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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 31, 2004

Some don't like it hot

My idea of hell is to be trapped for eternity in a tiny room with two women with one-track minds. All they want to do is talk, and their sole topic is this:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 27, 2004

Know the law

You might have noticed the dragnet in Japan these days.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 29, 2004

Visa villains

With U.N. studies advising more immigration, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's worldwide campaign for more foreign visitors, Japan is not doing itself any favors with its new legislation on visa overstays.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 25, 2004

Putting a bit of Color into the Meguro scene

Like Nakameguro 10 years ago, Meguro proper is one of those areas that has been quietly amassing bars and nightlife options over the last few years. When I first heard that Color, a multilevel restaurant and bar complex, had opened just down the hill from Meguro Station, I wasn't surprised. I was, however,...
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2004

Personality could crown Gordon Brown

LONDON -- Britain is governed by an unhappy couple -- a pair of men whose relationship excites more attention than any other aspect of British politics.
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 2004

New jailers, same prison?

The stage-managed toppling of ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's statue will not, after all, be the image defining the Iraq war. Like the famous photo of the young girl on fire running naked to escape the horror of napalm in the Vietnam War, the photographs emerging from Abu Ghraib prison will be the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 16, 2004

'Never say kekko...'

Tired of the daily routine of slogging to a gray building full of even grayer coworkers?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 16, 2004

The great outdoors -- on a plate

All it takes is the first hint of warm spring weather and we start thinking of the great outdoors. By that, we do not mean sea kayaking, a vigorous hike in the hills or a jaunt to some provincial onsen. For us, it is quite sufficient to salute the first blossoms and leaves from the vantage point of a...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 2, 2004

Higashi-yama: 'Designer washoku' for all seasons

Cometh the season, as the saying almost goes, cometh the man. And every year when the hanami season rolls around, you are likely to find us strolling down by the Meguro River in Naka-Meguro. It's a favorite spot for us, not just for the superb cherry blossom that lines both banks, but also because there...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Mar 5, 2004

Doing the business in old Edo style

The 1830s woodblock print by Hasegawa Settan shown here depicts Surugacho, now in the neighborhood of the Mitsukoshi department store one block north of Nihonbashi Bridge in the center of Tokyo. Rendered with excellent visual accuracy, it seems to be humming in praise of the wealth and prosperity of...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 13, 2004

Prize trouble, study in Oz, and a recap

Student rants Let us begin on a note of tolerance and goodwill, with two similar reactions to the letter from student J. in southern Japan with fellow student troubles (Lifelines; Nov. 25, 2003).
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 20, 2003

The early bird gets the proverb

A good beginning makes a good ending; that's my philosophy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2003

Is it a film? Is it a play? No, it's cinetheatre

Ever had a dream that was so real it made you lose your grip on reality? One that turned into hallucinations the following day? One that drove you close to madness?
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 12, 2003

Gift-giving season came early for the Hawks and Giants

"Kokubo dealt to Giants" read our headline above the story reporting the transfer of infielder Hiroki Kokubo from the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks to the Yomiuri Giants on Nov. 4. But how would this appear in the sports transactions columns listed in many newspapers in North America and around the world?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 19, 2003

Secret treasures of southern Sonoma

The sensual impact of a vacation in the wine country is hard to beat. Hot days, cold nights, good food and meandering drives under blue skies between vineyards and wineries that range from the manicured to the seemingly long-ago abandoned.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 20, 2003

Hawks looking good for one last pennant under Daiei banner

Hanshin. Hanshin. Hanshin. That's all we've been hearing during most of the 2003 Japan pro baseball season.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2003

Questions raised as Japan steams ahead on China bullet train

The race to win the contract for the high-speed rail link between the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai has entered the home stretch, with Japan ready to pull out all the stops to beat its German and French rivals.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jun 26, 2003

"Follow Me Down," "Frank and the Chamber of Fear"

"Follow Me Down," Julie Hearn, Oxford University Publishing; July 2003; 224 pp. Strange things are happening in the basement of an old house in East London -- and not for the first time. The floor has parted, forming a kind of channel, and faces from the past are floating in it in an endless stream....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 15, 2003

Home of conspicuous construction

It is hardly news that Prada spent a lot of money on their new flagship store in Tokyo's swish Aoyama district. The real surprise is what they got for it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
May 25, 2003

Take the first step toward heaven

NAGANO -- Here's one way to assure yourself a place in heaven. Get to Nagano City's noted Zenko-ji Temple by June 1 and catch a glimpse of its most sacred icon -- the Maedachi Honzon. According to tradition, making the arduous pilgrimage to this temple to pray to Amida Nyorai, the Buddha of Gokuraku...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 1, 2003

Feathered friends of the forest

In a passive way, plants have got birds sussed. They use them, abuse them (ever seen a thrush drunk on fermenting apples?) and mess with their digestive systems. Birds are willing pawns, though; brightly colored flowers and gaudy berries send a simple signal to the bird brain that shouts -- energy! ...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 23, 2003

A builder of dreams

Chuta Ito was born in 1867, the same year as the great novelist Soseki Natsume -- whom he outlived by four decades. Like Natsume, too, Ito -- who pioneered the historical and theoretical study of architecture in Japan -- had a wry sense of humor, and from 1914 until his death in 1954 he produced no fewer...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2003

EU troubles will also expand

LONDON -- The symbolism could hardly have been better. Against a background of the columns of ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy, 25 government leaders signed documents that will bring into the European Union countries that spent much of their postwar existence under communist dictatorship....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Apr 13, 2003

Extracurricular cool at Hitorizawa

Hitorizawa High School in Kanagawa appears to be a normal Japanese high school. Plentiful shoe-boxes jam the entryway, a sign-in sheet for visitors dangles alongside the nub of an old pencil and lists of rules hang accusingly in the wide and somewhat dusty halls. After classes, administrative staff work...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

School texts cite 9/11, toe line on SDF

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States and subsequent war in Afghanistan are included in most high school textbooks that survived the latest round of screening by the education ministry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 16, 2003

A struggle against tyranny

Composed more than 2,000 years ago and first devised for performance in religious festivals, the dramas of Ancient Greece have never lost their powerful relevance. When, for example, a pair of New York-based actresses hit on the idea of a global theatrical protest against war with Iraq, they devised...
COMMENTARY
Mar 1, 2003

Chirac remains on the attack

PARIS -- French Finance Minister Francis Mer has at last acknowledged that there is no chance the government will achieve its target of 2.5 percent growth in GDP this year. A steady increase in unemployment, a massive fall in stocks and plummeting car sales all indicate that France has not escaped the...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 19, 2003

New sports newspaper to start

is going to launch a weekly bilingual sports paper this summer, the sports media company has announced. The newspaper will put more weight on the coverage of international sports, primarily north American sports, than domestic sports news.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go