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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2012

'Pina'

The name Pina Bausch may not strike a chord with many, but even a perfunctory look at her work will lock you in a hold that's layered with emotions: enchantment, enthrallment, even perhaps total bewilderment.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Nov 1, 2011

More ways to try before you buy

Not sure if you're ready to Roomba? Trial offers let you take just about anything for a spin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 25, 2011

Japanese brothers who championed Korean ceramics

In ancient times, Japanese arts and crafts were greatly influenced by the introduction of techniques and aesthetics from Korea and China. In particular, Japan owes the development of its ceramics to the skilled craftsmen brought over from Korea at the end of 16th century, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded...
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 3, 2010

Dancing on Mishima's waves

Childhood, a time of purest innocence, is also a spring of dark imagination. Maurice Bejart, French choreographer and collaborator with the Tokyo Ballet in the 1990s, took the childhood and life of writer Yukio Mishima as his muse when creating the original ballet "M" in 1993, but his imagination of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2010

Modern serving of traditional tea

If you've ever been fortunate enough to attend a tea ceremony, then you know that within the simplicity of movements, the quiet beauty of the room and the refined elegance of the utensils, there is a deep world where the moment becomes living art.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 26, 2010

Big birds have big fun

With the evening breeze, the water laps against the heron's legs
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 18, 2010

Tokyo ballet is blooming

In its short history, the New National Theatre Ballet (NNT Ballet) has performed a total of 42 productions under the auspices of eight choreographers. It's a prolific output for a relatively young company and the company is understandably proud of this achievement.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 6, 2010

Dancing for joy in Japan

As I sipped my vin rouge last week during an interval in "The Sleeping Beauty," K-Ballet's latest Tokyo production, a woman at the next table said to her companion: "I can't believe that evil fairy was a man! I just naturally thought it was a woman dancing that role."
JAPAN
May 15, 2010

Carrying on the art of silent film narration

Midori Sawato knows how to act, from princess to samurai to thief — but only with her voice.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 25, 2010

Nail artist Chieko Ishijima

Chieko Ishijima, 25, is the manager of Brilliant Nail Shibuya, a salon next door to the Marui and Seibu department stores, smack in the middle of one of Tokyo's hubs of young fashion. She quickly painted and sculpted her way to the top of the highly competitive nail-art industry with intricately layered...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 23, 2009

Versailles get dolled up for visual-kei fest

With dozens of Japanese bands trying to crack the West over the last 20 years, whoever would have guessed visual-kei would be the first genre to truly succeed?
COMMUNITY
Sep 26, 2009

Look for the 'mounted knights' at undo-kai

It could be any weekend in September or October, in any town across Japan. Excitement hitches onto every breeze as teams face off against each other, brightly colored headbands proclaiming allegiance.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2009

'Caramel'

Stereotypes about the Middle East are everywhere in the West these days, so it's always a joy when someone decides to give us a fresh perspective. Think of Mideastern women, and the first image we're inclined to think of is a chador or burqa, the female forced to cover her hair, her limbs, perhaps even...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2009

'Caramel'

Stereotypes about the Middle East are everywhere in the West these days, so it's always a joy when someone decides to give us a fresh perspective. Think of Mideastern women, and the first image we're inclined to think of is a chador or burqa, the female forced to cover her hair, her limbs, perhaps even...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 18, 2009

Finding the fabled Snow Country

"The special delights of the hot spring are for the unaccompanied gentleman," states the introduction to Yasunari Kawabata's "Snow Country," instantly seizing the attention.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2008

It's time for perfectly cute 50-year-old Japanese women

Madonna turned 50 on Aug. 16. The milestone was marked by a predictable barrage of commentary about "50 being the new 40" and how women no longer dread the half-century mark. Everybody is trying to eat better and exercise more, and cosmetic surgery isn't the big taboo it once was. But since the subject...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 31, 2008

Eroticism as a means of development

Several months ago, at an exhibition titled "Matsuri," I purchased a print by American photographer Vincent Morris.
LIFE / Language
May 27, 2008

Mastery of kanji takes time to build, just like Rome

If you want yuyujiteki no seikatsu wo suru, to live the life of Riley, in Japan, then you should learn as many four-kanji expresssions as you can. (Yuyujiteki implies living in unsurpassed comfort for the rest of your days, an admirable goal if there ever was one.)
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 23, 2008

Utamaro, the women's brand name

UTAMARO AND THE SPECTACLE OF BEAUTY by Julie Nelson Davis. London: Reaktion Books, 2008, 269 pp., 114 illustrations, 66 color plates. £35 (cloth) Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) is widely known as one of the most creative and influential artists of the ukiyo-e, those "pictures of the floating world" that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 14, 2008

A question of intention

How valid is the distinction between crafts and arts? A number of recent exhibitions, most notably "Roppongi Crossing" at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum and "Space for Your Future" at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tokyo, have confronted us with this question, one that is of great relevance to Japanese art....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 18, 2008

The hotel of eternal youth

It was reportedly good enough for Elizabeth Taylor. It kept Chairman Mao forever young (until he died). And Charlie Chaplin went straight to the source — a clinic in Bucharest — for it.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 25, 2007

Tales of Meiji love, lust and drinking tea

Mistress Oriku: Stories from a Tokyo Teahouse by Matsutaro Kawaguchi. Tuttle Publishing, 280 pp., 2007, ¥1,785 (paper) During the middle to late years of the Meiji Era, factories, cement works and commercial shipyards began to spring up like noxious mushrooms along the embankments of Tokyo's Sumida...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Nov 20, 2007

Moles

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 6, 2007

Design turns over a greener leaf

With climate change a tangible reality, environmental issues are climbing to the top of everyone's agenda. Design is no exception. After a decade-long party accompanying their rising popular profile and commercial success, designers have begun to sober up.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2007

A country caught in the grip of a regime

MYANMAR — Rangoon (or Yangon as it is now called) seen from the air seems subdued, at least after brilliant nighttime Bangkok. Just a light here and there, otherwise a carpet of darkness. This extends even down into the new and otherwise imposing "national" airport where the light is so dim that officials...
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 6, 2007

The magic of noh by firelight

At this time of year — and also in April and May, when it is neither too hot nor too cold for performers or audiences — takigi (firelight) noh is performed throughout Japan. Preferred venues are outdoor noh stages in the precincts of shrines, but as these are rare, special ones are often built in...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2007

Shampoo ads ditch blondes for 'beautiful Japanese women'

Shampoo ads here typically feature glamorous blondes praising imports from Procter & Gamble of the U.S. and Europe's Unilever.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 22, 2007

TETRAPODS

Ah, tetrapods!

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?