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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 30, 2009

There's nothing like a local brew

Once upon a time, all sake was made with locally grown rice. Then came the rise of a particularly reliable strain called Yamada Nishiki, and the scene changed dramatically. Yamada Nishiki, which accounts for nearly 30 percent of Japan's sake rice, is resilient and easily shipped between prefectures....
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2009

Verner Panton's colorful visions

Experimentation, playfulness, adventure. Through the example of maverick Danish designer Verner Panton, these words have entered the lexicon of many designers today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 30, 2009

Rockers turn it up to 11

Metallica. Slayer. Anthrax. The Scorpions. Even a casual fan of rock music knows that these names make up the pantheon of modern heavy metal, the bands that rose to the top and never looked back when metal swept away all before it in the 1980s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2009

'Drag Me to Hell'

Once upon a time Sam Raimi wasn't the boring, franchise-friendly director on display in those anemic "Spiderman" movies. No, Raimi started out as a wild man of excess; his debut film, 1984's "The Evil Dead," was a slavering undead movie that went far, far beyond all previous limits of taste or imagination....
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 30, 2009

There's nothing like a local brew

Once upon a time, all sake was made with locally grown rice. Then came the rise of a particularly reliable strain called Yamada Nishiki, and the scene changed dramatically. Yamada Nishiki, which accounts for nearly 30 percent of Japan's sake rice, is resilient and easily shipped between prefectures....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 29, 2009

Now's the time to celebrate design

Don't miss Design Week This year, Tokyo Designers Week conveniently kicks off on a Friday — previous years have always seen a Wednesday start — ensuring visitors can make the most of the weekend and the national holiday on Tuesday.
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...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 26, 2009

Moving portraiture by Julian Opie

If you see the influence of Japanese art, both traditional and contemporary, in the work of Julian Opie, showing at Scai Bathhouse till Nov. 14, you've got a good eye.
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....
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 / Stage
Oct 23, 2009

Tokyo theater scene gets kiss of life

The Edinburgh theater and street-performance festival in Scotland annually sends a buzz round the arts world; France's Avignon invariably features a cordon bleu international menu; and Adelaide and Singapore vie for the Asia-Pacific spotlight.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2009

New government finding its feet

More than a month has passed since the Hatoyama administration was inaugurated. People can see that it is trying in earnest to implement policy promises spelled out in the Democratic Party of Japan's election manifesto. The administration, which at its outset enjoyed an approval rating that topped 70...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2009

Guam move depends on Futenma: Gates

The planned relocation of 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam will suffer a setback if Tokyo does not abide by other agreements on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Wednesday.
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...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2009

Classic tales of newsprint noir

While a senior at Tokyo's Sophia University, 23-year-old Missouri native Jake Adelstein was heading home from a Shinjuku cinema when, on a whim, he dropped into a game arcade and popped u00a5100 into the slot of a fortunetelling robot for some mystical career advice.
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
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2009

Pottering down Chita way

It dangles down from Nagoya, dividing Ise Bay from Mikawa Bay in the inglorious shape of one of yesterday's socks. While the upper, northern end soaks up the industrial overspill from Japan's fourth-largest city, its southern half works as a calming antidote to the madding metropolitan crowd. It goes...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 17, 2009

Artist of the cross-cultural landscape

The ocean symbolizes both a microcosm of living things and the metaphoric dream of unlimited possibilities. Gazing toward the horizon, Holly Thompson, writer and teacher, seems to find these truths reflected in that hazy line.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2009

After fast start, it's crunch time for Cabinet

The Democratic Party of Japan-led Cabinet heads into its second month Friday, after coming out quickly to usher in a new political era in the wake of the Liberal Democratic Party's long domination.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2009

'Becoming Jane'

"Becoming Jane" catches Anne Hathaway at a dip in her career — in the valley terrain where the "Get Smart" series stands like midrate hotels in a remote holiday resort, situated between the high-profile "The Devil Wears Prada" and the deceptively low-rent, indie-sheen of "Rachel Getting Married." She's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2009

Love and light at Hara Museum

In 1979, when he founded the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in his grandfather's former residence in Tokyo's Shinagawa district, Toshio Hara was driven by the vision of creating one of Japan's first institutions dedicated to living artists. At the time there were precious few other venues for contemporary...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 16, 2009

Dizzee Rascal "Tongue N' Cheek"

Rascal is back with a new album that sees him move into the mainstream with an effortlessness that nobody would have predicted back in 2003. What we have instead of the old gritty rapper persona is a little, well, surreal. "See me on the telly with Jeremy Paxman on the news" boasts Rascal on "Money Money."...

Longform

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