Search - things-to-do

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 5, 2008

What aspects of other cultures would you like to see Japan adopt?

Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2008

'Cosplay' contest draws hundreds

NAGOYA — Hundreds of people from across the world converged on Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, on Saturday to march as characters from animated movies in the Osu Cosplay Parade.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 3, 2008

The obsession over those dumbed down cute mascots

Japan is overrun with cute mascots. They represent everything from chain stores to police departments, and for the past decade or so there has been a marked increase in the popularity of one species of mascot called "yuru-kyara." The second half of this word stands for "character," while "yuru" is from...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 3, 2008

Lest we forget, it's a story that cries out for telling and retelling

What can be more chilling than the statistics of war? Tens of thousands dying in a single day on the Western Front in World War I. Millions perishing in World War II. India. Pakistan. Korea. Kenya. Vietnam. Cambodia. Rwanda. Iraq. And where next?
Reader Mail
Aug 3, 2008

Pets demonstrate sanctity of life

In Japan, around 400,000 dogs and cats are killed at public health centers every year. Most are taken there by their owners for "unavoidable reasons," as the owners put it. What that means is that the owners are going on a trip and won't be home to care for the pet, or they're just tired of taking care...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 3, 2008

The new language of translated films

CINEMA BABEL: Translating Global Cinema, by Abe Mark Nornes. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2008, 304 pp.,$22.50 (paper) Though foreign film is now seen by all, we are still dependent on translation to discover what is going on up on the big screen or on the little tube. This translation of dialogue can be...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2008

The commodification of bodies of both sexes

LONDON — In the 1960s, feminists coined the slogan, "Our bodies, our selves." But that liberating sentiment has recently undergone an ironic twist. As an anonymous American woman, justifying her decision to undergo cosmetic surgery, put it, "All we have in life is ourselves, and what we can put out...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 2, 2008

Minister backs cause for justice

Most people turning 60 begin to think about slowing down or fertilizing the greener pasturelands of retirement.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 1, 2008

Runner Yamauchi excited about opportunity to compete in Beijing

The essence of one's competitive spirit often comes from this: a joy in participating in the process. And it would be difficult — nearly impossible, in fact — to find another marathon runner who reveres the process as much as Mara Yamauchi.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 1, 2008

Yamasaki provides late-game heroics

OSAKA — Entering the bottom of the ninth of the first game in the NPB All-Star Series, it was pretty much a given the game's MVP would be a 40-year-old veteran.
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2008

An outbreak of nationalism

The issue of Scottish nationalism has again come to a head, and is raising serious political issues for all of Britain. The situation has been sparked by the outcome of a recent parliamentary by-election which, to general surprise, the Scottish Nationalist candidate won.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jul 31, 2008

Ogasawara, Ramirez form devastating duo for second-place Giants

When things looked bleak for the Yomiuri Giants earlier this season, Alex Ramirez almost single-handedly kept the Kyojin afloat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 31, 2008

Who are you calling 'Mummy's boy'?

'This is some screwy way for an adult to be spending his career, right?" laughs Brendan Fraser.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Jul 31, 2008

You can always buy your way in

Art changes with the times, so why shouldn't art galleries? Some say that Japan's unique "rental gallery" system, where young artists pay hundreds of thousands of yen per week to show their work, is on its last legs. If so, is it a case of good riddance? Or does this represent the retreat of a perfectly...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2008

Ex-captive: Bogota prevailing over FARC

The recent bloodless rescue of 15 hostages in Colombia, including a former presidential candidate who had been held for more than six years, was seen internationally as a signal that the Bogota government was finally prevailing over the nation's leftist guerrillas.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 30, 2008

Waribashi: Waste on a gluttonous scale

I f I were writing about one of my favorite Tokyo eateries for the JT's Food Page, this story would mostly focus on its delicious fare. However, as this is the Nature Page, my verbal meanderings here are not about the nosh at cheap and cheerful Shokudo Shogetsu in Tamachi, but about the tools used to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 29, 2008

Navigating the 'keigo' minefield

You've probably heard of blunders by Japanese businessmen in English, such as translating "hitotsu yoroshiku" as "one, please" instead of "I look forward to working with you." Less known, but no less common, are the slip-ups foreigners make in Japanese, especially when using that dreaded form of honorifics...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 27, 2008

Giants make up deficit to race past sorry Swallows

The Yomiuri Giants played small ball to get back into their game against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They made things simple and just hit the ball over the fence when they were ready to win it.
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2008

What immunity from prosecution?

In his July 20 letter, "No mention of arrest immunity," Yoshio Shimoji seems to be under the impression that U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan are immune from arrest and prosecution by Japanese authorities. Maybe he should tell this to the GIs who are presently serving -- or have served -- time...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 27, 2008

Cancerlike corruption thrives in heads of bureaucrats

The ongoing investigation into charges of bribery and employment-rigging in the Oita prefectural school system has occasioned more than the usual amount of harsh commentary you hear when public servants do bad things. That's probably because in this case it is believed that the minds of innocent youths...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 27, 2008

One of poetry's finest reminds us of our place in the natural world

Skinny frog Don't give up! Issa is here
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 27, 2008

Athletics squad faces pressure in Beijing

There was a mild dose of optimism Japan would collect a bunch of medals at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka. Some said the nation's athletes would benefit from the home stadium advantage and the fact they were acclimated to the hot, humid summers in Kansai.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 27, 2008

Zeami's notes: appreciating blossoming performances

ZEAMI: Performance Notes, translated by Tom Hare. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, 528 pp., $45 (cloth) Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443), the actor, playwright and aesthetic theorist who established the Noh drama as a classical theatrical art, left behind some 21 treatises.
COMMUNITY
Jul 26, 2008

Psychic travels world to save lives

Professor Jucelino Nobrega da Luz was 9 years old when he had a dream that scared him half to death.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 26, 2008

In need of a beach for snails

The more I travel around Japan, the more I realize I don't live in Japan. Nor have I for the past decade. I guess I've gotten so used to my safe, comfortable island life, that when I go to some other places in Japan, I am astounded to find it is not the same warm 'n' fuzzy place I'm used to.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2008

Do images of scarcity drive prices higher?

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Could the television image of the Greenland ice cap crumbling into the ocean because of global warming — indirectly and psychologically — be partly responsible for high oil and other commodity prices? The usual explanation of today's scarcity and high prices focuses on explosive...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2008

Cassandra Wilson

We're getting around to the realization that the 1990s saw the most innovation in popular music since the '60s — and that realization encompasses even staid subgenres such as vocal jazz, which most aficionados believe is just fine as long as it sticks to the pre-'60s canon. Cassandra Wilson probably...

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