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Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
May 4, 2002

Shibuya museum links tobacco, salt past and present in curious harmony

To the uninitiated, the combination of tobacco and salt in a museum is a curious one.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 1, 2002

Haiku seascapes make an impression

In an art world increasingly turning to digital media, traditional techniques nonetheless retain a small and dedicated following. Printmaker Peter Miller, who in 1991 founded the Kamakura Print Collection workshop, is one such traditionalist. "Ink on paper has a certain take on the world," he explains....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 1, 2002

Young artists are making a splash

The third installment in an almost-annual series (they skipped it last year), "New Media New Face 02" is now showing at the NTT InterCommunication Center, in Shinjuku. The work here, from four Japanese artists, falls into the vague but trendy, technology-based genre known as "media art."
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2002

Rough going awaits postal reforms

The Diet is set to debate legislation that incorporates Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cherished plans to privatize the postal services (mail, savings and life insurance). At stake is a set of four reform bills. Two were introduced by the government last week. One will create an umbrella postal corporation;...
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2002

Ex-LTCB exec must pay RCC 100 million yen

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered a former vice president of the failed Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan to pay 100 million yen in compensation to the Resolution and Collection Corp. for approving irrecoverable loans to a resort developer in 1992.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Apr 19, 2002

Perfect parenting . . . it's all in the labeling

Here's what mid-April in Japan means to me: The cherry blossoms have come and gone, the kids are back in school and mothers all over the country are suffering writer's cramp from labeling school gear.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 18, 2002

Back when the Badlands were lush

Drive west from Calgary and rolling foothills dotted with aspen and white spruce rise steadily toward the mighty ridgeback of the Rockies, which dominate the view in this part of Canada's Alberta Province.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 17, 2002

Gary Burton and Makoto Ozone: 'Virtuosi'

Jazz and classical have long had an antagonistic relationship. Despite the two genres' overlapping affinities, jazz players often see classical as too stiff and intellectual, while classical musicians look down on the casual folksiness of jazz.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 14, 2002

Heading in her own direction

In the fashion world, it's not what's in your head, but what's on your head that counts. A baseball cap? A beret? Or something a little more provincial, like a wool cap? Milliners spend a lifetime mulling such matters and creating new styles of headwear.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 14, 2002

New twists on a venerable tradition

EINSTEIN'S CENTURY: Akito Arima's Haiku, translated by Emiko Miyashita & Lee Gurga. Brooks Books, 2001, 128 pp., $16/2,000 yen (paper) GENDAI HAIKU 2001/JAPANESE HAIKU 2001, edited by Modern Haiku Association. YOU-Shorin Press, 2000, 297 pp., 3 yen,000/$30 (paper) A FUTURE WATERFALL, by Ban'ya Natsuishi,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Apr 11, 2002

Trip through time at Tokyo's verdant royal hub

The Imperial Palace grounds are, without doubt, Tokyo's green heart. Located inside a 6.4-km ring of walls and moats that were once the inner defensive perimeter of Edo Castle, this verdant oasis now covers 115 hectares in all, with evergreen woodlands overlooking the moats and creating a very special...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2002

World Cup travel fares discounted for foreigners

The transport ministry on Tuesday unveiled special transportation discounts for overseas tourists during the World Cup soccer championships, which start May 31.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2002

Isahaya gates to open for research

The farm ministry intends to open the gates in the dike at Isahaya Bay for about two months to study the cause of poor seaweed harvests in the area, according to the ministry's top bureaucrat.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 7, 2002

Images that shocked a nation

VIETNAM INC., by Philip Jones Griffiths. London: Phaidon, 2001. 223 pp. $28 (cloth) This is a superb collection of photos that depicts the ironies and inanities that resonated throughout the United States' misguided war in Vietnam. Here are haunting images of casual and mindless brutality, thought-provoking...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2002

Waseda community makes recycling pay

"Super Oyaji," also known as grocer Junichiro Yasui, has been gaining attention for his green streak -- and it has nothing to do with his produce section.
LIFE / Digital
Apr 4, 2002

Self-absorbed little Dreadly better love his Moop

Taking your children to see movies would not be bad if all cartoons were the quality of "Totoro" and "Princess Mononoke."
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Apr 4, 2002

Better to skip this 'adventure' and just go to Osaka

You've probably already been inundated with news that Universal Studios opened a theme park last year in Osaka. If you have any interest in seeing that park, do not try to preview it with "Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure" (UA), a relatively new game for the Nintendo GameCube published by a company...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 2, 2002

Jubilo dominates Purple Sanga, remains perfect

Jubilo Iwata maintained their perfect record at the top of the J-League after a 3-1 home victory over Kyoto Purple Sanga on Sunday, opening a one-point gap on newly promoted Vegalta Sendai.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2002

Mizuho Holdings sees new dawn

Mizuho Holdings Inc., the world's largest banking group by assets, made a fresh start Monday as its three core banks merged into two -- Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Corporate Bank.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2002

Beijing's WTO entry seen as start of Asia 'axis of virtue'

SINGAPORE -- China's entrance into the World Trade Organization does not represent a threat to the economic well-being of either Japan or the ASEAN countries. Rather, it marks the beginning of an axis of virtue in East and Southeast Asia and trade and investment opportunities for all.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 31, 2002

These are a few of our favorite things

THINGS JAPANESE, by Nicholas Bornoff, with photos by Michael Freeman. Hong Kong: Periplus Editions, Ltd. 2002. 144 pp., profusely illustrated with full-color plates, $24.95 (paper) In 1890, Tokyo University professor Basil Hall Chamberlain codified an entire generation's view of Japan in his "Things...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 29, 2002

Where sea meets sky

Although Brittany is part of France, it was, for many centuries, a wild and windswept country of Celts, where people preserved their own language, customs and faith.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 27, 2002

Pet Shop Boys: 'Release'

More than 16 years ago, Neil Tennant emerged as the Noel Coward of dance pop when he and fellow Pet Shop Boy Chris Lowe exhorted all the young dudes to "make lots of money." Like the playwright, Tennant sauntered on to the scene fully jaded, his wit already acerbic, his ironies prickly with cynicism....
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 25, 2002

Lighthearted songs for the heaviest of times

NEW YORK -- My colleague Jeff passed on to me a writer's query posted on the Internet. As it happened, the inquiring writer was a novelist of whom I am a fan, and the subject on which he sought help was intriguing. He wanted to know about Japanese popular songs -- especially popular military songs --...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2002

Talk of a turnaround remains premature

ISLAMABAD -- If President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, felt he was winning over world opinion following his recent kudos-winning trips to Japan and the United States, he couldn't have chosen a worse moment.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Mar 24, 2002

Music, an improvised definition

Improvised music poses a considerable critical challenge. It now takes in such a wide variety of styles -- from jazz to minimalist electronica, from contemporary classical music to rock -- there is no one absolute set of criteria by which to judge it.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 21, 2002

Blooms tell curious tale of two cities

Ninet years ago, on March 27, 1912, passersby on the northern bank of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. may have been surprised to see two elegant ladies digging holes. They may have been even more surprised had they known that the women were Helen Taft, wife of U.S. President William Howard Taft,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 17, 2002

The Imperial family: celebrities or deities?

At a press conference to mark his 68th birthday last December, Emperor Akihito surprised reporters by saying that he felt a strong "kinship" with Korea.

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