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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2010

Architect's floating future vision

The inexorable rise of Tokyo Sky Tree on the city's skyline has once again raised the question of what a future Tokyo might look like. The exhibition "Sousuke Fujimoto Architects: Future Visions — Forest, Cloud, Mountain" at the Watarium Museum attempts to get people thinking along these lines, while...
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2010

No end in sight to Ryoma craze

From Prime Minister Naoto Kan to Sapporo Beer, lawmakers and companies are invoking the image and legacy of Sakamoto Ryoma, the 19th century samurai who helped overhaul Japan's government and economy. Kan mentioned Ryoma in a speech June 8, the day he became prime minister, drawing comparisons between...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2010

The depths of traditional Japanese painting

While China's long-running contribution to Japanese art is usually acknowledged, it is often assumed that Western models only started to have a significant impact in the Meiji period. Part of the reason for this is the sharp reaction to Western artistic influence that occurred in the late 19th century,...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 27, 2010

Learning to live without Japanese pronouns

While I was managing a gift shop at Expo '70 in Osaka, a friend arranged the loan of a Daihatsu Hijet mini pickup. It was probably a mid-1960s model, so small that the only way I could squeeze into the cab was to remove the seat and use a folded beach towel as a cushion.
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2010

Hard times for bookstores

Will traditional bookstores be able to survive in an age of e-publishing and book distribution, when young people are increasingly turning away from books in favor of other forms of information and entertainment? The Japanese e-book market is expected to grow dramatically in the next few years. In distribution,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 23, 2010

Megijima, where the wild, cute things are

Megijima (Woman Tree Island) is a small island in the Seto Inland Sea where 200 very quiet people live. It is said that long ago Megijima harbored demons. No wonder there are only 200 people left. The island was made famous by the legend of Momotaro, the Peach Boy.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2010

Keep companies, citizens safe, Kan tells Beijing

The demonstrations against Japan staged over the weekend in China were very unfortunate and both sides must exercise calm, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Monday as the protests dragged on for a third consecutive day.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 17, 2010

Tireless work ethic earned Nomo respect in majors

Third in a four-part series
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Oct 14, 2010

A feast fit for fashion

Fashion week for the public It's that time again, when fashion makers and breakers take all that creativity they have pent up for the past six months and let it loose in the form of Japan Fashion Week (JFW).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Oct 14, 2010

Fashion retailer Choichiro Motoyama

Choichiro Motoyama, 89, is a pioneering Japanese retailer who has brought some of the most famous European fashion brands to the Far East. In the 1960s, he was the first to import Gucci, Hermes, Loewe, Ferragamo, and then later Etro, to Japan. Through constant study and travels, Motoyama developed an...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 13, 2010

Today's menu: frisky fun rolled in novelty

What will it be today? Granny maids, female sushi chefs or imported Hooters?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 9, 2010

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you

"I'd open up a bar."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Oct 8, 2010

Bourbon Steak creations visit Tokyo

The ekki Bar & Grill at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi will invite executive chef David Varley from Bourbon Steak of the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington for a culinary event from Oct. 15 to 27.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2010

Tokyo celebrates a wide world of cinema

Because it offers few world premieres of high-profile films, the Tokyo International Film Festival is not the world's most significant. European and American festivals get all the good premieres, and South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival, the region's best, has a wider selection of Asian premieres...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 3, 2010

Nomo blazed trail, helped mend fences with move

First in a four-part series
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 3, 2010

A place in the woods for the world to gather

Construction of the Afan Nature Centre here in our woods outside Kurohime in the Nagano Prefecture hills is complete and the keys have been handed over to us. The beautiful building is the result of a decade of wishing, three years of planning, and a year of onsite building.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 3, 2010

Fukuoka: Designed for living

Inquiring as to the whereabouts of English-language bookstores in Fukuoka, the person at the Rainbow Plaza information center's desk straightaway handed me a printout of English listings, maps and directions. This, I began to realize, is a well organized city.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 1, 2010

All-grrrl DJ collective touts a twee life

Shibuya is not a pretty place. In fact, Tokyo's youth mecca can look downright grimy at times. But as with most eyesores, there are pockets of beauty and Sumire Taya owns one of them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Sep 30, 2010

Design that all adds up

Summing up stylish bookends
LIFE
Sep 26, 2010

The return of Lafcadio Hearn

I came to Japan in '90 — 1890, that was — died 14 years later, and here I am again after more than a century, exploring my old haunting ground just like in the good old days.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2010

The Icarus of currencies?

HONG KONG — My old friend Yoh Kurosawa just threw his head back and laughed: "How can you say that the rising yen is a danger. It proves we are strong, the world regards us as best."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 23, 2010

Language teacher Kae Minami

Kae Minami, 32, is a bilingual language teacher. For the past seven years, she has had an outstanding record as a top Japanese juku sensei (prep school teacher). Her foreign students start out with virtually no knowledge of Japanese and almost all of them pass their Japanese university entrance exams,...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 21, 2010

Towns, cities need vision to halt decline

Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Sep 18, 2010

Tokyo cafe entrepreneurs bring more to the table

Some cafe entrepreneurs are looking beyond the set menu of java and jazz and bringing more to the table.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake