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LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Feb 2, 2007

Cabbages and kings

Those who live and work in Itabashi are hesitant when it comes to tallying up the highlights of this northwestern Tokyo ward. "There's really nothing remarkable here," says ballerina and homemaker Chieko Muraoka, 37. "It's quiet and small-scale, but we like it that way."
CULTURE / Music
Feb 2, 2007

Banda Caliente Grande

Tokyo is home to the largest concentration of big bands of any city in the world. Every night of the year, student, amateur and pro bands are digging into music charts someplace in the city.
Reader Mail
Jan 28, 2007

What passes for attractiveness

Recent moves by Spain to rein in eating disorders in the high-fashion industry by sanctioning a healthy body mass index and thereby curbing excessive skinniness among supermodels have spread to Italy and show signs of spreading to other countries as well. This is a good thing and only partly...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 7, 2007

Through the Terayama looking glass

THE EXPERIMENTAL IMAGE WORLD OF SHUJI TERAYAMA, DVD four-volume box set. Tokyo: Daguerreo Press, Inc./Image Forum Video, 2006, color/monochrome, English subtitles, bilingual menu, audio commentaries (Japanese only) by Nobuhiro Kawanaka, Tatsuo Suzuki, Sakumi Hagiwara and Henriku Morisaki, 346 min., 18,900...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 5, 2007

Donizetti's bel canto greats hit high notes

The Donizetti Theatre, one of Italy's best-known spaces for traditional opera, is currently touring Japan for the first time.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Dec 1, 2006

Katsushika a cut above all your expectations

Many of Tokyo's award-winning swordsmiths choose to live in Ka-tsushika. Why? "Land has always been cheap here," said Shoji Yoshihara, 61, designated an Important Living Cultural Property of the ward and deputy head of All Japan Swordsmiths Association. "The process of making swords is noisy and smoky,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 17, 2006

FILMeX shows size doesn't matter

Tokyo FILMeX enters its seventh year as the smaller, friendlier, artier alternative to the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 9, 2006

Tokyo National Museum shows Buddhist masterpieces

Living in a land still largely covered with forest, it is not surprising that Japanese have a special reverence toward wood. We see this particularly in traditional architecture, where wood is not only chosen to reveal its best qualities, but is largely left unpainted so that its beauty improves with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 27, 2006

On-U Sound from way out

At most live gigs, all eyes are on the band while the mixing desk is tucked out of sight with some guy in a T-shirt standing behind it simply making sure each instrument comes out at the right level.
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2006

Honda looks to CR-V to rev up sales

Honda Motor Co. unveiled its restyled CR-V sport utility vehicle Thursday, betting its third version of the model will help it grab a bigger slice of the domestic SUV market.
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2006

Corolla gets 10th makeover, for luck

Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday launched revamped Corolla models -- the 10th time the best-selling car that spearheaded the nation's motorization in the 1960s has been changed -- in the hope of stimulating the sluggish market.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Sep 8, 2006

Dover Street shop storms into Tokyo

When it comes to revolutionary retail concept stores in Japan, there's no getting away from Tokyo's Aoyama district. That area's latest major opening comes from none other than Japan's epoch-making fashion house Comme des Garcons.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2006

Tokyo Gas to use 10 billion yen to replace old water heaters

Tokyo Gas Co. plans to spend about 10 billion yen to replace old bath and water heaters over a three-year period starting next spring to ensure the safety of household gas appliances, company officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 25, 2006

Ainu culture in Hokkaido's Akan National Park

When Japan's Meiji Era (1868-1912) government concluded that the country had a manifest destiny to commence full-scale colonization of the hitherto barely developed northern island of Hokkaido, it set about the task assiduously.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 25, 2006

Gattaca, a utopia of good selections

Baar Gattaca is reasonably easy to find -- thanks to the blaring red banners of the bar next door. But, just to avoid confusion, the entrance is immediately to the right of this garish splash of red -- straight down the stairs to the basement. There, you will see the bar's name on the door and the tag...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 11, 2006

Paula Ke in Tokyo, Uslu Airlines, Comme des Garcons' fragrances and more

Pret-a-porter a la Paris
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 15, 2006

Sculptor's immobile muse helped him see inner man

Art is often likened to a mirror, suggesting that what viewers really want is a glimpse of themselves. In Japan, this frequently means that any exhibition of Monet, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec -- just about any Impressionist or post-Impressionist painter, really -- is sure to elicit a few catalog essays...
BUSINESS
May 20, 2006

New car-nav units show high-def TV

Makers of car navigation systems plan to release new products this summer that will show high-definition television broadcasts and provide more accurate traffic forecasts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 11, 2006

Japan grads go apolitical

With its current exhibition, "Index #2 -- Life Styles," Tokyo Wonder Site in Ochanomizu has mounted a worthwhile survey of recent Japanese art-school graduates. Prolific critic Kentaro Ichihara, in association with Kyoto University of Art and Design, selected five Kanto- and five Kansai-region artists...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2006

Tokyo, Seoul scurry to avert islet clash

Japanese and South Korean negotiators raced Thursday to avert a clash over disputed islets as Seoul accused Tokyo of neocolonial ambitions and warned of a possible high seas confrontation.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 14, 2006

Workshops, screenings at music video festival

The music video showcase Mirrorball, screened annually at the Edinburgh Film Festival for the last 10 years, will be presented for the second time in Japan. The Mirrorball Music Video Showcase Festival arrives in Tokyo April 15-16 for a weekend of events arranged into four screening programs and workshop...
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2006

Cell phones for crime-wary kids see brisk sales

With the cell phone market saturated with 90 million contracts, handset makers and phone companies are moving to create new demand by focusing on children and safety.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 31, 2006

Here's one castle to crow about

They may be unloved and unwanted, but even their detractors would have to admit that Japan's crows are tough, resilient critters. It is, then, entirely appropriate that the oldest castle in Japan should be named after these intimidating birds. The Japanese of yore had quite a fondness for naming their...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 21, 2006

American Rag Cie, TopMan Design, Wing Shya at Mori, Jun Takahashi book

Rags to riches
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Feb 17, 2006

Tokyo's major drag . . . redefined

Labeled the Champs Elysees of Tokyo, tree-lined "brand boulevard" Omotesando is one of Japan's most treasured strips. Acting as a conduit between the posh Aoyama district and youth mecca Harajuku, it houses a wealth of highly original retail experiences.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 5, 2006

Fashionista with attitude

Raised on the mean streets of Brooklyn's Brownsville district, Gene Krell is a self-proclaimed tough guy who cites as one of his heroes a little-known but highly colorful "Dadaist professional boxer" called Arthur Cravan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 26, 2006

Tokyo Gallery: Liu Zheng shows 'Gaudy Art' embroidery

Several of my recent columns have dealt with new art spaces and centers in Tokyo. Today I want to wrap that up with a look at a gallery that has shunned the relocation trend by remaining in the city's original contemporary art district -- Ginza.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 22, 2006

Fuji TV's 'Saiyuki,' TV Asahi's 'Truly Frightening Home Medicine' and more

Monday nights at 9 p.m. usually belong to Fuji TV, which always parks its highest-profile romantic drama series in the slot. The network has now opted for something different, a fantasy series based on a well-known Chinese folk tale. "Saiyuki" is about the journey of a Buddhist priest from China to India...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 20, 2005

Undercover's Zamiang, Billionaire Boys Club vs. The Ice Cream Store, Youth Dew . . .

Undercover art adventure
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 11, 2005

If you want to build a home for the future then do it outside of Japan

Shortly after the quake-proofing scandal broke, Shukan Bunshun referred to the "hairstyle" of architect Hidetsugu Aneha as being just as much a "fabrication" (gizo) as the structural calculations he drew up for all those doomed condominiums. The joke was a telling one. Publicly exposing wig-wearers is...

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