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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
CULTURE / Music
Nov 28, 2008

Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

"Almost every year, I'm working at Christmastime," mourns Kaori Asada. "If I'm not working, I'll have a big Christmas party with friends and family. But in the last 10 years, I haven't had that kind of Christmas party, ha ha. Still, I like Christmas."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 28, 2008

Lisa Loeb

Now that it's almost December, there can be only one thing on the minds of kids around Japan: Um, summer camp?
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 25, 2008

Harajuku in peril?

As a dedicated follower of Japanese pop culture and the coauthor of a book on Japanese teen fashion, I confess that I'm getting a bit concerned about the direction in which the Harajuku district is headed these days.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Nov 25, 2008

Traveler's friend

The resurgence of the Moleskine notebook — said to have been used by the likes of Matisse, Van Gogh and Hemingway — has not only seen it evolve, but take on unexpected shapes and formats. The latest incarnation sees it turn into a city guide, offering up maps and tabbed sections — to keep track...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 21, 2008

Ebisu Yokocho: Bright lights, retro style

Times are tough, money's too tight to mention, the recession is biting and credit is crunching. Red ink is the new black. Doom-and-gloom mongering is back in vogue.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2008

Eileen Kato, special adviser to Emperor, 'waka' translator, dies at 76

Eileen Kato, who died Aug. 30 at the age of 76, was one of the most remarkable Irish women of her generation. Kato was born in Bangor Erris, County Mayo, in Ireland in 1932.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 20, 2008

Japanning for southern barbarians

During the 16th-century age of exploration, Portuguese traders landed in Japan looking for exotic goods to sell in markets back in Europe and their newly founded colonies. Lacquerware was high on their list, not only for its decorative beauty but also for its more prosaic quality of being the only waterproof...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2008

Oddball summit has limits

HONG KONG — It is the best of times because leaders from developed and developing countries have gathered in one place, Washington, to try to rebuild a broken global system, and China and India are at last at the top table.
COMMENTARY
Nov 5, 2008

Beijing has enough of its own problems

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — It would be a mistake to overestimate how much China can or will do to pitch in to the world dilemma as the roiling and unnerving global financial world proceeds apace.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 29, 2008

Bandai robot keeps eye on your home

I, robot: Bandai's robot designers must be fans of the iconic sci-fi movie "Forbidden Planet." While Sony has forsaken its line of Aibo robot dogs, it solidified the spirit that Japanese robots should have a high cuteness factor.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 28, 2008

Head for the future

JEAN SNOW
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 26, 2008

Giants advance to Japan Series

The Yomiuri Giants won the Central League pennant last season but failed to reach the Japan Series.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 21, 2008

Confessions of a not so eco-friendly woman

Contrary to the national effort to increase eco-awareness, encourage environmentally friendly behavior and promote domestically grown vegetables; contrary to the general trend to alienate smokers and lovers of nitrite-drenched hot-dogs — here I stand, alone, a veritable black smudge on the environmental...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2008

'The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'

The films of the Brothers Quay often seem less like movies in the conventional sense and more like half-remembered nightmares from the depths of the subconscious. Their films are quintessentially "not for everybody," in the same way that absinthe, fetish, and tantra aren't: You have to accept going "out...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2008

A selection of cultural others

We are our own most keenest observers, whether it be in the bathroom mirror or in the department store window. But while the face is humankind's most distinctive feature, we are also remarkably poor at getting ourselves in perspective. When asked what size their face appears on the mirror surface, the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 11, 2008

Offering shelter from life's storms

"It's the single most stressful job I've ever had. It's also the best job," says Briar Simpson of Tokyo's Animal Refuge Kansai.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 4, 2008

Loss to Hull could push Ramos closer to the door

LONDON — At the start of the season Sunday's Premier League fixture between Tottenham and Hull had the look of a game between one team riding comfortably high with the other in the relegation zone.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2008

Experts back idea of public bailout in U.S.

Painful as it may be, acting swiftly to tackle the U.S. financial crisis with a public bailout is the right move — and perhaps the chief lesson from Japan's bad debt debacle of the 1990s, economists and politicians here say.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2008

What is needed to make the U.S. financial bailout plan a success

The refusal of the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the $700 billion bailout plan Monday may turn out to have been appropriate if the Congress correctly understands the priorities at hand. The issue is not whether the situation should be left to the market or whether the government should save those...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 2008

'Diorama of the City: Between Site and Space'

Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 29, 2008

'Good old days' dispensed with body counts

NEW YORK — Driving back from Sunset Beach, North Carolina, where we spend two weeks every summer, we hugged the coastline. After crossing the 40-kilometer Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, we stopped for the first time at the Visitors Center for the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. The...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2008

'Stolen'/'China Blue'

Boston's Gardner Museum is one of the city's hidden gems, tucked away in the Fenway near a quiet expanse of park, just a Hulk-sized home run's distance from where the Red Sox play, yet seemingly a world away from the sports bars and peanut vendors. Walk a block in either direction and you'll hit a few...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 24, 2008

Micro Four Thirds standard breaks mirror

Capture the moment: In the world of photography, the unveiling of the Micro Four Thirds lens-mount system last month was a truly historic event. This new standard for next-generation digital SLR cameras, though easily overlooked by the average consumer, is being hailed as the most significant camera-market...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 21, 2008

From Murakami's memoir to your own diary

WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel, London: Harvill Secker, 2008, 192 pp., £9.99 (cloth) MURAKAMI DIARY by Haruki Murakami, London: Vintage, 2008, 176 pp., £9.99 (paper)

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.