how to warm up the president-elect as well...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2008

Tokyo's Rokku laughs it up again at film festival

The objectives of the First Old Town Taito International Comedy Film Festival, which runs Nov. 21 to 24 in the Tokyo districts of Asakusa and Ueno, sound ambitious. Noting on the festival's English-language Web site that "there are innumerable film festivals held throughout the world," the executive...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 4, 2008

A beautiful cultural blend: African kimono

Wander past a certain kimono store in Aoyama and center stage in the window is a riotous splash of canary- yellow cotton, with bright cubes of grass green and swirls of earthy brown. A tribal red-and-black obi tied high around the waist completes a perfectly styled kimono that on close inspection evokes...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 2, 2008

Probing the real Japan with Kenneth Pyle

Kenneth Pyle says his first memories of Japan were of watching war films when he was a child — "all the dogfights with Zero fighters and all that."
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 30, 2008

Oh's career sparkled with achievements as player, manager

Second in a three-part series
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 25, 2008

Hasegawa qualified to manage WBC team

There has been much discussion about who should be the manager for Japan's 2009 World Baseball Classic team. The now-retired Sadaharu Oh won't be the skipper and Senichi Hoshino has repeatedly stated he will refuse to accept the job if it is offered to him.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 23, 2008

Inukai ready to face new challenges as president of JFA

On July 12, Motoaki Inukai became president of the Japan Football Association, bypassing four JFA vice presidents and one general secretary to land the most powerful job in Japanese soccer.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2008

Sarah Palin doesn't deserve women's votes

NEW YORK — The selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate hit the United States like an electric storm. To her legions of lipstick-waving fans on the right, Palin is a down-to-earth, God-fearing "hockey mom" whose moose hunting, evangelical faith and even chaotic family life are all evidence...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2008

Israel looks ready for an atypical leader

HAIFA, Israel — Famously irreverent, Israelis tend to call their leaders by their first name or childhood nickname. But don't be fooled: Tzipora "Tzipi" Livni is nobody's close friend. Her dry style, personal remoteness and forced smiles make her an atypical Israeli. Perhaps the country needs exactly...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 23, 2008

Hat headaches, work woes

Alan wants to know where he can get a Panama hat cleaned and blocked.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2008

Street players give hoops diplomacy a shot

On one sunny Sunday afternoon this spring, dozens of people of various ages and nationalities converged on the basketball courts at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. Juking, dunking, shooting and scoring, they played with grit as their competitive juices flowed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 13, 2008

Gamers can tap into their neural impulses

Head games: A magician's hand may be faster than your eye, but is your eye faster than hands on a keyboard? PC gamers now have the chance to find out with the new Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) from OCZ Technology.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 12, 2008

It's ghost season in Japan — who you gonna call?

If there are eerie goings-on in the neighborhood — and Halloween is still two months off — it could be because Japan's traditional "ghost season" maxes out at this time of the year.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake