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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

Girls know what girls want

At first glance, it looks like a small shop filled with hundreds of colorful fancy goods.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 8, 2001

Overcoming Manic depression

The summer festival season is very much about the adventure of youth, as teenagers escape from parents and home comforts for a few days to develop a little independence. For those of us in our 30s, however, it comes as something of a shock to realize that one of this year's Fuji Rock Festival headliners,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 8, 2001

Wright the dealer, not the builder

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND THE ART OF JAPAN, by Julia Meech. New York: Japan Society/Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001, 304 pp., 229 illustrations, including 89 color plates. $49.50. Toward the end of his long and successful career as an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright remembered Japan, the scene of so much of...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 8, 2001

Fashioning jewels of enlightenment

KATMANDU -- Suman Ratna Dhakawa spills a tray of rings onto a bench and runs his fingers through the mass of metal as if it were a liquid. "My family all have been jewelry-makers, craftsmen or artists," says Dhakawa. "I have jewelry-making in my blood."
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Survey offers solid treatment of history

THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN, by Marius B. Jansen. Harvard University Press, 2000, 896 pp., $35 (hardback). "The Making of Modern Japan," Marius Jansen's last work, is a reliable, solid and authoritative interpretation of Japan's recent past. It is a fitting testament to a learned man whose scholarly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

Love town where time stands still

OSAKA -- Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura repeatedly says he wants to turn the city into an international tourist destination. But camera-toting foreigners snapping pictures of Tobita, one of its oldest and most famous neighborhoods, are probably not what either he or the local business community have in...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 8, 2001

Midnight at the oasis

The first time Takahiro Maeda saw his senpai Magsam dancing hip-hop style in a club, he knew that's what he wanted to do. He also realized not long after trying the moves himself that he could never be a professional dancer. So, instead, he busied himself organizing events where Magsam and his friends...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Slaying the 'monsters' of Meiji Era modernity

CIVILIZATION AND MONSTERS: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan, by Gerald Figal. Duke University Press, 1999, 290 pp., $49.95 (hardback); $17.95 (paperback). In his prologue to "Civilization and Monsters," Gerald Figal defines Meiji modernization within the context of the fantastic and supernatural...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 8, 2001

Tanishige slams Giants

Yokohama catcher Motonobu Tanishige slugged a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth off Yomiuri reliever Tsuyoshi Jobe, lifting the BayStars to a 5-1 "sayonara" victory over the Giants at Yokohama Stadium on Saturday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jul 8, 2001

When your number's up . . .

Although all that you will ever need to know about a sake is contained in one, intention-laden sip, sometimes the technical mumbo jumbo can be fun to study as well. The industry always seems to offer one more piece of information every few years, be it the amino acid level, the number of days the tank...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

Confessions of a 'queen'

Karen's father never had any reason to go into her bedroom closet. Whenever he stayed at his daughter's Tokyo apartment while on business trips, she always told him not to bother putting away the futon in the morning and unfailingly reminded him not to touch anything.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2001

U.S. isn't isolationist, it's just isolated

LONDON -- There are a few countries that line up with the United States in opposing the creation of an international criminal court -- Cuba, China, Iraq, and Libya -- but no other respectable, democratic countries oppose it.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

The Japanese Constitution gets a provocative look

FIVE DECADES OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN JAPANESE SOCIETY, edited by Yoshio Higuchi. University of Tokyo Press, 2001, 368 pp., 8,000 yen. A major stumbling block for Japan on its road to becoming a more influential member of the global community has been a profound absence of voice. Japanese politicians,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 8, 2001

The buckwheat starts here

Some of the most enjoyable, satisfying and memorable meals I have had in Japan involve soba (buckwheat). I can still smell the broth of a hot bowl of kake soba I had the winter after the Olympics in Nagano.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 8, 2001

Corporate warriors suit up for revolution

With the Upper House elections looming and the previously overlooked "urban salaryman" vote attracting special attention, NHK has decided to address the issue with a special 21/2-hour discussion Saturday titled "Japan's Salaryman Revolution" (NHK-G, 7:30 p.m.).
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jul 8, 2001

Where Nas is coming from

One of the most unlikely roots music success stories of recent years has been Olu Dara's 1998 album, "In the World: From Natchez to New York." Even more surprising than the spontaneous ease with which he combined blues, folk, Afro and Caribbean styles, or his vivid, autobiographical, half-spoken words,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 2001

Next round of the word wars

There's a lot going on in the world this month. Heads of state are exchanging visits; China is finally getting a foot inside the WTO's door; and Wimbledon is hosting yet another prim-and-proper tennis championship. But for English-speakers who have their priorities straight, the big event of early July...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 8, 2001

Money for nothing, but only if you spend it first

Television is often blamed for conditioning its audience in undesirable ways: We want things faster, easier, in bite-size pieces that don't require a lot of chewing. And everything must have a kicker, a dramatic endpoint that will justify our time in front of the box.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2001

U.S. stays silent on its own 'dirty wars'

Carlos Mauricio and Martin Almada can only marvel at the self-righteousness with which the United States has insisted on punishment for former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
COMMENTARY
Jul 8, 2001

If you've still got a job, you're a loser

NEW YORK -- From 1996 to 1999, everyone who was anyone knew that the Internet was the place to be. People quit perfectly good jobs at profitable corporations because, as everyone knew, profitability was Old School and Old School was bad. They went to work at places like Henfruit.com and ReplaceThoseMissingExtraSocks.com,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 8, 2001

Hot on the trail of spicy laksa

How can it be that laksa, one of the classic dishes of Southeast Asia, still has not achieved recognition in Japan? You would think a nation that worships the noodle in any shape or form -- and is no longer afraid to flirt with "ethnic" (that is to say, Asian and hot) flavors -- would have embraced laksa,...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 7, 2001

The pope as a nation breaker

If one wants to single out a decisive reason for the spectacular collapse of communism in the Soviet Union in 1985-1991, the variety of choices is staggering. The war in Afghanistan, the exhausting arms race, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the food shortages, Voice of...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2001

Networking takes root in Asian universities

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The magic of the new term "networking" is becoming irresistible. How does it translate when we examine its potential in academia, particularly in the Asia Pacific region?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 7, 2001

Sharing corporate vision of women and money

Whoever said women were the weaker sex has not met Kaori Sasaki. Not only is she president of UNICUL International Inc. and president and CEO of eWoman Inc., a new Web site for women. She is the brains behind the 6th International Conference for Women in Business, to be held at the Daiba Hotel Nikko...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 7, 2001

BlueWave blanks Seibu Lions 6-0

Orix pitcher Nobuyuki Ebisu hurled a three-hit shutout over the distance and Yoshitomo Tani drove in four runs, carrying the BlueWave to a 6-0 win over the Seibu Lions at Green Stadium Kobe on Friday night.
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2001

The world cannot afford to wait

The prospects for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol remain cloudy as the United States continues to reject the world climate agreement. In his talks this week with British and French leaders following a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told them Japan...
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 7, 2001

Biodiversity crucial for ecosystems

Wildlife variety is the spice of life -- we know it, and now scientists have confirmed it. Biodiversity is crucial for ecosystems to work properly, according to a French-British study published in Nature this week.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 7, 2001

There's no terminating hungry termites

I'm so hungry, I could eat a house! That is the termite's mantra. My neighbor Kazuko is having her house rebuilt, as it has been consumed by termites, which the Japanese call "shiroari" ("white ants").
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 7, 2001

John Delp

"Being different" is a key to his success, John Delp believes. When he founded his travel business, he made a significant policy decision "to concentrate on serving the foreign community." A third factor lay in his applying the company motto, "the executive touch," to the comfort and well-being of his...

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’