Search - travel

 
 
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Dec 19, 2013

Where would Santa find Finnish flavors in Japan?

Dear readers, I have made a wonderful discovery: Finnish cinnamon rolls, korvapuusti, are not just cinnamon rolls. They are cinnamon and cardamom rolls and they are delicious. Also, korvapuusti translates to "slapped ear" — perhaps because the dough is rolled rather than coiled — which is adorable....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 18, 2013

Miura's sex 'Whirlpool' wows a bashful Paris

Looking around before "Ai no Uzu" began, there was an almost palpable anticipation ahead of our plunge into the realm of young Japanese people's sex lives. What to talk about while waiting for the orgy to begin?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2013

Media get first tour of fish radiation check process

With the continued flow of radioactive water into the sea from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant, consumers at home and abroad are concerned about the safety of seafood around Japan.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Dec 15, 2013

Ja, haite-mimasu

X (= verb in te-form) + u307fu308b is usually used in various patterns, such as in X (= verb in te-form) + u307fu3066(u304fu3060u3055u3044) (please do X and see how it is); X (= verb in te-form) +u307fu305fu3044uff08I want to do X and see how it is); X (= verb in te-form) + u307fu3066u3082u3044u3044u3067u3059u304b (may I do X and see how it is?); X (= verb in te-form) + u307fu305fu307bu3046u304cu3044u3044 (it will be better for you to do X to see how it is); and X (= verb in te-form) +u307fu3088u3046 (let's do X and see how it is). Example: u958buff08u3042uff09u3044u3066u3044u308bu304bu3069u3046u304bu3001u5e97uff08u307fu305buff09u306bu96fbu8a71uff08u3067u3093u308fuff09u3057u3066u307fu3088u3046 (let's call the restaurant and see if it's open). X (= verb in te-form) +u307fu305fu3044 or X (= verb in te-form) + u307fu3066uff08u304fu3060u3055u3044uff09 shows the speaker's reserved feeling more than X (= verb in pre-masu-form) + u305fu3044 and X (= verb in te-form) + u304fu3060u3055u3044 (please) respectively.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 14, 2013

Tsunami debris scuppers expert ecology opinion

The dock arrived almost like a gift, not quite on the doorstep of Dr. John Chapman, but on a beach 8 km from his office at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center, on the western coast of the United States.
BASKETBALL
Dec 14, 2013

Ryukyu triumphs over Osaka in overtime

The shots weren't falling and their overall game was not a thing of beauty, not a well-choreographed artistic production.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 14, 2013

NSA can crack cellphone security, decode private conversations

The cellphone encryption technology that is used most widely across the world can be easily defeated by the National Security Agency, an internal document shows, giving the agency the means to decode most of the billions of calls and texts that travel over public airwaves every day.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2013

Cameron eats humble pie in China

British Prime Minister David Cameron was feted by China's leaders during his recent three-day trip to the country, but much of his diet consisted of humble pie.
WORLD
Dec 13, 2013

China pilots to learn smog landings

Chinese aviation authorities will soon require captains of domestic flights into Beijing to master low-visibility landings to combat chronic flight delays that have been worsened by heavy smog.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 13, 2013

Arsenal-Manchester City match should be a belter

Tiredness?
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 13, 2013

Ex-FBI agent who disappeared in Iran was on rogue mission for CIA

An American man who disappeared in Iran more than six years ago had been working for the CIA in what U.S. intelligence officials describe as a rogue operation that led to a major shake-up in the spy agency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 12, 2013

Higher-education stimulus would be sure bet for Japan

Making Japanese universities global as well as world class requires generous support not only for hiring foreigners but also — and far more importantly — for improving conditions for all faculty.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
Dec 9, 2013

Ultracompacts zip into the future

In the near future, the nation's traffic scene may be characterized by the widespread use of ultracompact cars.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Dec 6, 2013

Writer inducted into intricacies of country life shares her story

Home for Rebecca Otowa is a 350-year-old farmhouse nestled on the edge of a tiny village in Shiga Prefecture, where generations of her husband's family have lived. It is a lifestyle she has grown to cherish since arriving in rural Kansai as a bride more than 30 years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2013

Bunraku storyteller speaks out

During the early part of the Edo Period, when Japan was ruled by Tokugawa shoguns from 1603-1867, Osaka — the main city in the Kansai region of western Honshu — thrived as the country's cultural and economic center. It was during those heady days around 400 years ago that a kind of puppetry called...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 3, 2013

Alive wants to give music fans a say in who comes to Japan

You watched the video for their comeback single on YouTube, devoured the reviews and retweeted the hype. When the album came out, you bought it immediately and had it on repeat for weeks afterwards. And then you waited, waited ... but they never came.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 3, 2013

Well, she was just 17: How one girl got her dream job with The Beatles

Few people can claim to have spent the whole of their youth with The Beatles, and fewer still would have come out of the experience unscathed. Freda Kelly — who was 17 when she first laid eyes on the Fab Four at the now-legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool, is one of those people, perhaps the only one....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 2, 2013

Between dreams and discrimination, Japanese build new lives in the City by the Bay

How are modern-day Japanese immigrants experiencing life in America — and in particular, San Francisco? What are their dreams, their struggles and rewards? And how do they handle the need to belong, the ceaseless negotiation between assimilation and roots?
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2013

Airlines urged to defy China's ADIZ

The government repeated Monday that it will continue to urge the nation's airlines not to comply with the rules laid down in China's recently, unilaterally declared air defense identification zone over the East China Sea that includes the disputed, Japan-held Senkaku islets.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AT A GLANCE
Dec 1, 2013

In touristy Tokyo, Harajuku still stands out from the crowd

Harajuku, one of the most popular tourist spots for foreign visitors to Tokyo, is best known for Takeshita-dori, the narrow lane crammed with shops that runs for about 350 meters from JR Harajuku Station toward Meiji-dori.
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 30, 2013

Marinos miss chance to clinch

Yokohama F. Marinos blew their chance to clinch the J. League title a week early after a 2-0 defeat to Albirex Niigata on Saturday, letting Sanfrecce Hiroshima back into contention heading into the final day of the season.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2013

Flip-flop: LDP Okinawa branch backs Nago base

Reversing a campaign pledge, the Okinawa chapter of the Liberal Democratic Party now supports replacing the Futenma base in Ginowan with a new airstrip in Nago, bowing to intensifying pressure from Tokyo, Okinawa-based LDP members and local businesses seeking to profit from constructing the new base....
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 28, 2013

Pilgrims, Indians probably related

There were no Americans at the first Thanksgiving. The newer set of immigrants, recently arrived from England, considered themselves thoroughly English.
BASEBALL
Nov 26, 2013

Kawakami was Japanese baseball's first Zen master

Most foreign fans of baseball in Japan may not know the name Tetsuharu Kawakami, who passed away recently at the age of 93, but perhaps it's time they did.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 25, 2013

The Emperor's new goal

The Imperial couple's weeklong visit is likely to mark a defining moment in Indo-Japanese relations, fostering closer economic and security ties between Asia's two leading democracies as they seek a pluralistic, stable Asian order.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2013

Space industry faces choice for next direction

The air is so clear the mountains in the distance look almost fake, as if added digitally. The desert floor is runway-flat, with a few Joshua trees popping up randomly, like lost cowboys. The dominant feature is the sky, preposterously vast, beckoning test pilots, rocketeers and would-be space travelers....
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2013

Afghan president holds firm on delaying security deal with U.S.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will continue to defy U.S. threats to walk away from a security agreement between the two countries and plans to reiterate in a speech to a grand council later Sunday that he will not sign it before spring, his spokesman said.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 23, 2013

Sendai Charter to aid conservation across Asia

Sendai is lovely at this time of year, its tree-lined streets alight with autumn colors.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan