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CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jun 19, 1999

From court to village across the centuries

During the upcoming early summer weeks, one can experience a wide variety of fine hogaku concerts, including sublime gagaku court music, a lively group of kagura performers from Iwate Prefecture, contemporary koto music played by several fine young women performers, a large-scale biwa presentation and...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 16, 1999

Vocal as we wanna be

"The process of tying two items together is the important thing," wrote Vannevar Bush in a seminal essay titled "As We Think," published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1945. Bush described a hypothetical device that would allow the storage and retrieval of data, the memory of mankind. It would be constructed...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jun 12, 1999

Open door to a world of dreams

David Wheeler, shakuhachi performer, teacher and writer on Japanese music, will be presenting a shakuhachi recital June 19 at Hamarikyu Asahi Hall.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Sri Lankans find way to share the scholarship

In the small southern Sri Lankan town of Kataragama, high school student Gamini Nawaratne eagerly awaits his monthly mail from Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1999

Kurushima Kaikyo Bridge walk set for August 1

The Japan National Tourist Organization is organizing a walk over the 4-km-long Kurushima Kaikyo Bridge, the world's first triple suspension span, on Aug. 1.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Half of ESC reform proposals to be used, state says

About half of the 234 measures that the Economic Strategy Council, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, has proposed are likely to be carried out, according to a report released by the government Friday.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Lower House panel passes wiretap bills, snubs opposition

The Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee ignored an opposition boycott and approved a package of controversial bills Friday evening that would allow law enforcement authorities to wiretap private communications during investigations into organized crime.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 27, 1999

High adventure

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 23, 1999

Slim down for summer with the chopstick diet

When my mother announced she would finally be coming to visit me in Japan this September, I asked her if she had any questions. She replied, "Yes, do I have to eat with those sticks?" This is when I realized that perhaps a lesson in "chopsticking" would be helpful. Mom, this one's for you: Chopsticks...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 13, 1999

Here and there

Some time ago I wrote about visiting Boeing's Everett factory near Seattle. Now a reader, planning to make his first trip to Seattle, wants to see where the plane he will be flying on was made and asks how he can see the factory.
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

New publishers tackle demand for individual book orders

Staff writer
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
May 8, 1999

Kawai exhibit shows grace under fire

The term mingei (folk art) was coined by Soetsu Yanagi in 1926 to refer to common crafts that had been brushed aside and overlooked by the industrial revolution.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 5, 1999

Looking for something?

Run a Web search and what do you get? Often it's a lot more than you bargained for. I'm not talking about the reams of irrelevant, redundant and irretrievable data that often gets tangled in your throw net. (You should know by now that you're bound to get a certain amount of this stuff no matter how...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 2, 1999

Everybody knows when the heat's on Frankie

They say "kids" grow up fast but you should see my kitten -- 6 months going on "sweet 16." This was my first experience with a cat going through puberty. I warn you never to come within 100 meters of any cat going through puberty, or you just may become the cat's object of desire.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 1999

Translation school moving onto the Net

Staff writer
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 28, 1999

Tyranny of temptation

The future was supposed to be darker. Technology, in the service of some vast, all-encompassing power, was going to enslave us. Human beings would be reduced to ciphers, forced to live anonymous, interchangeable lives.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Professor brings POW drama to stage

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 11, 1999

Along the way

When we think about takeout lunches in Japan, we must go back a long way. Surely you have seen in museums the beautiful lacquer lunch boxes the nobility used when they went to the countryside on excursions. These picnics were quite elegant occasions with poetry writing and incense ceremonies. But long...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 21, 1999

Reach out and touch your four-footed friends

Do you ever get the feeling that your cat isn't listening to you? Have you ever tried to find a gift for the dog who has everything? Don't despair. The latest in pet communication is here: greeting cards for cats and dogs.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 1999

Draft stresses shift to practical language classes

Staff writer
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 17, 1999

The doctor is in

Steve Chang has a fondness for viruses. It's not as ghoulish as it sounds; he's obsessed with the computer variety, not the human kind. Fortunately for him -- unfortunately for us -- there are a lot out there.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 17, 1999

Disputed territory is a paradise in peril

Any Japanese schoolchild can wax eloquent about the Hoppo Ryodo or "Northern Territories," the tiny islands Japan has demanded back from Russia since World War II. And with Japan keen to resolve its border dispute with Russia and wrap up a peace treaty by the end of next year, the issue looks likely...
JAPAN
Mar 16, 1999

Information ethics panel finds Internet security poor

KYOTO -- Privacy and security issues on the Internet raise complex ethical as well as technical problems, and it's a mistake to assume the Internet is an anonymous form of communication.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 1999

DoCoMo phones to run on Java

NTT Mobile Communications Network has agreed to use Sun Microsystems' Java programming language in its new i-mode cellular phones, officials of the two firms announced Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

MITI readies pollutant tracking bill

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 1999

Is shorter always sweeter?

The U.S. publisher Viking recently hit on a bright idea. Biographies, always reliable sellers, were nevertheless getting too long, they thought. Lives of even minor luminaries were routinely checking in at 800 or more pages, sometimes in multiple volumes; there was no such thing as an incident trivial...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Mar 13, 1999

Eclectic pottery expands margins

Jun Kawaguchi is one of the funkiest, coolest ceramic artists I've ever met. The first time I met him I was taken aback, to say the least, by his short, spiked hair, green velvet jacket, and a pair of slacks with cartoon designs that looked like the Joker -- not your typical shibui Japanese potter.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 7, 1999

Nothing like goulash when you're feeling Hungary

This week I write you from Budapest, where I sit immersed in Hungarian goulash. There is more Hungarian goulash per square kilometer in Budapest than there are McDonald's hamburgers per square kilometer in the United States. You'll see restaurants full of tourists, all of them eating Hungarian goulash....
JAPAN
Feb 25, 1999

Ministry targets U.S. elderly to fix tourism slump

The Transport Ministry will launch a campaign next week to encourage U.S. senior citizens to visit Japan in a bid to stimulate the slumping tourism industry, ministry officials said on Thursday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 21, 1999

Two-legged enlightenment in land of soccer gods

Let's talk about religion. Soccer, that is. Many Americans don't like soccer because they say there's not enough action. Americans like fast action sports like American football, rugby and ice hockey. Not me. I like soccer because it's slow. I can get up, go to the bathroom, refill my beer and popcorn,...

Longform

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