Search - weekend_scene

 
 
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 20, 2013

Odds on Ando making Olympic team for Sochi very long

"Do you believe in miracles?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 3, 2013

Nori represents Japan at BC One breakdancing competition

This past weekend's Red Bull BC One breakdancing event in Seoul was something of a battle of titans.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 30, 2013

No bridge too far in the home of the Heike clan

The road has thankfully just widened — and by that I mean it's more than 2 meters across — when we meet our first oncoming car.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2013

Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier

How can writers make themselves heard in the age of blog and self-publishing saturation? Japan-based authors offer a diverse range of views
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2013

Bill Murray relishes FDR's 'human' side

Biographical movies can be a daunting task. Their subjects often have larger-than-life stories that are focal points for controversy. Actor Bill Murray says that what attracted him to the role of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in "Hyde Park on Hudson," was less of the former element and a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZ NOTES
Sep 11, 2013

Tony Bennett, New Cool Collective, Ai Kuwabara Trio Project impress crowds at Tokyo Jazz Festival

On seeing the lineup ahead of this year's Tokyo Jazz Festival, my initial feeling was the organizers had maybe cast their net a bit too wide with the acts booked, but those fears were completely unfounded.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2013

Five myths about the U.S. millennial generation

The millennial generation is not as developmentally stunted as older generations make them out to be.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 30, 2013

Organizer of annual writers' workshop helps others find artistic way

John Gribble gives a part of every day to creating. Whether it's pinpointing the perfect word for a poem or plucking out a ditty on a guitar, his life and livelihood in some way proves creative. As a poet and teacher, Gribble has spent the last 20 years in Japan organizing others to find their artistic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 23, 2013

Pop star or avant-garde artist? Lady Gaga now wants to be the next Warhol

The message is crystal clear: do not buy Lady Gaga's latest album or download tracks because she is "over" and "no longer relevant." Many will be happy to obey, but it's not quite that simple.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 13, 2013

Otakon celebrates 20 years of anime fandom in the U.S.

The American anime convention, Otakon ("Otaku Convention"), begins with a costume parade before it officially opens. Last week I had a bird's-eye view of the spectacle from my 14th-floor hotel room in Baltimore, Maryland. An endless army of imaginary characters trudged across the elevated concourse and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 15, 2013

Actor Ethan Hawke: still playing all the angles

Ethan Hawke is out and about in New York, the city he's lived in for 30 years, a place where famous faces slide past every day. He's wearing a baseball cap, a hoodie and a pair of cords. It's an outfit you might think he chose especially to look nondescript, but in reality it's because he likes corduroy...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 13, 2013

Indie game developers go global at BitSummit

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Japanese independent-game scene is alive and well. Over the past weekend in Kyoto, nearly 180 game developers packed into an event hall to show off their latest self-made creations at the first BitSummit.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2012

DJ Kentaro set to scratch a new itch

Only a handful of artists can say they've reached the top of their trade, but Kentaro Okamoto is one of them. As DJ Kentaro, his record-scratching skills got him noticed by beat heads worldwide back in 2002, when he won the DMC World DJ Final in London. But, now this DJ wants an image change.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 24, 2012

Wi-Fi, Facebook and all that jazz

Fumito Fukuchi, owner and proprietor of Kissa Sakaiki jazz cafe in Tokyo's central Yotsuya neighborhood, grins as he puts the finishing touches to an online schedule.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 11, 2012

Upstart B-Corsairs open playoff series with victory

The Yokohama B-Corsairs burst onto the scene as a brand new franchise with an unusual — but hip — name and no identity when the 2011-12 bj-league season tipped off in October.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 22, 2012

Matsumoto in May means 'crafts '

England gave the world the Windsor chair, but it was the city of Matsumoto in central Nagano Prefecture that reinvented it for Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 5, 2012

Pictureplane inserts punk's attitude into a hard drive

Last September, music magazine Spin wrote that America was experiencing an "electronica revolution." Spearheaded by speaker-destroying producers such as Skrillex and Deadmau5, Spin wrote that a "new rave generation" has helped make electronic dance music an inescapable presence on the nation's music...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 26, 2012

Nakase says goal is to coach in NBA

Isn't it funny how likes and dislikes can shape one's future when you least expect it?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 18, 2011

Chili Peppers dominate Summer Sonic

It was clear on the second day of Summer Sonic that this year's event belonged to the evening's headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers. A casual stroll around Chiba's Makuhari Messe complex revealed a noticeable uptick from the day before in the number of shirtless dudes sporting tribal-band tattoos.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2011

'Due Date'

Radio stations tend to broadcast live material with a seven- second delay on their signal, so they can have a brief window to censor people dropping "F"-bombs and the like. Comedian Zach Galifianakis isn't really worried about being offensive — see "The Hangover" — but it often feels like there's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2011

Dommune live-streams DJ sets to a growing fan base

The crowd bristles with excitement as the first DJ of the night winds down his set. An air of anticipation sets in around the room. As the next DJ enters the booth with his CD booklet in hand, the throng begins to swarm the tiny floor, no larger than your grandmother's basement. Four Tet is about to...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2010

'Spring Fever'

Director Lou Ye continues to prove he's one of the more daring directors working in China today with his latest, "Spring Fever." Or perhaps I should say, one of the more daring directors not working in China today, for Lou was placed on the government censors' blacklist in 2006 after his last film, "Summer...
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Oct 3, 2010

Shoji makes a splash in international debut

With world junior champion Kanako Murakami moving up to the senior ranks this season, there may have been some trepidation in Japanese skating circles about who would represent the next wave of young talent among the ladies.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2010

Flying the humanitarian flag among Muslims

NEW YORK — What's the one major issue the West absolutely and totally must get right in the years ahead? If the obvious answer is not peaceful international relations with an increasingly assertive China, then it has to be the West's ever-more complicated relationship with the world's Muslims.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 30, 2010

LCD Soundsystem bring some edge to Fuji Rock Fest

Share your experience at Fuji Rock with The Japan Times Be sure to check out our live online coverage of the 2010 Fuji Rock Festival at tokyo.japantimes.co.jp. We'll feature interviews with some of the acts, reviews of all the major performances and lots of visuals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / A SCORCHING SUMMER SCHEDULE
Jul 2, 2010

Fuji Rock Festival: Atoms For Peace

It sounded like a practical joke at first: Radiohead's Thom Yorke starting a band with frat-funk bassist Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers? But after a string of successful dates in the United States, including California's Coachella Festival, it's clear that Atoms for Peace mean business — and know...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 23, 2010

'Johnny Mad Dog'/'Clash of the Titans'

For a quick snapshot of the alternate and opposing directions being taken by cinema in the 21st century, it's worth considering a pair of films on release this weekend: "Johnny Mad Dog," by French director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, is a provocative, intensely realist look at child soldiers on the rampage...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 20, 2010

Proposed new league will have major obstacles to overcome

To accurately describe what's been going on for several years now in this nation's pro hoop scene, I submit the following analogy:

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan