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BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 12, 2001

Giants edge Swallows as Martinez blasts two

Domingo Martinez' second home run of the night gave Yomiuri the go-ahead run as the Giants propelled past the Yakult Swallows for the second straight game, 5-4 at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 12, 2001

Treat your feet

Be they fashion- or health-related, there are products galore to answer our every foot need. In Japan, many are wrapped up in trends, traditional culture and daily habits.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Aug 12, 2001

Rich experience on a poor man's budget

Although hogaku is an important part of Japan's cultural identity, concerts and other opportunities for exposure are often difficult to track down. Meanwhile, the range of hogaku genres, instruments and performance styles is vast, and concerts expensive. So to experience hogaku in its totality involves...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2001

Kim's final destination remains a mystery

SEOUL -- For Korean watchers, the overriding question regarding North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's visit to Moscow is whether it has brought him any closer to Seoul. Beyond receiving accolades for a summit in Moscow last weekend, the exact purpose behind the trip or, more precisely, Kim's final destination,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 12, 2001

'Model' family vs. maternal love: a nation judges

Last week, the Japan Office of the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine announced that a 60-year-old Japanese woman gave birth to a healthy baby at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo. Though the woman's identity and the child's gender were not revealed, the mother released a statement through the...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 12, 2001

War and remembrance

This Wednesday marks the 56th anniversary of the Japanese surrender, but, as usual, only NHK is commemorating it in any significant way.
COMMENTARY
Aug 12, 2001

Indonesian failure not an option

LOS ANGELES --If Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had but one wish, it might be for the far-off West, especially the United States, to put itself in Australia's shoes for a second. Imagine, if you will, that north of the U.S. hovers not stolid and sensible Canada, which has a population...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 12, 2001

To know us is to love us

ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE KEY WORDS FOR UNDERSTANDING JAPAN (Nippon o Shiru Hyakugosho). Tokyo: Corona Books/Heibonsha, 2001, bilingual (Japanese/English) edition. 328 pp. 205 plates, color, b/w. 2000 yen. This country has an abiding faith in the power of understanding. If we just understood each other,...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 12, 2001

Til death or demographics do us part: the changing face of family life in Japan

At the end of each year, NHK has a ritual contest of male singers vs. female singers, but signs have been emerging of more serious gender conflict on the horizon in Japan. The diverging interests of men and women are evident in a recent book on changing attitudes toward having children and an article...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Aug 12, 2001

Kakigori: a close shave doused in sweet syrup

This week my local shrine, Ishikiri Jinja (a destination for pilgrims seeking the healing of various unwanted growths), hosted its annual fireworks-filled summer festival. The pilgrim road was lined for several kilometers with stalls selling the usual summer-fair wares and, of course, the traditional...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2001

Kansai / Who & What

Art space combines dance, dinner, bonfire A dinner party with dancing, music and a bonfire will be held Wednesday and Thursday at the KyoRyuKan International Art Space in Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 12, 2001

She's got legs . . .

You've probably seen her somewhere -- on product packaging, in fashion catalogs or TV commercials. But no one would recognize her, because she is famous only for her legs.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 12, 2001

Victimhood in the national psyche

THE VICTIM AS HERO: Ideologies of Peace and National Identity in Postwar Japan, by James J. Orr. University of Hawaii Press, 2001, 271 pp., $22.95 (paperback). August 15 approaches, and once again Japan's neighbors are up in arms over the prospect of a prime minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine. In...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 12, 2001

Feet first!

Somewhere in the march of progress, we lost sight of our feet. Though there are cutting-edge running shoes incorporating space technology for maximum performance, many of us gladly choose low-tech gear in the name of style. We are willing fashion victims, but the damage can be more serious than many...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 12, 2001

Some like it hot

There once was a Tokyo night empire called Ink Stick, which spawned a handful of cool jazz slash ambient slash progressive clubs around town. But this review has nothing to do with Ink Stick. It is about Shinichi Watanabe, who took over the space that the Nogizaka Ink Stick occupied. Even more than 10...
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Aug 12, 2001

Copying Kyoto is way to revitalize Japan, fashion critic says

KYOTO -- If Japan wants to revitalize the sluggish economy and turn its prospects around, there are plenty of indications that Kyoto's way of life as well as its way of doing business are the answer, according to Hiromi Ichida, a fashion critic who has lived in the ancient capital for more than half...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2001

Computer virus hits Coast Guard

The e-mail-borne Sircam computer virus has infected a terminal in a Japan Coast Guard department, coast guard officials said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 12, 2001

Book bites

LETTERS FROM THE END OF THE WORLD: A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA, by Toyofumi Ogura. Kodansha, 198 pp., 2,000 yen. The first eyewitness account ever published of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, "The End of the World" is a devastating record of the horrors history professor Toyofumi...
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Aug 12, 2001

Best-sipped secret in Austria

In an era when wine has become a global industry, wine aficionados must search for handmade quality. Artisan wines are most exciting to find when they are insider tips -- unfamiliar to international consumers and thus still in the realm of good value. Dedicated fans scrutinize wine magazines, newsletters,...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2001

U.K. family of JAL victim confused at redress delay

The British mother of two girls who lost their father in the world's worst single plane crash in 1985, has expressed both confusion and hope over the family's claim for official and direct compensation from Japan Airlines.
COMMUNITY
Aug 12, 2001

Excuse me but is that your foot in your mouth?

In Japanese, the word ashi (whose kanji can also be read soku) is used to refer to both the legs and feet, and often has a negative meaning when used idiomatically. For some Japanese idioms that employ it, there are identically phrased expressions in English, though their meanings sometimes differ. Here...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 12, 2001

The life of spice in the big city

Our column last month on looking for laksa in Tokyo generated a good number of comments and recommendations. One correspondent felt we had not properly pointed out that these spicy noodles are also hugely popular in Singapore, not just in Malaysia. It was certainly not our intention to ignore or slight...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Aug 12, 2001

Take time to stop and hear the music

As your Music Nomad is wandering back to the U.K., this will be my last column. Thanks for taking the trouble to read it over the years; hopefully some of you have enjoyed seeing the concerts recommended.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even through immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’