Chris Bamforth - The Japan Times

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Chris Bamforth

For Chris Bamforth's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Aug 19, 2005

Tourists are now the big catch for reborn Otaru

To think of a big city in Hokkaido is invariably to think of the place that fondly plants a prominent white, red or black star on the labels of the beers it brews. But back in the early part of the last century, the spot in Hokkaido that was top dog in terms of population and economic clout was not Sapporo, but the nearby port of Otaru.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Jul 29, 2005

Caving in to the gods

If a foreigner happens to know just one Japanese myth, it's usually the one about Amaterasu and the cave. Amaterasu had long been tormented by her brother, Susanoo. But Susanoo, who believed there was no such thing as too elaborate a brotherly prank, went too far when he flung a flayed piebald colt into her weaving hall. Amaterasu went off to sulk in a cave, thereby -- being the sun goddess -- plunging the world into darkness. And long it remained dark until Uzume, who was a game girl for a goddess, did a saucy little dance for all the other gods assembled outside the cave. When they whooped with delight at the dance, Amaterasu, wondering what all the racket could be, was lured out of her cave -- a cave that is located in present-day Takachiho.

LIFE / Travel

Jul 22, 2005

Foreign writer who defined Japan has been carved into stone in Matsue

The name usually means nothing whatsoever to the vast majority of people overseas. But in his adopted country, Lafcadio Hearn is lionized among writers in the English language with the same kind of reverence normally accorded to authors of the ilk of Melville and Shakespeare.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Jun 24, 2005

A prize catch for travel merchants

First impressions of a Japanese provincial town can be so thoroughly dispiriting as to make you inclined to believe that the developer of the station area set about his task grimly determined to bring a whole new meaning to the concept of drabness. And so it is upon alighting at Omi Hachiman Station and coming face-to-face with its small-scale urban clutter the natural instinct is to clamber back on the train and check out the next stop along Lake Biwa.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

May 27, 2005

Get peace of mind . . . in the off-season

Arrival in some places doesn't always meet expectations. From stories I had read of Taketomi, I had built up a picture of a sleepy subtropical paradise. This island at the southwestern end of the Okinawan chain was, I learned, a place of coral-sand streets and quaint Okinawan life, an island where cars were banned and where life gently plodded along at the pace of a water buffalo -- and a slow-moving one at that.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Apr 29, 2005

Shopping for the little bookworms

It's bedtime and you're keen for the little ones to get off to sleep so you can return to that DVD you left on pause. For their story, you try winging it again with a Japanese picture book, but the version you concoct this time is different to what you told them before. Pointing out that you've got the story wrong, the kids are suddenly wide awake. High time, you decide, to replenish your stock of English books. Here is a selection of where to shop for children's books in Tokyo.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Apr 22, 2005

Sipping on Heian history in Uji

In Uji, it's a tough job to go anywhere without consuming its famous product as green tea is liberally doled out on the streets.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Mar 25, 2005

All fired up for ceramics central

Despite having saddled itself with the dire name of Centrair Airport, Japan's newest air facility, which opened last month near Nagoya, looks to have started off well enough.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Feb 25, 2005

Historic port city famous for fugu

Located at the western end of Honshu, Shimonoseki is one of those places that people tend to travel through rather than travel to. With Kyushu only 700 meters away across the Kanmon Strait, Shimonoseki is the main access point to that island, and as visa-run veterans are aware, the Korean port of Pusan is just an inexpensive ferry ride away.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Jan 28, 2005

Otherworldly Okinawan capital

Automatic doors open, you step through and the sleek monorail whisks you from the spanking-new air terminal to the profuse lights of the dense urban center. Except for having exchanged wintry weather for the almost-perpetual balmy summer of Okinawa, arrival in Naha at night can seem mightily like the departure from Haneda, only in reverse.

Japan Times

Features / WEEK 3

Jan 16, 2005

Seek the Hemingway within at a concrete-jungle pond

"It was light. We stood by the pond. The fish were biting."

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Jan 14, 2005

Kobe: picturesque city by the sea

As last month's terrible tsunami off Sumatra and the subsequent tidal waves showed only too well, the shiftings of the earth's crust can lead to horrific natural calamities. Sitting atop one of the world's geological hot spots, Japan is of course no stranger to these phenomena. And the ever-present threat of a destructive earthquake here became perfectly clear when a massive tremor struck Kobe 10 years ago this month.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Nov 28, 2004

So many deities for still many troubled lives

EIGHT MILLION GODS AND DEMONS, by Hiroko Sherwin. Plume Books, 2003, 320 pp., $14 (paper). When "The Name of the Rose" transformed Umberto Eco from obscure Italian academic to international best-selling author, a common complaint among readers of his dark novel was that only after wading through the first 100 pages or so of cryptic medievalism did a thumping good book emerge. Readers of "Eight Million Gods and Demons" by Hiroko Sherwin may find themselves wrestling with a similar problem, though for the reverse reason: Where with Eco the struggle is with complexity, with Sherwin it is with banality.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Nov 26, 2004

Into Nagoya and onto Inuyama

As a destination, Nagoya is not the biggest tourist magnet, yet there is reason enough for dawdling here instead of just whisking through on the Shinkansen.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Nov 21, 2004

Daring to break the rules: Japan's first modern novelists

TWO JAPANESE NOVELISTS: SOSEKI & TOSON, by Edwin McClellan. Tuttle, 2004, 166 pp., 1,500 yen (paper). Even if they do recognize the man, Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) for many non-Japanese is no more than the prim blue gent in the mustache that once peered out from the 1,000 yen bill. Yet Soseki is the dominant figure in modern Japanese literature. If asked to name their greatest modern novelist, most Japanese wouldn't hesitate in choosing the Tokyo-born writer.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Oct 29, 2004

Adventures abound in city's toy towns

It may be all Halloween pumpkins in the shops right now, but just around the corner is Christmas -- the season of peace, goodwill and bank accounts plundered for presents, both for your own progeny and for all those nieces and nephews you've somehow acquired. In the runup to the festive season, here is a rundown of some of the top toy stores in Tokyo where you can offload all those yen.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Oct 22, 2004

Following the way of the samurai in Akita's Kakunodate

For the Hollywood view of what life was like for the old warriors of Japan, go down to the video shop and take out "The Last Samurai." But for a more accurate glimpse of how the samurai lived and the kind of world they inhabited, take a trip to Kakunodate.

Japan Times

Features / WEEK 3

Oct 17, 2004

A purrfect day out

You're kitted out with Kitty. You have your Hello Kitty toothbrush and pencil sharpener, your little lunchbox and tissue-holder, but still you have this odd impulse to spend some quality time with a real furry, warmblooded feline.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Sep 24, 2004

Northern delights of Sapporo

Despite its easy proximity, brought by the relatively short flying time from Tokyo, an air of remoteness still hangs over Hokkaido. Physically the island is more a last outpost of Siberia than an integral part of Japan. In Hokkaido, little rice grows, scant cherry trees bloom, no rainy season descends, few cockroaches scamper.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Aug 27, 2004

Japan's big Little Italy

Local sobriquets are not hard to come by. A place that is home to a few dingy canals on which some dodgy craft manage to stay afloat gets tagged the "Venice of Somewhere." A town in Japan that manages to keep some old houses out of the predatory clutches of developers becomes the "Little Kyoto of Somewhere Else." So hearing that Kagoshima styles itself as the "Naples of the Orient" is not the kind of thing that tends to elicit immediate, straight-faced belief.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

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