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COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Dec 1, 1999

Catching up

Recently I quoted letters from a university English writing class commenting on a column about General MacArthur. That prompted a letter from longtime resident G.A. Chandru who has done much over the years to promote his adopted city of Yokohama as well as Indian culture and products. A few years ago...
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 1999

Reflecting prosperity, deflecting evil

Every year in the middle of December, thousands of people flock to Tokyo's Asakusa Sensoji Temple for the annual hagoita market to buy oshie hagoita, a decorative battledore that serves as both a New Year's decoration and a good-luck charm.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 24, 1999

Sights above and below watermark

Diving enthusiasts have no doubt heard of Belize, a sliver of land bordered by Mexico in the north and Guatemala to the west, for its spectacular barrier reef. The Caribbean reefs, located on the eastern side of the island, offers endless walls and undulating coral ridges. It stretches a few hundred...
CULTURE / Art
Nov 20, 1999

Something in the air of Japan's 'Deep South'

They were known as the "girlie photographers," dozens of young female photographers who elbowed their way through the society of cameramen to rise to prominence in Japan during the early 1990s. And as the media loves an underdog, critics loved so-called onnanoko shashinka.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 17, 1999

A Web DJ saved my life

Let's look at the headlines from Net music news. Maestro, hit the rewind:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 17, 1999

Hemingway's dead; long live the future

Hemingway once said that good writing begins with the simple production of but one true sentence. OK. Here's something that's true. Hemingway is dead.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 17, 1999

Voices of stone in the Oita mountains

Deep in a quiet valley northeast of Kyushu's Mount Aso lies the town of Innai, its central river filled with an absurdly picturesque number of stone bridges. I first read about the town and its equally fascinating surroundings a few years ago, but only recently made the long drive there, a stunning descent...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Regional Special: Sanin

'Inaka' taps city disenchanted to repopulate>Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 1999

Ending the politics of money

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has done the right thing in overriding objections from his own party to the ban on donations to individual politicians from firms and other interest groups. His decision, first unveiled in a meeting with opposition party heads Wednesday, paves the way for the enactment of...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 13, 1999

A cynic's guide to survival

For a writer, Russia is a treasure trove. It generates the most improbable story lines, the characters it harbors make Hollywood action heroes seem anemic, and its history is a thrilling mixture of triumph and tragedy. The country has seen the apostle Andrew and Adolf Hitler, Emperor Napoleon and Mongol...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 1999

Population fall a 'blessing,' U.S. expert argues

Staff writer
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 10, 1999

Homage to an image maker

HAYAO MIYAZAKI: Master of Japanese Animation, by Helen McCarthy. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1999, 240 pp., 8 pages in color and 60 b/w images. $18.95. The biggest domestic movie hit of all in Japan was the 1997 "Princess Mononoke," an animated film created by Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 10, 1999

Pre-holiday planning

It seems a bit early to be writing about Christmas, but there is a lot of planning to do if you must ship things home, or even pack them to take with you. That's why the Tokyo charity-oriented International Ladies Benevolent Society now schedules its ILBS Christmas Fair even before we have ordered the...
JAPAN
Nov 4, 1999

Japan, EU on same page for trade talks

Japan and Europe reaffirmed their cooperation Thursday toward the upcoming trade liberalization talks under the World Trade Organization slated to begin later this month in Seattle. During their meeting here, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy reaffirmed that...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

Visaless group urges more flexible rights policy

Staff writer
LIFE / Travel
Nov 3, 1999

Autumn leaves and legends of Kyushu's farthest mountains

GOKANOSHO, Kumamoto Pref. -- The tiny community of Gokanosho (made up of five hamlets, hence its name) is virtually in the center of Kyushu. Draw an imaginary semicircle arching inland from the Kumamoto-Hitoyoshi expressway, and Gokanosho will be in the middle.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Lebanese envoy seeks 'bridge' with Japan

After 19 years of strife and internal struggles that destroyed the entire nation's infrastructure, Lebanon's reconstruction work is under way but the country is still in need of assistance from abroad, including Japan, the new Lebanese ambassador to Japan said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 1999

This poetic chameleon wore khaki

SHREDDING THE TAPESTRY OF MEANING: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katsue (1902-1978), by John Solt. Harvard University Asia Center, 1999, 395 pp., $49.50. On Jan. 4, 1942, less than a month after Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor, Katsue Kitazono -- the spelling that John Solt gives the name in "Shredding...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Hatoyama calls Obuchi government a 'moral hazard'

Calling the new coalition government of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a "moral hazard" formed solely to reinforce political power, DPJ head Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday demanded the early dissolution of the Lower House.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 1999

New angles on contemporary art

One of the foremost exhibitions of contemporary art in Japan, the International Contemporary Art Festival, will be held at the Tokyo International Forum Nov. 3-7.
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 1999

Web site attaches yen sign to one's personal worth

Staff writer Reiko Ishikawa feels worthless, but it has nothing to do with having no boyfriend, disliking her job, or misplacing her Prada handbag.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Web site attaches yen sign to personal worth

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 28, 1999

Know thyself in adopting foreign ways: Egypt scholars

An Egyptian minister and three scholars on Thursday said people need to appropriately examine their own culture as well as foreign influences to gain a national identity and a global perspective in the 21st Century.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 1999

A celebration of sacred sex

THE COSMIC EMBRACE: An Illustrated Guide to Sacred Sex, by John Stevens. Boston/London: Shambhala, 1999, 190 pp., 120 b/w photographs, $18.95. The notion that sexual relationships are honorable, fulfilling and beneficial is obviously true, yet this truth has experienced the greatest difficulty in...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Oct 14, 1999

Heeding the siren call of Sopron's wine country

A Japanese friend I recently met amid the late-summer amalgam of humid heat, mucky air and urban frenzy suddenly assumed a rather wistful faraway look and expressed the desire to get away from the whole maddening throng and disappear into nature.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 1999

Regional Special: KYUSHU

Reclamation project splits locals, power elite> Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 13, 1999

GAISF meeting opens; Osaka told to be prudent

OSAKA -- The Monaco-based General Association of International Sports Federations opened its general assembly meeting Wednesday in Osaka with IOC officials cautioning the city, which is bidding for the 2008 Olympics, to be prudent when passing out gifts.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Oct 9, 1999

Different stokes for Iowan folks

I never thought my interest in Japanese pottery would lead me to Iowa.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1999

Cabinet Interview: Usui adamant on Aum-restraint law

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 1999

Behind the Echizen-Rutgers connection

HONOLULU -- It is commonly assumed that the first Japanese students to study in the United States arrived during Japan's dash toward modernization in the early years of the Meiji Period (1868-1912) but, in fact, a number of these young men arrived during the latter years of the long Tokugawa Period (1600-1867)....

Longform

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