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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 21, 2002

The men of the house

The TV show that has most successfully exploited the current housing "reform" boom is Asahi's "Daikozo! Gekiteki Before/After (Big Construction! Dramatic Before and After)" (Sundays, 7:56 p.m.), which was the only program during the recent World Cup that managed to pull in double-digit ratings opposite...
Japan Times
JAPAN / HONING ENGLISH
Jul 19, 2002

English education at early age gains momentum

Don't worry about grammar; listen more and enjoy speaking.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 19, 2002

Backswimmer

* Japanese name: Matsumomushi * Scientific name: Notonecta triguttata * Description:Backswimmers are aquatic insects, true bugs, with piercing mouthparts. They live underwater and are shaped like small boats, with a keel and a pair of oars -- long, powerful hind legs fringed with hairs -- that propel...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 17, 2002

Really looking forward to old age

Rock stars can do things us regular folks can't. They can get good tables at crowded restaurants without a reservation. They can have promiscuous sex and take all sorts of exotic drugs and then be knighted by the Queen. And if they're Eikichi Yazawa, they can travel forward in time to visit their future...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 14, 2002

Olu Dara's bringing it all back home

Olu Dara has just finished his sound check at Club Quattro when he breaks into a grin and waves enthusiastically from behind his mike. An instant later, he's hopped off the stage, bounded across the floor and is proffering his hand, as eager for the interview as a school kid for recess.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Jul 13, 2002

19th century face of Edo resurrected in Koto Ward commoners' ghetto

Devastated by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and then flattened again by U.S. air raids during the war, little of the old face of Tokyo remains.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 12, 2002

Giant centipede

* Japanese name: Oogeji * Scientific name: Thereuopoda clunifera * Description: Someone went a bit leg-crazy when naming these animals. Although they are called centipedes (the name means "100 legs"), oogeji have only 15 pairs of legs. They are not insects (all of which have just three pairs of legs)...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Jul 11, 2002

Osaka's peaceful heart

In 1972, two years after the Japan International Exposition in Osaka, redevelopment work began on the site. The result, eight years later, was the 260-hectare Expolands Green Oasis, which has now matured into a wonderful parkland with a wide range of attractions and facilities.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2002

You don't know us, but . . .

The new live album from psychedelic folk duo Damon and Naomi recalls a bygone era. One can almost imagine them sharing a double bill with the Baez sisters in a smoky Greenwich Village coffee house: he hunched over his guitar, she dwarfed by her bass, her dark hair and white complexion looking naturally...
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2002

Government to rate nuclear plants on safety levels

Plans are being drawn up to rate Japan's nuclear power plants for safety to better monitor risk-prone plants and reduce inspection costs.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Jul 6, 2002

Everyone's a winner at Tokyo sports gallery

One of most heart-warming memories of the soccer World Cup will be the rival players exchanging their shirts after each game.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 5, 2002

Swallowtail

* Japanese name: Kiageha * Scientific name: Papilio machaon * Description: There are several species of swallowtail butterflies in Japan, all of them easily recognizable by their swallowtails -- the tail-like appendages on the edge of the hind wings. Body length is 36-70 mm. Swallowtails have fully...
LIFE / Digital
Jul 4, 2002

The Simpsons on DVD -- hi-fi Americana

Fox Home Video has just released "The Simpsons Season Two DVD Collection." If you have not heard of the Simpsons, you have a little catching up to do.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2002

Exchange program extends to Korea

A government-sponsored summer program promoting exchanges between Japanese and Japanese-speaking foreign guests will for the first time expand its activities to South Korea, according to an official of the Japan Return Program.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2002

Thirsty yet? Head this way

Where to drink it Belgo, Shibuya, (03) 3409-4442
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 30, 2002

Back to lounge life as usual

"Live the life" is a motto that has worked for Mi-chan. Having begun her days as an assistant photographer, she soon discovered that she much preferred socializing. So when two of her favorite hangouts closed (Jirocho in Ebisu, and MC1000 in Shinjuku), she and party cohort Gera decided to open their...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2002

Ramen reborn as noodles nouveaux

Could ramen, Japan's answer to the greasy spoon, go gourmet? It started out simple -- this dish of Chinese-style noodles in soup was conjured up by cooks in Yokohama's Chinatown in the 1920s. Its present association with drab 24-hour diners and poor nutrition gives it a low rank in the food hierarchy:...
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2002

Elderly, disabled encouraged to get their motors running

The elderly and the physically and mentally impaired across Japan are being encouraged to get out of their homes and take to the streets on motorized carts.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 25, 2002

The monks and the markets of Mandalay

The Ayeryarwady flows smooth as oil, dark as coffee, wide but shallow, with occasional ripples and tucks where the sandbars nudge the surface. There is none of the hectic frenzy of river traffic that smothers many of Asia's great waterways in fumes and oil slicks -- Myanmar moves to a different rhythm,...
COMMENTARY
Jun 23, 2002

Pakistan's nuclear safety faces scrutiny

ISLAMABAD -- The arrest of the alleged "dirty bomber" in the United States last month once again is a reminder of the dangers posed by unchecked dissemination of nuclear knowledge, especially when it is dropped into the hands of militant individuals. That Jose Padilla, alias Abdullah al-Muhajir, would...
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Jun 23, 2002

Scale model maker strives to keep high-tech rivals at bay

SHIZUOKA — Shunsaku Tamiya's great passion is trying to coax today's high-tech savvy kids into embracing the low-tech world of scale models.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Brazilian win provides diversion from hard knocks

OIZUMI, Gunma Pref. — Cheers and car horns echoed through this rural industrial town, home to thousands of Japanese-Brazilian and Latin-American residents, heralding Brazil's 2-1 victory over England on Friday in a World Cup quarterfinal match.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Council finalizes basic reform policy

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Friday finalized a basic economic reform policy that features such revitalization and tax reform measures as corporate tax cuts and consolidation of government expenditures in the fiscal 2003 budget.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 21, 2002

Mayfly

* Japanese name: Monkagero * Scientific name: Ephemera strigata * Description: Mayflies are common, soft-bodied insects with short antennae and mouthparts that are vestigial (not used). They have two long cerci, tail-like structures growing from the end of the abdomen. They are easily recognizable...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 19, 2002

Like grandfather, like grandson

The Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo has been presenting special programs through May and June to celebrate the shumei (succession) of Onoe Tatsunosuke (real name Arashi Fujima), 27, to the stage name of Onoe Shoroku IV. He has inherited the name from his eminent grandfather, Onoe Shoroku II, who died in 1989...
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 18, 2002

Troussier ready to take on Turkey

RIFU, Miyagi Pref. -- Japan coach Philippe Troussier warned his players on Monday not to get cocky ahead of their Round of 16 game against Turkey.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 16, 2002

Life's a bitch and then some

This week, Fuji TV will begin airing the entries in its Eleventh Annual FNS Documentary Grand Prix, a contest that honors video documentaries submitted by Fuji network affiliates. The winners are eventually selected by a panel of media experts.
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2002

Building for a rainy day

The most welcome visitor to the Suzuki house is, quite possibly . . . rain. The three-story building on a hillside in Asaka, southern Saitama Prefecture, is like a theater designed for the enjoyment of performances by that most versatile player from the sky, as it dances and sings and soothes on its...

Longform

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