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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 1, 2009

Japan Prize awards, documentary on Nara temple, and Beat Takeshi's definition of beauty

On Monday, NHK will broadcast the winners of the 36th annual "Nihon-sho" (Japan Prize; NHK-E, 6-8 p.m.), which awards outstanding domestic and international contributions to educational television.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 31, 2009

For your amusement — Ferris wheels everywhere, but why not?

Japan can be a confusing place for tourists, so I would like to take this opportunity to explain some things about Japan that no one has ever attempted to explain before, such as "Why are there so many Ferris wheels in Japan?"
Japan Times
Rugby
Oct 30, 2009

Eternal rivals get ready to spread Bledisloe Cup gospel to Tokyo crowd

The Bledisloe Cup, one of rugby's showcase events, will debut on Japanese soil Saturday at Tokyo's National Stadium.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2009

'Mother'

Korean auteur Joon-ho Bong's latest, "Mother," combines the calculated suspense and sophisticated psychological thrills of his breakthrough work "Memories of Murder" (2003), with observations of East Asian motherhood gone over the edge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2009

Beneath a city of chaos lies a dark psychological realm

At times, Tokyoites appear to be some of the most poker-faced people on the planet. But what exactly is going on behind those apparently emotionless expressions? The art of Mikiko Kumazawa suggests maybe quite a lot.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 30, 2009

m-flo's Verbal spreads the love

"It's like a meteorite flow" says Verbal of his group's name. "I spelled it 'mediarite' because I thought we would hit with a big impact in the media and surprise the unsuspecting masses with some good music. I think it worked better than I anticipated."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2009

Bringing SecondLife into the real art world

Born in Guangzhou in 1978 and now based in Beijing, Cao Fei is one of China's most prominent young artists, known for photographs and videos that combine elements of fantasy and documentary to reflect on cultural shifts since the country's economic opening at the start of the 1980s.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 29, 2009

Tokyo's rising tide of design

Giant chairs, floating clouds and abstract boxes: forget anything as commercial as wanting to sell a product.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 28, 2009

Be careful not to bend your gender in Japanese

One of the biggest omissions in Japanese textbooks, classes and one-on-one lessons is gendered language. Ignore it and at some point you will wind up sounding like a little Japanese girl — or a guy — when you didn't intend too.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 28, 2009

Be careful not to bend your gender in Japanese

One of the biggest omissions in Japanese textbooks, classes and one-on-one lessons is gendered language. Ignore it and at some point you will wind up sounding like a little Japanese girl — or a guy — when you didn't intend too.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 27, 2009

Tokyoites foot bill for Metro finger-wagging

If you scoot around Japan's capital on Tokyo Metro, chances are you can call to your mind's eye Bunpei Yorifuji's manner posters. You've probably snickered at Yorifuji's innuendo-laden slogan "Please do it at home" and, like me, look forward to seeing his silly etiquette lessons debut each month in the...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 25, 2009

'Mao's Last Dancer' inspires with his leaps and honest grounding

I was down in Sydney a few weeks ago and managed to catch the world premiere of Australian director Bruce Beresford's film, "Mao's Last Dancer." It is a beautiful story, beautifully told, in a film that combines the personal and the epic in an era of traumatic change for China.
Reader Mail
Oct 25, 2009

Family register defines reality

I read with consternation William Wetherall's Oct. 11 letter, "Passive influence on family law," which assessed the weight of the family register (koseki) in the Japanese bureaucratic and legal system. From personal experience, the overriding importance given to the family register by Japanese authorities...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 25, 2009

Of simmering frogs and economists leaping to terminal conclusions

They say that if a frog is dropped into boiling water it will jump out, but if it is placed in water that is then heated slowly it will steadily acclimate and boil to death — having missed its chance to escape.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 24, 2009

A little less east of Eden

John Steinbeck's 1952 novel, "East of Eden," is a tale of two families and one city — Salinas, Calif. — with the plot hinging on the sibling rivalry of a pair of brothers. The movie came along in 1955, winning James Dean a posthumous Academy Award nomination in the role of more convoluted brother....
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2009

A question of accountability

Any report on alleged war crimes is going to be controversial. An investigation that focuses on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians will be even more sensitive. Thus the uproar surrounding the Goldstone report, an investigation into the behavior of the Israeli Army and Hamas militants during...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 21, 2009

Get set for next year's overhaul of official kanji

Kanji aficionados and educators are buzzing over the biggest kanji news in nearly three decades: Next fall, for the first time since 1981, Japan’s government is expected to announce a revision of the joyo (general-use) kanji list. Currently numbering 1,945, these kanji comprise the official list allowed...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Oct 20, 2009

Chiba's Highland Games offer true flavor of Scotland

Idle dog-walkers and shoppers around JR Makuhari Station were met with an unusual spectacle one sunny Sunday morning earlier this month. A large-framed blond man in a kilt sauntered past the shopping complex; then a group of Japanese women adorned in checked sashes came skipping along the intersection....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Oct 19, 2009

Twitter swoops into the Japanese market again

Twitter stepping up its operations in Japan with a new mobile site and video capability. Will this be enough to make Japanese users start tweeting?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 18, 2009

Jeans on the cheap

Discount chain Don Quijote underbids everyone in the 'three-digit jeans price war.' How low will they go?
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2009

The popular consensus: What's not to like?

FOREIGNERS WHO LOVED JAPAN, by Naito Makoto & Naito Ken. Kodansha International, 2009, 255 pp., ¥1,200 (paper) Arguably, Donald Richie's "The Honorable Visitors," a series of profiles of foreigners who lived or put in significant time here, is the standard against which most writings on expatriates...
Reader Mail
Oct 18, 2009

Balancing a foreign mom's roles

I was instantly drawn to Tomoko Otake's Oct. 6 article, " 'Outsider' shares unique take on life, prejudices in the 'real' Japan" — about Suzanne Kamada. I, too, am the blond-haired, blue-eyed wife of a Japanese man. We live in Michigan with our three kids, but visit family in Japan each summer. I lived...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WEEK 3
Oct 18, 2009

Roll up! Roll up!

London, where there are tens of thousands of Japanese people living at any one time, is awash with world cuisine. But most Japanese food available in eateries there would hardly pass muster in its homeland.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Oct 18, 2009

Power for all the people

The all-electric home craze sweeping Japan with its typhoon of talking bathtubs, full-service toilets and flameless kitchens may finally have met its match.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2009

Brouhaha stirs over Belgian brew

Belgian beer, rich in fragrance, flavor and potency, is not like other brews in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 17, 2009

An encounter of the old timer and the kid

I don't notice much during my hours of commuting across the Kanto Plain and at the same time I notice everything. For it's mostly all the same . . .

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