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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 28, 2006

Window on the West

It's hard not to feel well disposed toward a place like Nagasaki even before you set foot in it. Nagasaki was, after all, the port in western Kyushu that had to bear the torturous brunt of the anti-Christian persecutions assiduously pursued by the Tokugawa shoguns in the 17th century. And had it not...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 27, 2006

The design of light itself

Light can have a strong effect on people -- about 5 percent of the world's population is reckoned to suffer from a form of depression called seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which has been linked to sunlight deprivation.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 23, 2006

Dark chronicler of a dubious Jewish uniqueness

Who are the Jews? What do Jewish writers have in common with each other? What, strictly speaking, is a "Jewish" writer . . . and, for that matter, what is meant by "strictly speaking"?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 21, 2006

Waving goodbye to the city

The sound of waves lapping on the shore. The cool sea breeze. Beautiful people wearing very few clothes. Overdressed cocktails. What better way could there be to while away a hot summer's day than a beach-bar crawl along Shonan Bay?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 13, 2006

'Individualist' achievements

When Joe Price visited New York at the age of 24 with renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright -- his father's friend and the designer of the famous Price Tower in Bartlesville, Okla. -- it had never crossed his mind to join the art world. But there in an antique shop, captivated by deft brushwork on an...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2006

Firm pioneers dealing with belongings of departed

With more than 4 million people over 65 living alone and many dying a solitary death, a niche business has emerged in dealing with the belongings of those who pass away.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 9, 2006

Oh's illness the latest challenge for Softbank to overcome

The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks have had to scratch and claw this season to compete in the tight Pacific League pennant race.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jul 7, 2006

Reach for the sky

Sumida Ward spans an area that has endured ruinous fires, floods, plagues, and seismic as well as economic jostlings. Residents of this battered part of the city nonetheless have always kept their pride buoyant and their spirits aloft. Even when the chips are down, residents of Sumida Ward insist that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 6, 2006

An animist explores old themes

Over the last few years, the traditional art form of nihonga has emerged as a player on the Japanese contemporary art scene. I can only guess why this is -- something connected to nostalgia or nationalism perhaps? Or could it be that growing social and economic uncertainty has led Japanese to regard...
SUMO
Jul 5, 2006

The competition finally arrives

In 1958, then yokozuna Wakanohana, uncle of the Wakanohana and Takanohana brothers of the 90s won the first July tournament in the modern era with a 13-2 record.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 4, 2006

"The Possum Always Rings Twice: A Chet Gecko Mystery," "Strange Happiness"

"The Possum Always Rings Twice: A Chet Gecko Mystery," Bruce Hale, Harcourt; 2006; 112pp.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jun 30, 2006

Psychedelic radar 06.30

Solstice Music Festival 2006: July 15-17
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2006

Pension system bugbear only got band-aid fix

Five years was not enough time for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to overhaul the nation's ailing pension system.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 26, 2006

Hard to understand Eriksson's logic for not using Walcott

MUNICH -- To the surprise of no one except Sven-Goran Eriksson, England have a striker crisis (they also have a midfield crisis but more of that later).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 25, 2006

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki: new realities from screen fiction

SHADOWS ON THE SCREEN: Tanizaki Jun'ichiro on Cinema and "Oriental" Aesthetics, translated and edited by Thomas LaMarre. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2005. 410 pp., photos XIX, $25 (paper). The eminent novelist Jun'ichiro Tanizaki was celebrated for his ambivalence...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 24, 2006

Geta fliers and Bo(y) Derek on a jet ski

The Moooo! Bar season has started on Shiraishi Island and I have to admit that I am a little disappointed. Now into our third season, not one cow has come to the Moooo! Bar, even though I advertise that cows drink for free.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 2006

The garden of earthly delight

An air of seclusion still hangs over Shikoku. This is despite the building of Japan's greatest civil-engineering white elephants -- three grandiose and grandiosely debt-ridden bridge systems that span the Inland Sea and connect the island with Honshu.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 20, 2006

Ex-Japan coach Troussier dances around the issue of Zico's performance

Heck with soccer. Philippe Troussier should have been a dancer.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 18, 2006

Have you heard the one about . . ?

Maybe it's simply down to human nature, but stereotypes about foreigners seem to be joke-fodder the world over. In the corners of bars, in huddles at parties, in books and movies, countless laughs have been had, for example, at the expense of supposed American boastfulnes, "uptight" British, "humorless"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 16, 2006

Old tipple with new spirit

KAGOSHIMA -- Some Japanese traditions are best left alone. Those who would attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Kyoto's ancient temples by placing soft-drink machines and loudspeakers inside them deserve the severest form of punishment a society can devise, like being forced to watch a TV program...
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2006

Soccer, flags and nationalism

LONDON -- All over England, on houses, cars and vans, you will see the cross of St. George waving in the wind. Prime Minister Tony Blair has been persuaded that the English flag should be flown at his residence on days when the English team are playing in the World Cup.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 15, 2006

Fuji Rocking 10 years on

Fuji Rock Festival is the biggest event on the calendar for many Japanese and foreign residents alike. Sure, it costs a stack of cash to go, but the festival is not your typical commercial venture. Word on the street is that it has been anything but a money spinner for concert promoter Smash Japan. Instead,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 11, 2006

Nihon TV's "Antenna 22" digs in to Shibuya's Center-gai culture and more

For 20 years the crucible of teen girl fashion and attitude has been Shibuya's Center-gai street in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 9, 2006

Pet Shop Boys "Fundamental"

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so as England and New Labour hurtle into the void, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe retake the dance floor for all the not-so-young dudes who long for a more compassionate, morally relative world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 8, 2006

Child's play

The annual "No Border" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, received unprecedented media coverage this year. Titled "From Nihonga to Nihonga," it ran from January to March, and featured fast-rising stars, including Hisashi Tenmyouya, Fuyuko Matsui and Kumi Machida, all of whom were spuriously...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 4, 2006

How shall we dance?

This summer, the movie that shot Johnny Depp to Hollywood stardom, Tim Burton's 1990 fantasy "Edward Scissorhands," comes to Japan as a live dance stage created and directed by Matthew Bourne.
JAPAN
May 30, 2006

Obituary: Mari Yonehara

Writer Mari Yonehara, known for her witty essays based on her experiences as a Russian translator, died of ovarian cancer Thursday at her home in Kanagawa Prefecture, sources close to her said Monday. She was 56.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 28, 2006

William Blake, well traveled through the imagination of all

THE RECEPTION OF BLAKE IN THE ORIENT, edited by Steve Clark and Masashi Suzuki. London/New York: Continuum, 2006, 348 pp., with b/w illustrations, £45 (cloth). William Blake (1757-1827), poet and engraver, known for his mysticism, sentiment and the complex symbolism of his work, does not seem a likely...
CULTURE / Books
May 28, 2006

Japanese scholars contribute to MEGA

In 1998, Izumi Omura, professor of economics at Tohoku University's graduate school in Sendai, and seven other scholars started a rather unusual job -- deciphering voluminous, almost illegible, 19th-century German handwritten manuscripts. The following year, Rolf Hecker from Germany joined the team,...

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.