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Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 27, 2009

Bike tours offer a new view of the city

Despite long-standing conflicts between cyclists and others with a stake in using Tokyo's streets, Japan's capital can be a great place to tour by bike — as I discovered last weekend while participating in the "Tokyo Great Cycling Tour," a one-day guided trip organized by Tokyo-based operator Alive...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 21, 2009

Chinzan-so Italian festival

The Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Chinzan-so will hold a monthlong "La Festa Italiana" of Italian cuisine, art and fashion, as an official event of "Italia in Giappone 2009," the government promotion supported by the Embassy of Italy in Tokyo and the Italian State Tourist Board.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009

Art triennial helps revitalize rural Niigata

Visiting Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009 is a strange and wonderful journey. A satoyama (mountain homeland) adventure replete with rice paddies brimming with bright green shoots, refurbished abandoned houses and closed-down elementary schools, it features 370 contemporary artworks by little-known and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 7, 2009

Cops crack down with 'I pee' checks

My blog has been getting periodic pings about rumblings in Roppongi: Tokyo cops cleaning out pesky foreign touts before Olympic inspectors see them; the U.S. Embassy warning Americans to stay away from the area after reports of drugged drinks and thefts.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 1, 2009

Resilient fax machines, tinier computers, USBs

Think you know small?: Before netbooks, all the buzz was about the UMPC, or ultra mobile PC. These devices are smaller than netbooks, with 7-inch screens. They also outdo their more celebrated compatriots for innovation, as UMPCs come with touch screens. Despite the bid to do something different, the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 26, 2009

A re-imagining of Osaka's riverfront

"Tadao Ando Exhibition 2009: The City of Water/Osaka vs. Venice" seems like a fixed fight. Many would even balk at the idea of the match-up.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jun 25, 2009

Almost everything's gone green

The minimalist
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 10, 2009

Sony sorts out the PSP; netbooks get a dose of speed

Small game: Technology companies have an easy way of dealing with mistakes — don't admit them, just quietly stop using the failed innovation. Sony sticks to this dogma with the latest version of its PlayStation Portable gaming devices. Previously, Sony has used universal media discs, a kind of miniature...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 13, 2009

Extra power for your netbook

More for your book: Japanese gadget innovator Century is offering a device for putting more muscle into netbooks in the form of its Netbook Stand, the CNBS-WT/ODD. While fundamentally a netbook cooler, the Century gadget also packs in a DVD burner. A fan is built into the left side and swivels up into...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Apr 9, 2009

Kalivas goes 'Goemon,' Marjoli shines bright and Sistere makes Kyoto urban

Fantasy after fashion Tina Kalivas will get to see her creations on the big screen this May, as the Australian fashion designer produced the costumes for the new Japanese film "Goemon." The movie is based on the legend of a Robin Hood-like hero and was directed by Kazuaki Kiriya, who was responsible...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 29, 2009

Uncovering an ukiyo-e master in Obuse

The small town of Obuse nestles quietly in the foothills of the Japan Alps, a 30-minute ride on a local rail line from the prefectural capital of Nagano City.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 18, 2009

Clarity up for reading, dieting and television

Tuned in: The small fortunes people spend on television antennas or television sets can be a waste of money if both products are not of a similar quality. Panasonic looks to solve this problem with its new compact LCD high-definition TV, the 17-inch Viera TH-L17F1. The key to this innovative set is that...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 11, 2009

Dust off your old records for one final play

Movie marvel: Just as the arrival of home video in the 1980s impacted heavily on the movie-theater industry, free-to-air TV is now being undermined by pay TV and movies delivered via the Internet. Television-set manufacturers are helping to widen channels for the new methods of movie distribution, and...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 17, 2009

Dealing with a death abroad

Reader S.B. seeks advice on how to deal with arrangements following the death of a foreign relative in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Feb 11, 2009

Clearing up digital photography

Look sharp: In digital photography, cameras that are small and easy to use tend not to take good pictures in low light and to have a crimped dynamic range. A camera's dynamic range defines how much detail it can capture in shadowy areas of the picture and brightly lit parts at the same time. The better...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2009

Vienna's Arming strikes the right note

"During these five years, we have often tackled contemporary works," says Austrian conductor Christian Arming, music director of the New Japan Philharmonic (NJP) since 2003. "I believe that broadened our horizon."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 23, 2009

Vienna's Arming strikes the right note

"During these five years, we have often tackled contemporary works," says Austrian conductor Christian Arming, music director of the New Japan Philharmonic (NJP) since 2003. "I believe that broadened our horizon."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 21, 2009

The key words that kept Japan abuzz in 2008

Last October, publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha released the 61st edition of its "Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words)" — a massive 1,614-page tome that retails for just ¥2,980. I have a facsimile copy of the book's first edition, launched on Oct. 10, 1948. In the introduction,...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 21, 2009

The key words that kept Japan abuzz in 2008

Last October, publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha released the 61st edition of its "Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words)" — a massive 1,614-page tome that retails for just ¥2,980. I have a facsimile copy of the book's first edition, launched on Oct. 10, 1948. In the introduction,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2008

Arts of enlightenment

The exhibition "National Treasures of Miidera Temple," presently at Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, tells a fractured story of the famed Tendai Buddhist temple that spread its influence across the regional temples of western Japan, from the establishment of a core of sacred imagery, staturary and mandalas...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 18, 2008

Escalator etiquette, TV tours

A couple of replies to the query about why people stand on escalators on the right in Osaka and on the left in Tokyo:
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 12, 2008

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra to perform Schubert, Berg

T okyo Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert featuring two symphonies by Austrian composer Franz Schubert along with Alban Berg's 1935 "Violin Concerto" on Sept. 26 and 27.
Reader Mail
Sep 7, 2008

The utter liberty to say 'gaijin'

Should it be assumed that the mere potential to use the term "gaijin" negatively is enough to ban it? I have been called "gaijin" by numerous people, including classmates and friends from Waseda University where I studied, my former home stay parents, my significant other and my significant other's parents...
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Sep 3, 2008

Kitajima, softball team showed mettle in Beijing

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series. Part one appeared in Sunday's newspaper.
Reader Mail
Aug 14, 2008

No-name arrests don't seem right

Regarding Robert McKinney's opinion ("No advantage in a media circus," Aug. 7 letter) of my July 31 letter ("A HREF="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/rc20080731a4.html">Mind boggles at police reports"): Perhaps the female slasher who attacked six at Hiratsuka Station is "mentally impaired" —...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jun 25, 2008

Japanese Facebook takes Model T approach

Late last month, as part of a rare work-vacation trip to Asia, Mark Zuckerberg made a quick stop in Tokyo to announce the launch of Facebook Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 8, 2008

Viva matsuri!

To commemorate 100 years of Japanese emigration to Brazil, and the countries' continuing close links, taiko drummers from both cultures will be powering a huge festival set for Sao Paulo on June 21
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2008

South Korean punk band Gumx regroups after military service

"Gumx is back!!" proclaimed the T-shirt for Seoul punk band Gumx's short Japan jaunt in late February. The band's first foreign gigs in more than three years, it had good reason to be excited about returning to the live circuit in its biggest market.
CULTURE / Books
May 4, 2008

Japan as a land of many religions

PROPHET MOTIVE: Deguchi Onisaburo, Oomoto, and the Rise of New Religions in Imperial Japan, by Nancy K. Stalker. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007, 265 pp., $49 (cloth) Reviewed by Florian Coulmas Japan has sometimes been called an irreligious country, but students of religion know that this...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 30, 2008

Say it with a picture, then share it wirelessly

Durable digital Ricoh has a habit of coming up with its own smart ideas as to what a camera should offer. Its latest bit of creativity is the G600, which intends to make its name for being water- and dust-resistant, not to mention possessing exceptional toughness.

Longform

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