The death toll from a blizzard that hit Hokkaido and the Tohoku region over the weekend has risen to nine, local police said Monday. The latest fatality as of Monday was Kuniko Jingi, 76, who was found collapsed under the snow on a road ...
Sleeping in. Breakfast in bed. Sunny brunches. Strolls in the park. Laid-back afternoon tea. Cocktails at sunset. Decadent late nights. Saturday — the word brings to mind a flurry of images associated with the first day of the weekend and the chances are, they ...
For the past year, Tokyo sixth-grader Manami has had dinner at home an average of four times a week. The rest of the time she has had to make do with a juku-ben, a boxed dinner prepared by her mother and consumed between classes ...
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Cuba overpowers China, winning 12-0 and advancing to the second round of the World Baseball Classic.
Welcome to the rainy season. Welcome to the invasion of insects! Contrary to what most people will tell you, I think the rainy season is the most exciting part of the year in Japan. Believe me, you’re gonna see plenty of strange things. Every ...
I’ve recently been reading books about athletes. Lance Armstrong’s “It’s Not About the Bike,” Andre Agassi’s “Open,” and more recently, Scott Jurek’s “Eat and Run.” All these books are memoirs, but they have something less obvious in common. They all had ghostwriters. The reason ...
I can never remember my mother being younger than 50. I’m sure she was born 50, and married my father at 60. Then they went to a store and bought me when they were both 63. Even if you know your parents aren’t old, ...
Paul Walsh has just finished running 156 km. For fun. Around the bottom of Mount Fuji. If you think he’s crazy, then you’ll have to incriminate the other 611 people who also finished the Ultra-Trail Mount Fuji (UTMF) 100-Mile race held this past May ...
As I started to plan our trip to Mount Fuji from Okayama, I was met with obstacles at every turn. The local trains would take too long, the shinkansen would be too expensive and not direct enough, and to take the express bus, we’d ...
I’ve heard many excuses for the nuclear accident that happened as a result of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, followed by reasons why we should return to nuclear power. I don’t buy any of them. 1. “We were unprepared for March 11.” ...
Once upon a time in Okayama, Japan, lived an old man and an old woman who had no children of their own. One day, the old man went into the forest to cut down bamboo while the old woman went to the river to ...
When I used to teach English at university, I was sure to leave an impression on my students on their first day of class. I’d tell them that as Japanese speakers, they could only speak with a mere 130 million people. But if they ...
Spring has sprung on Shiraishi Island. The cherry blossoms have bloomed and gone, their fallen pink petals pushed back into the good earth by passersby. We have attended the Kobo Daishi Spring Festival at the temple to be purified. The fishermen have changed from ...
On March 1, the first flight of All Nippon Airways’ new low-cost carrier, Peach Aviation Ltd., was launched. Yes, now we know that fruit can fly. This may bring on a whole slew of flying fruit — flying bananas, pineapples, and even low-budget strawberries. ...
Last week I talked about Japanese food becoming a UNESCO World Heritage. This got me to thinking that perhaps American food too should qualify. Stop laughing. On the surface, American food seems like a poor candidate for World Heritage status. Especially when you consider ...
Let’s talk about food cultures of the world. And I don’t mean yogurt. Japan, home to 16 World Heritage sites, is now hoping to add another World Heritage accolade with washoku (Japanese food). The only other cuisines deemed worthy of the UNESCO list of ...
