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Farmers in the city of Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, have begun planting rice in a district once designated a no-go zone because of radioactive fallout ejected by the disaster-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Recently I was asked to write a blurb for a new liquid plant-nutrient. As soon as I saw the name of the product, 早根早起 （Hayane Hayaoki), I smiled at this example of linguistic creativity.
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune “Only Teardrops,” despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Juries and television viewers across Europe awarded the barefoot, ...
One team’s quest for a first title has ended. The other team’s fight will continue next season. The Yokohama B-Corsairs outplayed the Rizing Fukuoka in Sunday’s bj-league championship game, controlling the tempo for larger stretches and making enough timely baskets to fill an instructional ...
Werner Herzog is an acclaimed German director who is thought to be one of the best in his generation, in part due to his breathtaking filmmaking ability, but also because of what many consider his masterly visionary qualities. Tokyo readers will have a chance ...
Admired by many throughout Japanese history, Mount Fuji is the subject of a new exhibition at Izu Photo Museum, which itself is located in the dormant volcano’s shadow. Through photographs and illustrations, the show reveals how perceptions of Mount Fuji have evolved in accordance ...
In preparation for the 2012 completion of the Sky Tree, the world’s tallest communications tower, this exhibition offers an understanding behind the construction’s planning and building. Introducing the cutting-edge technology used to build the tower, and an understanding of the historical area in which ...
Many hip-hop artists spend their days scouring record bins for choice samples to rap over, but rarely do they go out and find an actual orchestra. As rapper Thee Phantom, Jeff McNeill is doing just that. McNeill has played at New York’s famed Carnegie ...
“Construction of a State” is award-winning architect Jun Igarashi’s first solo show. Igarashi prides himself on creating designs that are inspired by the pursuit of finding the ideal “state” of architecture, which he believes emerges from studying each structure’s natural surrounding environment. The majority ...
After broadening the horizons of Japanese audiences for the past eight years, the EU Film Days festival is trying to broaden its audience. The three-week event, organized by the Delegation of the European Union to Japan and the National Film Center, will expand to ...
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of PhotographyCloses July 18 When photographer Josef Koudelka took to the streets of Prague in August 1968, he captured a monumental moment as the so-called Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia’s rising democracy was being crushed in an event that would affect the ...
Mori Art MuseumCloses August 28 It is the 10th anniversary of The Marcel Duchamp Prize, an award named after the artist whom many consider was the father of contemporary art. To celebrate the prize’s success and influence, its organizers collaborated with Japanese curators to ...
Japan’s thirst for the nation’s favorite red fruit is unabated with seasonal pick-your-own strawberry farms as popular as ever. Kansai’s Kinishiwada Farm is entering its final week of peak strawberry season, which means it is your final chance this year to go and gorge ...
This weekend could be one of a few to really enjoy the sights of the city on foot before the rainy season arrives and is followed by one of Tokyo’s notoriously sticky summers. Saturday will see the start of Tokyo Walk 2011, a series ...
Bringing together a collection of photographs from an impressive lineup of Japanese and international individualistic photographers, this exhibition portrays how images of children during times of war have been used to provoke reaction and emotion in viewers. The range of documentation styles also offers ...
Toshusai Sharaku’s active career lasted a mere 10 months sometime in the years of 1794-95. Despite this brevity, his work has been acclaimed for its minimal and abbreviated but stylistic appearance. The mystery behind Sharaku’s true identity — which is still unknown — also ...