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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 20, 2002

When romancing medieval Japan, why stop at one?

ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR: Tales of the Otori (Book One), by Lian Hearn. Riverhead Books, 2002, 304 pp., $24.95 (cloth) For over a century, Asia has been a rich and enduring source of inspiration for fantasy and science fiction writers. Since James Hilton created the fantastic Himalayan utopia of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2002

A city with the world on its plates

It is highly unlikely that Commodore Perry or any other of his crew had epicurean tastes, but the arrival of the Black Ships in 1853 signaled the start of an influx to Japan of foreign -- specifically Western -- food. With the subsequent opening of treaty ports and the Meiji Era's heady days of "bunmei...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 20, 2002

Liberated from language

IDEOGRAMS IN CHINA, by Henri Michaux. Translated by Gustaf Sobin, with an afterword by Richard Sieburth. New York: New Directions, 2002, 58 pp. with selected ideograms, $9.95 (paper) Poet Ezra Pound, following the lead of scholar Ernest Fenollosa, once said that Chinese was the ideal medium for poetry,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Oct 20, 2002

Leeuwin Estate delivers a perfect hat trick

Wine lovers in Japan may have noticed the recent appearance of several new labels from Australia's Leeuwin Estate. Collectors have long coveted Leeuwin's Art Series wines. But these collectible, top-tier Leeuwin wines require cellar-aging to realize their potential and they bear a stiff cost commensurate...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 19, 2002

Kenka Matsuri: death and hairy butts

Butts! Hairy butts! That's all I could think of among the chaos of men in loincloths rushing around Shirahama in Himeji last weekend. I was there for the Kenka Matsuri, or Fighting Festival, at Matsubara Hachiman Shrine. The official name is the Nada Fighting Festival, perhaps because that is what the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2002

Soap maker gets healthy dose of mayo market

Some consumers unwittingly used mayonnaise to style their hair when, in the 1920s, this exotic condiment was first introduced in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2002

Most crucial lesson from Bali

The Indonesian island of Bali, known as the Island of the Gods, has long projected a peaceful image as an idyllic resort for international tourists. That image was shattered by Saturday's bomb explosion that devastated a popular nightclub frequented by Westerners, killing at least 180 people and wounding...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Oct 17, 2002

A proud town founded on ferries

The Ara River rises in the Chichibu Mountains of Saitama Prefecture, from where it flows southeast for some 140 km to reach the capital and discharge itself into Tokyo Bay. As its name (which means "rough") implies, it used to be a violent river, swelling after heavy rains and raging across the wide...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Oct 17, 2002

Honor (and fun) among thieves

American-made adventure games do not typically hit the Famitsu top 10 rankings that determine what's hot in gaming in Japan. "Donkey Kong Country," a British-made Super Famicom game, was Japan's all-time best-selling foreign-made adventure game.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Oct 13, 2002

Putin: More than a crocodile

MOSCOW -- What could be worse on one's 50th birthday than to spend it in a gloomy fortress, sitting in the center of a heavily polluted city as president of a problem-ridden country struggling for survival? Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin looked perfectly happy on the day of his anniversary, and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 13, 2002

School festivals of fun in the name of sport

Autumn in Japan means much more than cooler temperatures and colorful leaves. It means . . . sports!
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2002

Cost cuts could compromise health care

WASHINGTON -- Public-spirited rhetoric usually masks intense interest-group combat in Washington, D.C., like that over pharmaceutical patents. Health insurers, which barely survived the Clinton administration's assault, are targeting drug-research firms.
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2002

In pursuit of terrorists and oil

NEW DELHI -- U.S. President George W. Bush is taking a big gamble with his single-minded mission to get rid of a toothless but unsavory dictator, who, far from being a menace to U.S. security, is not a threat even to his neighbors. Bush, who accuses Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein of being "a homicidal...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 11, 2002

Irish media not too Keane on McCarthy

LONDON -- It is difficult to imagine a coach can be under pressure after his team made a positive impression at the World Cup finals, has lost only three of its last 27 games and just seven of 41 competitive matches during his 6 1/2 years in charge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Oct 9, 2002

The Captains chart retro course

Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. In the wrong hands, it can be an outlet for excessive sentimentality and out-and-out kitsch.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2002

U.N. aims higher with sweeping reforms

Shakespeare's aphorism is as applicable to organizations as to individuals: "the evil they do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones." Let it not be so with the United Nations. Rather, let us recall with pride the process of reform in the organization. Much, in fact, has already...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2002

EU needs a common purpose

LONDON -- Since the original European Common Market was founded in the mid-1950s, the Continent sought a common economic role, to be followed by growing political integration. Now, there is general agreement on the first count that a new institutional framework is needed to give the community more political...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 7, 2002

Brainstorming to bring positive change

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In an article on the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington last month entitled "A Washington gathering of incompetents," Gerald Baker, while lambasting policyma- kers in the United States and the European Union, handed the first prize for incompetence to Japan. "Every time it...
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2002

Political reform the only option for China

HONG KONG -- China's late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping deserves much credit for trying to modernize the country and remove it from its Maoist ideological straitjacket. He emphasized pragmatism, not ideology. He put China on the path to a market economy. And, perhaps most important, he tried to lift...
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2002

Hussein finds 'useful idiots' in Washington

WASHINGTON -- Hitler found "Lord Haw Haw" -- William Joyce, who broadcast German propaganda to Britain during World War II -- in the dregs of British extremism. But Iraqi President Saddam Hussein finds American collaborators among senior congressional Democrats.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 6, 2002

When every channel is the same channel

Ever since the advent of that popular programming idea known as the "wide show" in the mid-1980s, so-called hard news and tabloid news have slowly merged into an alloy of informational reporting that defies easy categorization.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Oct 6, 2002

Take time for a journey of the senses

Imagine a break in the day where the hustle and bustle of life is put aside, and your total attention is given over to the senses and the discovery of new wines and unexpected, heartening bargains. Tasting and evaluating wine is a challenge, one that requires endurance, focus and discipline, but it can...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 6, 2002

Asagiri Jam keeps it real

"Are we all going to wake up dead tomorrow?" asks my pal Dave as our taxi crawls up a steep, winding road on a fog-drenched mountain.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 6, 2002

Iseya: Tempura with a tale to tell

Iseya is a diamond in the rough-and-ready neighborhood that lies to the north of Asakusa. Set between the sleazy, winking red lights of the Senzoku soaplands and the grim and grimy flophouses of San'ya, this is far from tourist territory. And Iseya is no tourist restaurant. But without doubt it's a shitamachi...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / THE PARENT TRIP
Oct 4, 2002

More than just child's play

Until I became a mother, I had never heard of a playgroup. Three babies later, I can say that establishing a thriving playgroup has been one of my greatest achievements in recent years.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Oct 4, 2002

Finding inner silence in the shamisen

When Catriona Sturton first arrived in Japan in August 2000, she knew very little about Japan or its culture. Little did the 24-year-old assistant language teacher know that she would become a skilled shamisen player. But that is exactly what happened -- her musical performances were recently broadcast...
COMMUNITY / NOTES FROM THE SMOKE
Oct 4, 2002

A chance to see the best of Michaelangelo and Michael Owen

Major Sports Bar #23 in Takadanobaba is a real sports fan's sports bar.
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 3, 2002

A tale worth telling of (our) nature in the raw

I've been away in sunny climes for a while, and now I'm back at my desk in Kurohime. Actually, it is sunny and fine here as I write this, too, but there is a chill in the air, and flocks of small birds are twittering through the trees, migrants, coming down from higher up the mountain. Looking over my...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2002

Tibet: a bridge between India and China

MADRAS, India -- The issue of Tibet has plagued relations between India and China for well over four decades. When China annexed the small Himalayan nation in the 1950s, New Delhi found itself in a difficult position, given its special ties with the Tibetan people: India had an open border with Tibet,...

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