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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2010

Reinterpretations of modern history

One of Japan's pre-eminent contemporary artists, Yasumasa Morimura is known for his gender-bending self- portraits reinterpreting canonical works of Western art history. His works combine aspects of painting, sculpture, set design, performance and photography, and often use humor to subvert revered icons....
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 14, 2010

In the land of the kami

"In some rural areas even today, elderly villagers face the rising sun each morning, clap their hands together, and hail the appearance of the sun over the peaks of the nearby mountains as 'the coming of the kami,' " — so wrote historian Takeshi Matsumae in "The Cambridge History of Japan," published...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Feb 12, 2010

Fine wines from a complex region

According to the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, great thinkers can be separated into two broad categories: hedgehogs and foxes. While hedgehogs view the world through one single defining idea, foxes embrace the multitude of contradictory experiences that life throws up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2010

This 'Garden of Painting' needs to be perennial

I can imagine walking out of "Garden of Painting: Japanese Art of the '00s" and feeling immensely satisfied.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 22, 2010

Depp the magical mystery man

HOLLYWOOD — It's no surprise Johnny Depp is starring in a fantastical new movie titled "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," which opens in Japan on Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 28, 2009

Economy chasing its tail

The Japanese have a saying — "sandome no shoujiki." Roughly translated it means that "after getting it wrong twice you finally get it right the third time."
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 29, 2009

Bearing the brunt

In a log cabin high on a wooded mountainside in Hiroshima Prefecture, Kazuhiko Maita, 61-year-old director of the nonprofit Institute for Asian Black Bear Research and Preservation, is puzzling over the fate of Japan's black bears.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 10, 2009

Betting your family on Japan: readers respond

Life is long, should be long Mr. Cory, I truly sympathize with your comments and experiences. Your comment about mixed feelings toward your wife really struck home with me as well. Indeed, I too am a Richard Cory, living a farcical life with all of the appearances of the enviable.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 31, 2009

Dressage instructor knows how to get best out of horses, riders

In the rarefied atmosphere of Japan's equestrian competitive world, Gool Wadia is a highly respected name. She is the "eye and mouth" on the ground, the person behind, specifically, some of Japan's best dressage riders as they endeavor to improve their riding, their horses and raise their marks in competition....
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
Oct 25, 2009

Bodhisattva of the river road

"Have another drink, Boss!"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 6, 2009

Re: Mr. James, gaijin clown

Following are a selection of readers' responses to last month's Just Be Cause column by Debito Arudou, headlined "Meet Mr. James, gaijin clown":
TENNIS
Oct 2, 2009

Sharapova, Jankovic advance to semifinals

Former world No. 1s Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic remained on course for a final showdown with quarterfinal wins at the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Thursday, while Ai Sugiyama raged against the dying light to move into the semifinals of the doubles competition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2009

'The Limits of Control'

Anyone who's ever seen a film by New York indie auteur Jim Jarmusch knows that the director's work is an acquired taste. With his minimalist, deadpan sense of humor, his fixation on crossed signals and miscommunication, and that curious blend of existentialist angst and laconic cool intercut with moments...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 8, 2009

Captain Suzuki finds peace at eye of Urawa's storm

SAITAMA — Less than two years ago, it was almost impossible to imagine a national team without Keita Suzuki.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 14, 2009

Dancing to N.Y. and back

Trying to rate the energy levels of a troupe of Broadway performers is like looking at a group of ants and trying to work out which is walking the fastest. They all seem to be going at 120 percent.
Japan Times
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Aug 2, 2009

Sokun Tsushimoto: Caring for body and soul

With his shaven head, straight back and deep, calming voice, Sokun Tsushimoto, a newly qualified physician who started practicing at a Tokyo clinic in April, clearly betrays evidence of his long and rich life experience.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2009

Enter the dance-rock dragons Shikari

"We were really worried before they came over 'cos England's so s--t," says Rob Rolfe, the drummer from British post-hardcore/metal/dance fusion band Enter Shikari of their anxieties before embarking on a 2008 tour with their friends, the Japanese punk-metal group Maximum the Hormone.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 12, 2009

Land of the Sun Goddess

The sun was mortally offended — with good reason.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 11, 2009

Brit muscles way to BayStar success

Young boys, bright-eyed and clutching miniature gloves, gather in ballparks and dream of their own futures as part of a professional team.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 5, 2009

Motoko Inagawa: Japan's foreign-talent guru shares her worldly wisdoms

In need of a couple of Portuguese missionaries? How about a boatload of Dutch traders — or a platoon of World War II U.S. grunts?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 30, 2009

The slippery slope of shogakko

Although July's stickiness unglues most minds from study, it is at this time of year that mothers in Japan turn their thoughts toward school. Enrolling children in summer cram programs, visiting potential private schools, researching every possible option — all are occupations to fill the barefoot...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 19, 2009

He's mad, he's an animal, and he's cool

Philippe Petit, just shy of his 60th birthday, still has a twinkle in his eye, still trains three hours a day, and — remarkably — is still wire-walking. Unlike every other interviewer who's met Petit, I did not ask him if he was scared when he did the WTC walk, on the assumption that a scared person...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 12, 2009

Sonic after three decades of Youth

There's an old punk maxim that you should never trust anyone over 30. And yet as Sonic Youth rapidly approach the big three-oh, their music is on an upward curve.
Japan Times
CULTURE
May 29, 2009

Looking for love, and an English teacher

Actress Kazue Fukiishi looked perplexed when I asked if she could see herself ever marrying a foreigner.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 16, 2009

Fated winds turn path to cyclone-hit Myanmar

When Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar just over a year ago on May 2, Naomi Kato was in Japan, wishing she wasn't. As life ended for some 140,000 people and changed drastically for countless others, the Yokohama native found herself on the brink of a far-less tumultuous change, in between jobs and about to...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CITIZEN JUSTICE
May 12, 2009

Day of public reckoning in criminal trial process looms

First in a series
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Apr 4, 2009

Fencer Ota keen to compete in France, raise interest in sport

Japanese fencing phenom Yuki Ota, who won the silver medal in the men's foil in last summer's Beijing Olympics, has entered a new challenging chapter in his fencing career.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Mar 29, 2009

Catch a falling star

Overhung by funky plastic streetlights, enlivened by piped music, and flanked with small stores, Shinohashi Shirokane Shotengai is exactly the kind of shopping street that once served as the commercial hub of many postwar Tokyo neighborhoods.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 19, 2009

Time for bj-league to take stock, make necessary changes

Baseball and soccer are well-established professional sports in Japan. And now it's time for the bj-league, Japan's first professional basketball league, to take necessary steps to earn its place as an established, respected league.

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