Search - info

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Apr 2, 2010

Crowd-sourcing sakura viewers

For decades it was the Japan Meteorological Agency's duty to keep on eye on the nation's pink sakura front. Now it's up to everyone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Apr 2, 2010

Tools you can trust for the perfect hanami

Cherry-blossom viewing parties don't always go as planned but new mobile apps reduce the risk of a hanami fail.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 30, 2010

Quick questions, answers

Some quickies:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 20, 2010

Here comes the never-ending season

The season is here . . . again. As if it ever ended.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2010

Toyota secretive on 'black box' data

SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Toyota has for years blocked access to data stored in devices similar to airliner black boxes that could explain crashes blamed on sudden unintended acceleration, according to an Associated Press review of lawsuits nationwide and interviews with auto crash experts.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Feb 12, 2010

QR code breaking out of the box

Companies and municipalities are still finding new ways to unlock the potential of QR codes in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 24, 2010

Eschewing the cheerlessness of modern-market memoirs

Those who have read Donald Keene's 1996 memoir "On Familiar Terms" may wonder whether it was necessary for him to bring out another that covers much the same ground. One suspects that Keene published "Chronicles of My Life" simply because he had been asked to write a series of columns about his life...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jan 22, 2010

Royal Park stay with flavor of old Edo

The Royal Park Hotel in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, is offering a plan that combines a one-night stay in an executive floor room and dinner in one of the area's long-established Japanese restaurants, through March 31.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 15, 2010

'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'

A French critic in Cannes once remarked that European horror movies are different from Hollywood products in that "they are properly horrific." And that certainly fits the bill for Swedish movie "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (released in Japan as "Millennium") — a brave undertaking by director...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 16, 2009

Donaghy's claims don't stand up to scrutiny

NEW YORK — Originally, Tim Donaghy says he bet on 13 NBA games he refereed. Presently, the contention is 47, all but 10 resulting in wins by the point spread, or by picking the over-under.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 12, 2009

The most annoying Japanese word

Several weeks ago a poll from the Marist Institute of Public Opinion — one that was slingshot quickly across the Internet — listed "whatever" as the most annoying of all English words.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Dec 4, 2009

The Complaints Choir: Denounce to the Music

Mad as hell and not going to take it any more? Let a choir lift your complaint to the heavens.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 29, 2009

Kichijoji captivations

Kichijoji has shopping covered, literally and figuratively. The roofed malls at this popular stop on the Chuo Line 15 minutes west of Shinjuku sport prices markedly lower than those of central Tokyo, and the lure of its bargains is easily as strong as its famed live jazz and blues scene.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / ON: DESIGN
Nov 26, 2009

Designer standouts perfect for holiday gifts

With another Tokyo Designers Week now behind us, this month we take a look at a few of our favorite items from the event, some of which might just make the perfect Christmas gift.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 24, 2009

How can the government encourage more tourists to visit Japan?

Midori Tsunekawa, 59 Housewife (Japanese)Tourist organizations in every prefecture should offer free or low-cost English-speaking guides. They could show visitors around and help them experience Japan, while teaching them about our culture and customs.
Reader Mail
Nov 22, 2009

Blog posts can be so much noise

Although I found the Nov. 18 article "Lets kensaku — searching the Web in Japanese" interesting, it didn't tell me anything I was not already aware of. I was hoping it would address the biggest problem I have when doing Japanese-language searches online: search results primarily comprising people's...
BASKETBALL
Nov 18, 2009

Rising Suns set for team tryouts

The Rising Suns are looking for men's basketball players for the 2010 Quai 54 International Streetball Championship in France. Sponsored by Air Jordan, it is billed as the largest annual streetball tournament in the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 13, 2009

Warp Records hits the big 2-0

Sheffield has come on a long way over the past 20 years. England's one-time "City of Steel" was, in the dying days of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's era, a pretty grim place to be, its factories shuttered and its high streets desolate. Today, it presents a cleaner, more affluent — and, some might...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 30, 2009

An artsy Octoberfest weekend in Tokyo

This may be Tokyo Design Week, but there are a number of interesting art events worth your time as well.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 23, 2009

Yokohama turns Yamashita Park into massive outdoor gallery

Yokohama's Yamashita Park will turn into an outdoor gallery on the weekend of Oct. 30-Nov. 1, with the Yokohama International Open-Air Art Fair 2009 — featuring artworks by U.S. and Japanese artists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 15, 2009

The fruits of sharing a love of art

Tokyo Art Beat set their data free and something wonderful returned, in the form of an iPhone-app guide to the city's museums and galleries.
Reader Mail
Oct 1, 2009

Source of info for lost relatives

Regarding the Sept. 24 article "Miss World Japan looks for U.S. granddad": If Elza Sasaki would like to determine the whereabouts, either alive or not, of her grandfather, I suggest she get in touch with:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 22, 2009

Lifelines lead back to World War II

Seeking an old friend Kevin Roop, writing to us from the U.S., is trying to find an old friend of his 85-year-old father, Vernon Roop, a veteran of World War II who after the war was based with his unit, the 5th AAF, at Tachikawa Air Base in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Sep 20, 2009

Mystery on the 'Dark Dinner' menu

One evening in mid-August, a dozen people gathered at Ryokusenji temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district for a meal. But this was to be no regular feast, as the diners sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers would all be blindfolded and served a series of dishes the organizers would not disclose beforehand....
LIFE / Digital / Japan Pulse
Sep 19, 2009

I want my Augmented Reality TV phone!

The highly anticipated Sekai Camera for iPhone is unveiled in Tokyo, giving us a preview of what life will be like with augmented reality.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 15, 2009

Did technology kill the KTO star?

In 1977, nine years after Tony Elliott started the then-alternative media London Time Out magazine, Kansai Time Out printed its first issue, an eight-pager with local listings and a smattering of Japan-related articles. Dominic Al-Badri, chief editor from 1997 to 2004, recalls that the info-packed pages...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Aug 27, 2009

Publisher Yumiko Tsukuda

Yumiko Tsukuda, 45, is the founder of Anika Co. Ltd., a publishing house in Tokyo, that prints books about the town and residents of Tsukuda on Tsukishima Island. Originally from Chiba, Yumiko moved to Tsukuda in 1998, partly because the town shares her last name but also because she fell in love with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 7, 2009

Jenny Lewis

The line between alt-country and just plain country music can be a thin one. And while Jenny Lewis' vocal and guitar duties in ice-cool Las Vegas indie band Rilo Kiley might cause her to be labeled the former, there's really very little difference between the aching sentiment of her two recent solo albums...
Reader Mail
Aug 6, 2009

Beware the JR 'delay' clause

This subject will be of special interest to foreign tourists visiting Japan using the JR Rail Pass. We obtained a 21-day JR Pass on the day we arrived, July 1. On the last day of validity, July 21, we were traveling from Oita via Kokura, Osaka, Tokyo to Narita airport in order to take our return flight...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 31, 2009

Metamorphose '09

Following last year's booking of Manuel Gottsching, Metamorphose continues to introduce Japanese audiences to the roots of electronic music with legendary Krautrock group Tangerine Dream headlining.

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