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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 4, 2005

Spiritual journeys to the Inland Sea

I was sitting having a drink with an American girl in San-chan's Bar. I had just met her, a young doctor who had come directly from Osaka's Kansai airport to Shiraishi Island. She was staying five days on the island and when she left, she would go directly back to Kansai airport.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Lowly loincloth making a comeback

Tartan, paisley and geometric patterns in red, blue and other colors are catching the eyes of young shoppers in the men's clothing section of Mitsukoshi Ltd.'s Ginza store.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jun 2, 2005

Racer for PSP is a real drag

The appeal of the "Shutoko Battle" series (known as "Tokyo Xtreme Racer" abroad) has always been the way it gives players a free pass to race through a digital representation of Tokyo. For car enthusiasts and armchair racers thirsting for the thrill of hitting Kasumigaseki at 150 kph, the lure of "Shutoko"...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2005

Medical approach mulled as way to curb sex offenders

The education ministry will start conducting research with prison and correctional authorities on whether medical treatment can be an effective way to prevent sex offenders from repeating their crimes.
COMMUNITY
May 31, 2005

Write back

Community Page readers respond to Satoko Kogure's article on gender equality in Japan (May 3) and Vanessa Mitchell's piece on the lack of aid resources for sex crime victims (May 17) in Japan
COMMUNITY / COUNTERPOINT
May 29, 2005

Causes and effects can encompass far more than 'specifics'

In January 1977, an express train traveling from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales to Sydney derailed on a curve near Granville Station, 21 km west of the city. The train -- which was three minutes late when it left the last stop on its 2 1/2-hour journey -- smashed into the pillar of a bridge, killing...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 28, 2005

The books I will someday write

Books play a large part in the life of any foreign resident of Japan. For no matter how pervasive online linkage to the homeland becomes, books have always been, and always will be, a main conduit to the language and culture left behind, especially when socked into riding the trains for hours on end....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 25, 2005

Designs to refresh the spirit

Some Westerners, when faced with Oriental creativity, have a tendency to gush. Instead of taking a calm, rational, inquisitive point of view, they tend to ascribe the aesthetic effect of what they see to some mysterious, spiritual force -- whether they call it Zen, Tao, yin and yang -- something they...
BASKETBALL
May 24, 2005

Basketball nomad Bryant's latest stop in Tokyo

Joe Bryant's career as a basketball player and coach has taken him all over the world. Now the father of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant will add Japan to his list of far-flung destinations.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 22, 2005

Fuji TV dramatizes Naoki Prize winning novel "Kuchu Buranko" and more

This week's "Friday Entertainment" special (Fuji TV, 9 p.m.) is a dramatization of the 131st winner of the Naoki Prize for Literature, Hideo Okura's novel "Kuchu Buranko (Flying Trapeze)."
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 18, 2005

Man United fans being irrational about Glazer's takeover

I was asked an interesting question recently.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 18, 2005

Roppongi's art gallery boom

Roppongi, which used to be chiefly known as a pick-up party pit for Tokyo's ex-pat population, has recently begun to emerge as a contemporary art center. Spurred by the Mori Art Museum's opening in 2003, the neighborhood now presents the possibility of a short walking tour of new and interesting art...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2005

Composing with an eye on the big picture

The Aichi Expo, with its theme on "Nature's Wisdom" and its pavilions packed with technological wonders, obviously sees no irony in its situation. This contradiction may be highlighted, however, when composer Philip Glass brings his ensemble to perform the music of "Koyaanisqatsi." Directed by Godfrey...
BUSINESS
May 13, 2005

Vocal U.S. lobbyist enjoys being 'underestimated'

Many people may have underestimated Thomas Donohue when he assumed the position of president and chief executive of the United States Chamber of Commerce in 1997.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 13, 2005

A Tokyo hotline to Bangkok

Hyakunincho, Tokyo's most polyglot district, is only a two-minute train ride from the heart of Shinjuku, but it almost feels like leaving the country. In the 1980s, when Southeast Asian food was still a novelty in other parts of town, this was where we came to forage, lured by the exotic perfume of lemongrass,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 10, 2005

What you reading these days?

Lisa Jarvis Student, 21 Harry Potter. The whole series is really great, but I'm a big fan of "Prisoner of Azkaban." I have a lot of friends who like it so it's interesting to sit down and talk about it.
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2005

Fishing for sustainable profits

The good news for Japan's fisheries is that some of its products enjoy growing demand abroad, particularly in some parts of Asia. This year's government white paper on fisheries stresses the importance of developing overseas markets and highlights a variety of export-oriented initiatives across the country....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 8, 2005

TV show scrapes bottom of barrel in bringing Asia to Japan

One of the hoariest cliches of international politics is the idea that governments only have beefs with other governments, not with their citizens. The tragic irony is that the citizens suffer anyway. Maybe the majority of Iraqi people didn't like their tyrant, but one has to wonder how much they accept...
Japan Times
Features
May 8, 2005

It's time to get out there and grrrrrrrill!

Years ago, at a friend's house in Kobe, an intense argument broke out between the Americans and Australians present. It turned into quite a searing row, and for a while it threatened to inflame tempers and disrupt the otherwise festive occasion.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 8, 2005

The urban underclass of a modernist Tokyo

THE SCARLET GANG OF ASAKUSA, by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Alisa Freedman, foreword and afterword by Donald Richie. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 2005, 231 pp., $17.95 (paper). "Art is bad," Guy Davenport posited, "when it is poor in news," and it is not surprising...
COMMENTARY
May 8, 2005

A 'Eurasian Union' on deck

LONDON -- Where does Europe end and Asia begin? The question is of more than academic interest because the answer will determine what sort of entity the European Union is to be. There are those who talk about "the final completion" of the EU as though a line can be carefully drawn between the states...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 4, 2005

Mad artist myth no longer holds

The name Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) invariably invokes a legend -- the legend of a wild, creative genius, out of sync with the stilted, repressive atmosphere of Victorian Europe; who exploded in passionate art and self-destructive disregard of the banal parameters of everyday life; who followed his...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 1, 2005

'The Only Woman in the Room' who helped to reshape Japan

Last Monday evening, 81-year-old Beate Sirota Gordon walked onto the stage of the Japan Bar Association auditorium in Tokyo, took a seat, and for 90 minutes explained in Japanese how she helped write Japan's post-war Constitution.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2005

Japan and the United Nations

On Dec. 18, 1956, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu stood before the General Assembly of the United Nations to make a speech marking Japan's admission to the organization. In this address he stated that as the only nation to suffer the ordeal of atomic bombing, Japan hoped with all its heart...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 26, 2005

Should teachers be punished for not following government regulations requiring the singing of 'Kimigayo'?

Christine Bullard Art teacher, 27 I think that it should be teacher's choice. If the kids do it in first grade, second grade, third grade, they're going to keep doing it. To be fined is ridiculous. Teachers should be independent thinkers.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 24, 2005

Miceli's career here lasted slightly longer a than cup of coffee

The April 19 edition of the Tokyo Chunichi Sports paper ran a headline that read, "Miceli fired by Giants."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 23, 2005

Nuzhat Niaz

"It is by God's grace that we are donors, not recipients. The sincerest form of gratitude is providing meaningful help to those weaker than ourselves."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 22, 2005

Trilogy in a triangle

In general, pre-bubble nightlife in Tokyo was rather dull. In the early 1980s, a Saturday night out in Shinjuku or Roppongi meant jockeying for space in a crowded disco with packs of Japanese intent on line dancing in front of mirrors. There were a few alternative bars scattered in and around Aoyama,...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?