Search - culture

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 28, 2013

A double dose of guidance offers more than usual information

SHINTO SHRINES: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan's Ancient Religion, by Joseph Cali with John Dougill. University of Hawaii Press, 2012, 328 pp., $24.99 (paperback)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Apr 27, 2013

Trendsetting restauranteurs succeed in bringing bit of Bohemia to Osaka

You're in a breezy, open space, bathed in light. Frothy indoor plants and burnished wood surrounds vibrant splashes of azure. While sipping a "green fairy," that traditional spirit of artists around the world, someone passes you a shisha, or water pipe, and you inhale sweet, fruit-soaked tobacco. You...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Apr 26, 2013

Tokyo's LGBT community celebrates love with a party

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is already prepping for this year's Tokyo Rainbow Pride (TRP).
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013

Polarization in modern politics

I found the April 18 Bloomberg article by Cass R. Sunstein, "Why well-informed people are also close-minded," very interesting. The problem here is figuring out what phrases like "well-informed" and "political knowledge" actually mean.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2013

Rape and gender discrimination related in India

It is hard to equate India's rapid technological development with practices such as female feticide, the earliest manifestation of violence against women.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Apr 24, 2013

New-style Japanese souvenirs; Cinco de Mayo Festival in Tokyo

NEW PRODUCTS
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2013

Boston's terror and the children of the fault lines

Civilizational battles were once waged by warriors who donned garments of different lands. Today it is boys with baseball caps who carry death in their backpacks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 23, 2013

Hiroshima: What sweets tickled your taste buds at the National Confectionery Exposition?

'A bag of cheap sweets and snacks from Osaka, as well as candies using tangerines from Sakurajima, Kagoshima Prefecture. I buy sweets mostly to give away to my kids and their friends.'
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 23, 2013

Renter guarantor system a headache for foreigners

Things were going well for Patrick after a year in Japan. He had found a job he liked, met a girl he planned to marry and was ready to move out of the small room his older brother, a longtime resident, was letting him use.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Apr 21, 2013

In 'Tsukuru Tazaki,' Murakami once again shifts his point of view

Two thousand and nine was a good year to be a Haruki Murakami fan. Seven years after writing his last epic novel, "Kafka on the Shore," with only the bite-sized 2004 "afterdark" to tide over his readership, the author published the massive two-volume "1Q84." Looking back now, it's also clear that Murakami...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 20, 2013

The shadow biosphere: life on Earth, but not as we know it

Across the world's great deserts, a mysterious sheen has been found on boulders and rock faces. These layers of manganese, arsenic and silica are known as desert varnish and they are found in the Atacama desert in Chile, the Mojave desert in California, and in many other arid places. They can make the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2013

High schoolers dream of Ivy League

One March afternoon in Shibuya Ward, a group of high schoolers earnestly listened as students from Harvard University described life on their campus.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 19, 2013

U.K. stage group to rework 'Mononoke' magic

If anyone understands the truth in the phrase, "It doesn't hurt to ask" — it's Alexandra Rutter.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2013

Kis-My-Ft2 "Good Ikuze!" (Avex Trax)

Odds are, Japan Times reader, that you do not like Kis-My-Ft2. Maybe you've been unable to escape the bleating "Wanna Beeee!!!" while out strolling in Shibuya, or maybe they lost you at, "From the people who brought you SMAP and Arashi!" So this review should be quick, right? A nice hatchet job with...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2013

Margaret Thatcher and the 'Big Bang'

Americans have been surprised at the sharply divided views in Britain over the governance of Margaret Thatcher, a product with more appeal in export markets.
Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2013

Takarazuka hits discordant note

I read Mark Buckton's April 14 Timeout feature article, "Takarazuka: Japan's newest 'traditional' theater turns 100," and thought, "Maybe I need to get out more."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2013

When the zombies attack, you'll need your gun

The zombie craze sweeping the U.S. is a warning to baby boomers: Our children are worried that the fortifications along the wall might not hold. Let's hope there's time to leave them a different legacy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 16, 2013

Mad court rush could brake or bless Abe's vision

As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet rush to diminish the Bank of Japan's bothersome independence, join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations (sort of . . .), start pouring lovely, popular concrete before the summer House of Councilors elections and (sotto voce) maybe even amend the Constitution,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 16, 2013

Blossom Queen ritual becomes an education

Adjusting her cupcake-size replica of a Mikimoto gold-and-pearl crown and gliding through a downtown Washington hotel lobby in her white sash, Taylor Barfield offers her business card with a knowing grin: "First African-American United States Cherry Blossom Queen," it reads.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2013

Improving teaching at universities

The University of Tokyo seeks to improve the quality of university class instruction with a graduate course on preparing presentations and lesson plans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 14, 2013

Takarazuka: Japan's newest 'traditional' theater turns 100

Ask your average Japanese person or non-native Japanophile to name a “traditional” form of domestic theater and the classics such as kabuki and noh would feature prominently.
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2013

Taking back students' lost years

As an associate professor at a national university, I completely agree with The Japan Times April 8 editorial "Delay recruitment even longer." The current regimen robs students of critical time for education, experience and maturity.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 14, 2013

Ancient Roman bones reveal brutal history

In the days of ancient Rome, it was never a good idea to send amateurs to pacify the Germanic tribes. The Emperor Augustus found this out in A.D. 9, when his handpicked crony, Varus, blundered into a series of ambushes in the Teutoburg Forest and lost about 20,000 men in three days.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 14, 2013

Garuda plans Osaka-Jakarta flights amid soaring interest in Indonesia

Garuda Indonesia will begin offering flights between Osaka and Jakarta in October as part of its international expansion strategy, the chief of the nation's flagship carrier said.
JAPAN / Media
Apr 14, 2013

Vice magazine hits TV with journo-tourism for hipsters

Vice is a brash Brooklyn-based magazine and international media company, but mostly it's a brand of thinking and marketing that has extended itself over the past decade to a popular website and YouTube channel. With bureaus around the world, Vice makes as much news as it reports: A recent foray involved...

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat