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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 4, 2005

Japan's show-biz hacks fail to raise ante 24 / 7

Last Monday was a pretty busy day for Tokyo's entertainment reporters. At 11 a.m. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, fresh from spending Thanksgiving in Pakistan, held a press conference in Shinjuku to promote their movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"; and then at 2 p.m. across town at the Imperial Hotel in Hibiya,...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 18, 2005

TREASURED TRANSPORTS OF ARTISTIC DELIGHT

Tigers and dragons snarl. Missiles and rockets soar above a dozen Mount Fujis. Inside, a chandelier sways over plush velvet. Around the fender, Chinese characters for "art," "tradition," "landscape gardener" and "love" salute the important things in life. All moving at a respectable 75 kph on the highway....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2005

Tribes: An African heart beats in Kagurazaka

Not so long ago, Kagurazaka was one of this city's most traditional neighborhoods, its alleys still echoing from the days when it was an important geisha district. Though some of its old character survives, these days it has much more of an international nature -- especially when it comes to dining out....
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 15, 2005

Actor-musician Yuji Oda travels to Africa for TBS's "Big Nature Special" and more

Kabuki stars have been appearing in TV dramas for decades, but this week's "Tuesday Suspense Theatre" (NTV, 9 p.m.) may be the first time a kabuki onnagata (actor specializing in female roles) doubles as a private eye.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 24, 2005

Time for some Showa trivia and Heisei melodrama

GEISHA -- HARLOT -- STRANGLER -- STAR: A Woman, Sex & Morality in Modern Japan, by William Johnston. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, 245 pp., $29.50, (cloth). ISOLATION, by Christopher Belton. New York: Leisure Fiction, 2003, $6.99, 372 pp., (paper). To be honest, I've never really understood...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2005

The rebirth of a salesman

For Atsushi Yamada, conductor of the New York City Opera, his presentation of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly" to be staged in Tokyo and Nagoya in May will be something of a triumphant return.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 1, 2005

Past the pain and language barriers

Even for a sumo wrestler, Kaido Hoovelson looks big. The 20-year-old Estonian, who goes by the ring name of "Baruto," stands 197-cm tall, making him one of sumo's tallest wrestlers.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 21, 2004

A boy detective of Old Edo

THE GHOST IN THE TOKAIDO INN, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. New York: Puffin Books, 2001, 214 pp., $6.99 (paper). Other books by same authors:
Features / WEEK 3
Nov 21, 2004

Discordant notes...

Bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928), who became a star researcher with the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York, was a great man. He was so great that he is now the face on the new 1,000 yen bill issued Nov. 1.
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004

Disillusioned bard of a bygone Japan

In the century that has passed since the death of Lafcadio Hearn on Sept. 26, 1904, the Japanese people have studiously formulated and maintained a myth -- and they have done it with all the tools and vigor of nostalgia at their disposal.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 10, 2004

Dodging tourist traps in Kyoto

Ebisugawa has a vast array of small shops that sell dozens of varieties of high-quality green tea and traditional Kyoto sweets, as well as bric-a-brac stores that are a bargain-hunter's dream.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 25, 2004

Lord, we got those tortured artist blues

Investigating Sex Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Alan Rudolph Running time: 105 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] The Soul of a Man Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Wim Wenders Running time: 104 minutes Language: English Opens...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 21, 2004

Beat the heat -- get out to the islands

It has been one of the hottest years on record in Japan, especially in Tokyo. Something about too much pavement and too many high-rise buildings blocking the breeze. It makes you wonder, why don't those people in the high-rises just open their windows to let the breeze through?
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2004

Like NTT phone fee, line brokers face extinction

Kanji in the window of a three-story building near JR Okachimachi Station in central Tokyo advertise "denwa tokubai" (discounted telephone lines).
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Jul 9, 2004

Dancing in the streets

South of the Chinzanso/Four Seasons Hotel on the Kandagawa -- where our walk finished last month -- Kagurazaka is a vibrant town named after its sloped main street, The Kagurazaka. This hilly area has a maze of lanes and short but steep hills, making it a thrilling adventure for urban walkers. In pockets...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 20, 2004

Fuji's "Friday Entertainment" with Yoshimi Tendo and more

Following the killing of a sixth-grade girl in Sasebo by her classmate, some TV networks postponed the airing of mystery dramas when reports circulated that the suspect may have gotten ideas for her chosen method of killing from a mystery she'd seen on TV. Eleven-year-old girls are not the target audience...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Apr 2, 2004

Echoes of Edo's entertaining past

The 1830s woodblock print by Hasegawa Settan (right) might at first look like an abstract picture jammed with squares and diamond forms. In fact, it shows the bustling kabuki theater district in the Sakaicho and Fukiyacho districts of Edo.
Events
Mar 7, 2004

KANSAI: Who & What

Insects and the call of nature on exhibit: An exhibition on insect droppings is being held through May 31 at the Itami City Museum of Insects in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 25, 2004

Happy Ko-Edo exile

Midori Fujii calls herself a "cityscape exile."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 23, 2003

Confessions of a foreign correspondent

These are not happy times for people who make a living writing about Japan. With the country apparently having become, as one magazine put it, the "Switzerland of Asia," i.e., rich but boring, foreign newspapers are shuttering their Tokyo bureaus as fast as they can move their correspondents to cover...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

History of homegrown Japanese science finally adds up

Think Edo Period, and you think ukiyo-e, bonsai, yakimono and kabuki. Few think of science, or of the technological skill and spirit, which would later hatch Sony, Toyota and a core part of the country's national identity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2003

Popular nightclub a microcosm of pain, potential of deflation-beset Japan

Tokyo nightclub owner Sakura Masui is nowhere close to the modern-day geisha girl she appears to be, shuffling demurely in a purple kimono as she pours drinks and chats in hushed tones.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 1, 2003

The flowered margin

TATTOOS OF THE FLOATING WORLD, by Takahiro Kitamura; foreword by Donald Richie. Hotei Publishing, 2003, 120 pp., 2,600 yen (cloth). In an age excessively concerned with outward appearances, official disapproval of tattoos in Japan is perhaps understandable. The Japanese are less seriously spooked by...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Art that's sweet enough to eat

In early summer, they might evoke dewy irises and swirling water. In autumn, plume grass trembling in the wind. Quite obviously, Japanese sweets are more than a mouthful of sweetness: They evoke the poetry and beauty of life itself.
Events
Mar 30, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

Foundation to screen women authors' films: The Japan Foundation Kyoto Office is inviting foreign residents to free weekly showings of Japanese films, starting at 2 p.m. each Wednesday in April at its facility in the city's Nakagyo Ward.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 15, 2003

The queen of England at a hostess bar

Every Tuesday evening, I teach a private "English lesson" to a doctor. The lesson takes place at a hostess bar, or a "snack" as the Japanese call it. This doctor has about 10 snacks he goes to regularly, and I know most of them. In one lesson, we will hit one or two of them.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

Parties to a revolution

An odd Edo Period drawing is kept at Waseda University Library in Tokyo. A designated important cultural asset, it shows 29 Japanese men wining and dining around three tables as they celebrate New Year's in 1795. Some hold wine glasses, others chat over what appear to be Western dishes. On the wall is...

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