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May 28, 2002

Japan's cricketers get a lesson from a master

For those with no knowledge of the game of cricket --imagine a player with Ichiro Suzuki's eye for the ball, speed and throwing arm, throw in Barry Bonds' power and Carl Ripken Jr.'s mental and physical toughness and you will come up with Dean Mervyn Jones. Jones was arguably the most popular cricketer...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 28, 2002

North of the border, Chinese reap a rich harvest

LAZAREVSKOYE, Russia -- In order to enter Lu Binzheng's pig farm, visitors have to dress in white lab coats, stand under an ultraviolet light to kill any germs and slosh their shoes in disinfectant.
LIFE / Travel
May 28, 2002

North of the border, Chinese reap a rich harvest

LAZAREVSKOYE, Russia -- In order to enter Lu Binzheng's pig farm, visitors have to dress in white lab coats, stand under an ultraviolet light to kill any germs and slosh their shoes in disinfectant.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2002

Where the finest get on the fast track

Imagine, just for a moment, that you are a horse.
JAPAN
May 10, 2002

Thin middle-aged men at risk: mortality study

Middle-aged Japanese men who weigh less than average have a higher mortality rate than men who weigh slightly more than average, according to a study released by a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry research group.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

Kids these days

What is wrong with kids today?
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Apr 26, 2002

Forget the textbooks and discover the pleasure of real books

At the start of each new school year, I would confidently advise my university students: "Becoming a fluent reader in English is like learning to play the piano -- it requires constant practice.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2002

Jet of future powered by water?

The last days of noisy, gas-guzzling airplanes polluting the skies could be on the horizon as Japanese scientists have successfully -- if briefly -- flown an aircraft powered by water.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 21, 2002

A fresh spin on Okinawan tradition

Inside Hot Wax, a hip music shop in Shibuya's Udagawa-cho, the wet, modern sounds of Ryukyu Underground's "Tinsagu nu Hana Dub" wash over racks of used records, compact discs and a half-dozen music lovers. One of the browsers, a young woman, describes the music as "like summer with the windows open."...
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Apr 20, 2002

NGOs target immigration center

OSAKA -- Amid concerns over allegations of human rights abuses at the West Japan Immigration Detention Center in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, local nongovernmental organizations will form an immigration watchdog group later this month.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE EXTRA
Apr 20, 2002

Troussier raising more questions than answers

The only answer anyone in the press room could come up with was: "Well, he's French, isn't he."
COMMUNITY
Apr 14, 2002

Off on the road of laughs

Paul Betney is perpetually in motion. It's the first thing that everyone notices about him. To put it bluntly, he shakes. Sometimes he looks like he's going to rattle himself apart, but then he arches his eyebrows and says, "Can you imagine me at airports?" and the audience is in fits.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Apr 10, 2002

Remaking form, recapturing spirit

Hand grenades, gas burners and patio furniture are not items usually associated with ancient potting centers, yet in Shigaraki, southern Shiga Prefecture, even these odd items have been fired.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 9, 2002

Biblical reserve echoes Noah's 'two by two'

A visit to Israel is probably not high on your list of tourism priorities at the moment, but should the situation calm down and the killings and fighting stop, here's one to consider: The Biblical Wildlife Reserve of Hai-Bar Yotvata.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 9, 2002

Biblical reserve echoes Noah's 'two by two'

A visit to Israel is probably not high on your list of tourism priorities at the moment, but should the situation calm down and the killings and fighting stop, here's one to consider: The Biblical Wildlife Reserve of Hai-Bar Yotvata.
COMMUNITY
Mar 31, 2002

The horror from the heart of darkness

It was a rough drive to the Cambodian town of Takeo in 1992. Going faster than 30 kph would have been suicidal. National Highway 2 was an unsurfaced dirt road pockmarked with craters from shells and land mines. Takeo, about 60 km south of the capital Phnom Penh, served as a base that year for an engineering...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 31, 2002

China's free-enterprise apostle

MODEL REBELS: The Rise and Fall of China's Richest Village, by Bruce Gilley. University of California, 2001, 219 pp., $45.00 (cloth)/$15.95 (paper) It could have been a Forbes cover story: In 1978, a destitute Chinese village doomed to crop failure siphons off state irrigation funds to buy a crude steel...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 14, 2002

You win some and you lose some . . .

Ten years ago, on March 12, 1992, this column began its life on these pages. Though it's still "green," when compared with colleagues who have graced The Japan Times for several decades, Our Planet Earth has now appeared more than 245 times.
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2002

Salsa in the city

NEW YORK CITY -- For anyone serious about salsa, New York is the place to be. At around $200 a month for unlimited group sessions, lessons in the city are relatively cheap; instructors are often world-class dancers; and, most importantly, students can immerse themselves in a rich Latin scene.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2002

Who is bugging the Chinese leadership?

HONG KONG -- Since it is not opening up to the outside world, but remains a very closed society in terms of its internal politics, China raises more questions than it answers. The latest intriguing episode concerns the bugging of a Boeing 767-300ER purchased in 2000 to be the VIP jet for President Jiang...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 3, 2002

Makes perfect pop sense to me . . .

Beat Crusaders must have overheard one of those critics a couple of years back saying "comedy is the new rock 'n' roll" and taken it literally, for what you get at their gigs is tons of cheap stand-up comic banter sandwiched between immensely hummable pop hymns. Remember the speedy guitar pop of The...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2002

E-symposium to focus on Sept. 11

The Japan Center for Preventive Diplomacy and The Japan Times will jointly sponsor an electronic symposium on the theme of "The Future of Conflict Prevention in the post-September 11 World," from Feb. 6 to Feb. 14. Supported by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the online symposium again promises to be...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 30, 2002

Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble: 'Mnemosyne'

The collaboration between saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the a cappella vocal quartet Hilliard Ensemble is an avant-garde blend of modern European jazz and early music. On "Mnemosyne," their recent collaboration, the origin of their songs extends back to the second century B.C. with a Greek hymn to Delphic...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2002

Playwright offers art to lift Japan out of crisis

In these gloomy times, it seems everyone in Japan is chanting the mantra of structural reform, yet progress is excruciatingly slow. The greatest obstacle is not the political old guard nor the foot-dragging banks. Instead, the main problem is lack of art, according to playwright Oriza Hirata.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / THE WRITERS' SPIN
Jan 23, 2002

Consultant wary of 'U.S.-style' info, mutual funds

Hajime Yamazaki must be an enemy of mutual fund companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2002

Seniority vs. meritocracy: a middle way

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Quite often the terms "seniority" and "meritocracy" are used -- or rather "misused" -- antithetically as if they were in a 16th-century arena of charging helmeted knights, where the space occupied by one is totally denied to the other. In such thinking, the former term is usually...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2002

Six Japan volcanoes erupted last year

Mount Oyama on Miyake Island and Mount Usu in Hokkaido were among six volcanoes that erupted last year in Japan, the Meteorological Agency said.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Dec 30, 2001

This will be the last slurp of the rest of your year

Even if preparing other Japanese New Year's dishes seems beyond your ability, you can't go wrong with toshikoshi ("year-crossing") soba, the noodles eaten just before midnight on o-misoka, New Year's Eve.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Dec 28, 2001

Practice perfects New Year's calligraphy

Pencils and computers haven't replaced brushes at schools -- brush work is alive and well.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat