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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 30, 2007

In touch with his inner Tommy Lee

"It wasn't so much the style of music as the attitude toward performing and doing shows. That's what we wanted to bring back from America to Japan," says Yasuaki Sakai, reminiscing about his immersion in America's Pacific Northwest music scene that began nearly a decade ago as the singer/guitarist of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2007

'The Number 23'

Any student of music, and especially anyone who's studied their John Cage, knows that if you listen hard enough, you can always discover patterns. Producer Brian Eno once described recording a walk in the park, and taking a 3 min.-30 second segment of it and listening repeatedly: patterns emerged, the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 2007

Late architect Kisho Kurokawa's mecca built on philosophy

Not many people get to build cities and choose prime ministers, yet that was his claim to fame. In one of the last interviews before his death on Oct. 12, self-styled leader of the Symbiosis movement Kisho Kurokawa talked about the ups and downs of life as a mainstream architect, political maverick and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 9, 2007

From trailer park to catwalk

"Sorry, I'm having pure chaos!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 26, 2007

'Vitus'

How does the world (and a parent in particular) deal with a child prodigy? Though Swiss film "Vitus (Boku no Piano Concerto)" doesn't provide any definite answers, it parts the curtains on the mystery, letting us share a little in the experience of getting to know and learning to love an incredibly gifted...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 12, 2007

Dedicated followers of suburbia

Think of New York and rock musicians and you might well think of Lou Reed, whose identification with his home town is so secure that he remains the only rock star with the guts to actually title an album "New York." Even Billy Joel restricted himself to "52nd Street."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2007

'0093 Jo Heika no Kusakari Masao'

The Japanese film industry makes many comedies, but few parodies of the "Airplane," "Naked Gun" or "Austin Powers" variety. This is puzzling, since Japanese comedy directors have been borrowing freely from Hollywood for generations, including Koki Mitani ("Uchoten Hotel"), who worships at the altar of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2007

Poster boys for Soulsville USA

Call it coincidence, or call it destiny. Either way, Soulive are breathing new life into soul music — and a long-dormant soul label.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2007

'Southbound'

"Family Game," Yoshimitsu Morita's 1983 black comedy about a sardonic, sadistic home tutor — played by Yusaku Matsuda — who ruthlessly exposes the dysfunctions of a "normal" middle-class family, made Morita, temporarily, the Takeshi Kitano of his era.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2007

Rebel yell from the desert

Saharan bluesmen Tinariwen traded guns for guitars, then set about gaining an army of famous fans
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Sep 23, 2007

Cellphone bards hit bestseller lists

Like many other young Japanese, Rin, 21, punches her mobile phone keys very quickly. Holding her phone with two hands, and moving her thumbs deftly and smoothly, she quickly generates sentences on the small screen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Sep 18, 2007

Tokyo Look Book, Brazil Fashion Now, etc.

You get the look
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 7, 2007

The king of Kita Kyushu

Shinji Aoyama was in an up mood when The Japan Times met him at the office of his distributor, Style Jam. His new film, "Sad Vacation," opened the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival last week, and though, when we met, he confessed himself nervous at the prospect of facing a foreign audience,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2007

Frozen food makers seek ways to stay cool with consumers

Meatballs, hamburger steaks, Chinese-style meat dumplings, fried rice, gratin, tempura and fish boiled with soy sauce — these are just some of the hundreds of frozen food items stocked by the nation's supermarkets.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 9, 2007

The uncensored right to pursue intimacy

A tribute to Manhattan individuality as much as an affirmation of American-style life and personal freedom, "Shortbus" is a movie you want to hold close. It will most certainly pull you to its chest and deposit a loud kiss faster than you can define the term "orgasm." From the opening sequence, which...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 27, 2007

Escape from Tokyo Part II

I've been to Nikko countless times, but really could kick myself for putting off a trip to Edo Wonderland for so long. I finally visited on June 23, and fortunately the delayed onset of the rainy season got me there on a day with perfect weather.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 26, 2007

And the beat goes on

Weatherbeaten and remote, the fishing port of Ogi hardly seems like a cultural magnet. Yet the unassuming little community on the southern peninsula of Niigata Prefecture's Sado Island has achieved worldwide renown as the site of Earth Celebration, a music festival with a twist.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 22, 2007

Duck Rock rides a new club wave

In the late 1970s, a club called Tsubaki House opened on the fifth floor of an office building on the southwest corner of Yasukuni and Meiji streets in Shinjuku. At a time when disco was still the rage, Tsubaki House was one of the few venues in Tokyo doing something different.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 7, 2007

A midsummer bonanza

Many of the hottest tickets theatergoers are after this summer come courtesy of one person — English director John Caird.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 30, 2007

DIY bread makers fill big gap in Japanese menus; robot cubes mimic people

Japanese cuisine does for seafood what French wineries do for the gift of the grape. But what it does for bread is more akin to the imposition the English have made on the world's palate. The alleged loaf consisting of six thick white slices with not a crust in sight at either end of it, and apparently...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
May 11, 2007

Different regions, different sake

Sake has gone global in recent years and, as might be expected, drinkers new to Japan's signature beverage often look for parallels with more familiar tipples when choosing what to imbibe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2007

'Spider-Man 3'

It's been three years since our favorite geeky superhero left us with a promise for a climactic battle with his best friend and a final obstacle for his relationship with the love of his life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 12, 2007

Best when grotesque

One good point about public museums in Japan having "funding issues" is that rather than pulling in the art that the public really wants to see and turning themselves into virtual Musee d'Orsays or ersatz Guggenheims, they instead focus on more academically valuable and locally relevant work.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2007

'Mr. Irresponsible' -- the humanitarian comedian -- passes on

The media has been filled with tributes to comedian Hitoshi Ueki since he died of respiratory failure March 27 at the age of 80, but compared to the intense public mourning that followed the deaths of other, equally influential Showa Era pop icons, the eulogies have been notably subdued. One explanation...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 6, 2007

Fast-food binge continues to take Japan

After years of staying slim on a humble diet of fish, vegetables and rice, Japanese are developing a sweet tooth. That's proving a business opportunity for Krispy Kreme and other chains from the U.S., a nation famous for knowing a thing or two about fattening food.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 30, 2007

Seafood cuisine to set you reeling

Being an archipelago of about 3,000 islands, Japan's best dining often revolves around fruits of the sea. The average Japanese person consumes a whopping 66 kg of fish each year, more than four times the world average. Though very tasty, seafood experiences in Japan can also be challenging, most typically...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Mar 22, 2007

We make great pets

Imagine if you will a female Japanese artist who dresses as a hamster and scurries round amid wood chips and scraps of torn paper, wide-eyed, nibbling on croissant-size, cookie-dough "sunflower seeds." Yes, in this city with its insatiable sweet tooth for art, it does sound like yet another serving of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Mar 13, 2007

COSMIC WONDER, Shibusei and Monocle magazine

Cosmic reconceptualization
CULTURE / Books
Feb 11, 2007

There is nothing two-dimensional about Japanese manga in the U.S.

Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., by Roland Kelts. Palgrave, Macmillan, 2006, 223 pp., $24.95 (cloth) In "Japanamerica," Japanese-American writer Roland Kelts explores how and why Japanese manga and anime have become as familiar to Americans as sushi or karaoke in the 21st...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 21, 2007

Dig in at this genuine cantina

OSAKA -- Osaka likes to brag that it is the kitchen of Japan, where the stomach is the most important body organ. But as the guidebooks might say, "Cheap and cheerful is the rule" when it comes to establishing a decent greasy spoon in this city, which prides itself on its working-class, merchant roots....

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake