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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Dec 9, 2007

Japan's 'fix'ation with a risky ride

A group of young men huddle around a bicycle in a small shop named Carnival on the second story of a cream-brick building peering over the Yamanote Line in Shibuya.
SOCCER
Dec 8, 2007

Sepahan sets up rematch with Reds

FIFA's decision to introduce a playoff buffer in the Club World Cup to stop a repeat of Auckland City's awful showing last year looked prescient four minutes into Friday night's game between Iran's Sepahan and Waitakere United, but despite finishing up 3-1 losers the Kiwis far from disgraced themselves....
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 7, 2007

Rizing Fukuoka finds wings

The Rizing Fukuoka have quietly put together a solid stretch of games and now find themselves in the thick of things in the bj-league's Western Conference.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2007

He's in the realm of the senses

Francois Ozon is a filmmaker renowned for adopting a different style with every film — he has made scathing, pseudo-pornographic short features ("Sitcom," "See the Sea"), a rich, velvety musical ("8 Femmes"), and a restrained but sensual tale of bereavement ("Under the Sand"). His latest, "Angel,"...
Japan Times
SOCCER
Dec 6, 2007

Reds looking for Ono to step up

Urawa Reds coach Holger Osieck is hoping Shinji Ono can play a key role in the absence of injured star Robson Ponte as the Saitama giants look to finish the season on a high at the FIFA Club World Cup.
Reader Mail
Dec 6, 2007

Tired of the same old commentary

There are too many "multi-commentators" on Japanese TV programs. I'm talking about people who comment on various subjects. Are they experts on all of these subjects?
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2007

Suzuki shifts into overdrive in Indian car market

Despite intensifying competition, Suzuki Motor Corp. won't give up its 55 percent share of the market in India without a fight, company Chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki vowed Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 5, 2007

Wintertime and the livin' ain't easy

I came to live in Kurohime in Nagano Prefecture in the autumn of 1980. An old friend lived here, the poet and critic Gan Tanigawa, and he found a house for me. It was a big old country house, a couple of hundred years old, at least, with massive wooden pillars and beams and a thatched roof. The house...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 5, 2007

Phones get both weirder and simpler; everything else becomes waterproof

Boning up on new tech: Call me old fashioned, but I like to hear sounds with my ears. Progress, however, is no fan of nostalgia, and so the bone-induction trend continues. NTT DoCoMo ups the ante with its Sound Leaf Plus keitai (cell phone) accessory, due out in February for around ¥13,000. The device,...
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2007

Hold your beef about whale meat

J.H.G.'s Nov. 22 letter, "Plenty of other things to eat," motivated me to respond. It is true that only a few countries such as Japan, Norway and Iceland have hunted whales for food. Japanese fishermen used to make the best use of all parts of the whale, not only its meat but also fats and other stuff....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 4, 2007

Skin-deep success

It started with an e-mail from my editor: "Get yr (sic) camera ready. Online Dating Minus Ugly People is coming to Japan. Thinking Lifestyle page trend piece. Ready for the money shot?"
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2007

Rudd and Asia's security

SYDNEY — Kevin Rudd has been swept into power after 6 percent of the voters swung to the Australian Labor Party. With domestic issues dominating the contest, the Howard government's unpopular industrial relations policies became the focus of discontent and a central argument for political change.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 4, 2007

A cute and kind of sexy guide to Japan

Manga has conquered America. Or so declares the November issue of the U.S. tech magazine Wired, which carries a 10-page manga story describing how manga is reshaping American pop culture. Booming manga sales — which, according to the magazine, account for almost two-thirds of the $330-million graphic...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 4, 2007

What is the most important issue facing foreigners in Japan right now?

LIFE / Language
Dec 4, 2007

Translating full of judgment calls, compromises

Second of two parts
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 2, 2007

Reds complete epic collapse on final day

YOKOHAMA — Capitulation complete. Urawa Reds' wretched run of form at the tail end of the season reached its nadir on Saturday as the Saitama giants lost 1-0 to already-relegated Yokohama FC on the final day of the season to hand the J. League title to Kashima Antlers.
Reader Mail
Dec 2, 2007

Beautiful fruit that disappoints

Regarding Michael Hoffman's Nov. 25 article, "Taste buds of children destroyed by junk food" (a translation of a Sapio article): It's not just food additives that are destroying taste buds; Japan has a depressing lack of good produce available in stores.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 2, 2007

Big-family sitcom, judo docu-drama, life makeover show

Teru Miyamoto's best-selling novel "Suisei Monogatari (Meteor Story)" (TBS, Monday, 9 p.m.) is brought to the small screen this week in a two-hour adaptation. The book focuses on a very large household containing 13 people and one dog, a beagle named Hook.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Dec 1, 2007

Editors to single out buzzword of the year

Amplification of the Japanese language reaches its annual culmination every December when editors of Gendai Yougo no Kisochishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words) crown a word or a phrase as its "ryuko go taisho" — buzzword of the year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 2007

Company has visions of a brighter future

Have you heard of a sustainable plant that produces fuel as well as homeopathic medicines? Or a revolutionary process that turns garbage or plants into fuel?
MORE SPORTS
Nov 30, 2007

German pair Savchenko, Szolkowy claim short program

SENDAI — Reigning European champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the pairs short program on the first night of action at the NHK Trophy on Thursday.
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...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2007

Gender separation is common sense

In his Nov. 25 letter, Peter Stevenson wonders why the same non-Japanese males who complain about the new Japanese policy of photographing and fingerprinting arriving foreigners at airports do not seem particularly upset about women-only train carriages.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 29, 2007

Translator of the universal and the local

In his 1987 book "Ireland Kiko (Travels in Ireland)," the renowned historical novelist and essayist Ryotaro Shiba (1923-96) observed that "the typical Irish character could easily be dramatized," and that "Ireland is one of the richest countries for the literary arts, with people whose daily lives are...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2007

Japan must lead on security

In his Nov. 25 letter letter, "Foreigners overrate themselves," Peter Stevenson makes some interesting points that I tend to agree with. Still, one needs to ask who is really behind the hornet's nest of cameras, fingerprinting, photographing, delays at airports, etc. worldwide. Beyond a doubt, it is...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2007

America is not 'the world'

I wanted to comment on the peculiar use of the word "world" in The Japan Times and indeed the Japanese media generally. It is only the Japanese media and Japanese politicians who do this when referring to the opinion of the U.S. government. This apparently subconscious phenomenon seems unique to Japan,...
BASEBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 28, 2007

Ueda may excel on LPGA Tour where Miyazato has not

Not too long ago the general consensus was that Ai Miyazato would become Japan's first breakthrough star on an American golf tour. She may yet become a superstar, but there's another Japanese player that may get there first.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 27, 2007

New England likely motivated by close call against Eagles

The Eagles seemed content with a moral victory and anybody brave enough beforehand to take Philly and the spread — 22 points, one of the largest lines in NFL history — had to be downright ecstatic.

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