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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2015
The 'dwarf' architect of Japan's literary boom
With a chuckle, translator and literary critic Motoyuki Shibata recalls the way author Steven Millhauser once described him.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
May 1, 2015
Arise Coffee Roasters claims a corner in Tokyo's caffeine epicenter
The much-ballyhooed Tokyo debut of Oakland's Blue Bottle Coffee Co. in February galvanized Kiyosumi-shirakawa's reputation as the city's coffee epicenter, turning the area into a magnet for caffeine-addled day-trippers. Taiju Hayashi certainly isn't going to complain about the extra business he's been...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 12, 2015
Cuushe dreams of perfect pop on 'Night Lines'
Where Japanese musicians used to move to Tokyo for a shot at the big time, these days it feels like increasing numbers of them are heading to Berlin instead. Mayuko Hitotsuyanagi, better known by her dream-pop alias Cuushe, was one of them. In 2012, the Kyoto native embarked on a yearlong working holiday...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 12, 2015
British filmmaker sounds out Japan
In 1996, the Environment Ministry unveiled a list of designated places and traditions around the country that demanded appreciation not for how they looked, but how they sounded.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Apr 3, 2015
Barista champ puts Fukuoka on the map
Yoshikazu Iwase has a tough act to top. As he heads to the World Barista Championship (WBC) in Seattle this month, he'll be following in the wake of Maruyama Coffee's Hidenori Izaki, the barista prodigy who last year became the first Japanese — and, indeed, Asian — competitor to win the title.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 13, 2015
Is virtual art as nourishing as a set meal?
You have to admit, it's all awfully clever. At "L'art de Rosanjin," which runs at Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall until March 24, visitors can sit in a virtual tempura restaurant, and gawp as images of the chef's hands at work are projected on the counter in front of them, accompanied by the sounds of sizzling...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Mar 3, 2015
Switch Coffee keeps the neighbors happy
"Sometimes people say you shouldn't make your hobby into your job," says Masahiro Onishi, the 28-year-old owner of Meguro roastery and coffee stand Switch Coffee. "I was concerned about that."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 24, 2015
Nujabes’ friends to pay tribute to the soulful hip-hop producer on the fifth anniversary of his death
When a traffic accident on Feb. 26, 2010, claimed the life of independent hip-hop auteur Jun Seba, who recorded and DJed under the name Nujabes, even some of his closest collaborators didn't find out until a few weeks later. The Japanese rapper Shingo Annen, better known by his professional name Shing02,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 10, 2015
Egyptology asks Japan: Can you spare a synth?
For many visiting musicians, a Japanese tour consists of a brief, meticulously coordinated onslaught of gigs, interviews and in-store appearances, possibly capped by a karaoke session with the record label's PR team. Few get to spend six weeks schlepping around the country on an old city bus, as Egyptology's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Feb 3, 2015
Blue Bottle Coffee offers a fresher brew
Whether by accident of fate or surfeit of real estate, Tokyo's Kiyosumi-Shirakawa neighborhood is turning into one of the most caffeinated corners of the capital. Already home to artisan roasters, including The Cream of the Crop and Arise Coffee, this district of galleries, parks and low-rise housing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 31, 2015
Dendera
Though there's still plenty of debate about whether it was ever common for Japan's rural communities to deal with elderly relatives by leaving them to die on a mountain, it makes for a great story. Depicted in Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 period drama, "Narayama Bushiko" ("The Ballad of Narayama") — remade...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 29, 2015
Exodus: 'Verisimilitude alone doesn't make a story more engaging'
You could read the Book of Exodus in less time than it takes to watch Ridley Scott's provocatively pointless big-screen version, and it would probably be more entertaining. Even at 2½ hours, this biblical blockbuster feels rushed, as if the story has been shorn of all its connective tissue. Sweeping...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 20, 2015
The meat and masochism of Swans
When Swans last played Tokyo in 2013, the venue itself seemed to be groaning under the weight of the onslaught. Two hours into a set of tempestuous rock catharsis, the power cut out; once restored, the group kept playing for another 30 minutes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 6, 2015
Jazz trumpeter Toshinori Kondo issues a challenge to modern-day musicians
On a chilly Friday afternoon in December, trumpet player Toshinori Kondo reclines in the clutter of his Kawasaki recording studio, pours out two cups of shōchū liquor, and starts to explain what prompted him to abandon a lucrative career in Japan and move to Amsterdam in 1993.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Jan 6, 2015
Nozy Coffee knows blends are old news
Sometimes a bit of youthful brashness goes a long way. Masataka Nojo was still just a university student when he started his coffee empire in 2009, from a humble coffee stand in Kanagawa Prefecture's Shonan region.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 16, 2014
Rock, J-pop and dance: Albums we liked in 2014
The year-end album charts in Japan have a tendency to prop up the same acts year after year: Exile, anything that ends in a "48," and almost every group from the Johnny & Associates stable of boy bands. Writers at The Japan Times, however, spent the year looking past the charts to find a few gems lurking...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 6, 2014
What's beneath all that latex, fabric and plastic?
In 1910, a man named Otto James was arrested for parading down a busy street in Tacoma, Washington, wearing fancy dress. The charge of "public masquerading" — so quaint to modern ears — was itself nothing new, but the choice of costume was notable: James had gone for a stroll dressed as the main...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 18, 2014
RBMA gifts Tokyo with some impressive events, but did they simply preach to the converted?
At Liquidroom last Friday night, clubbers attending the Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo closing party formed an orderly mob outside the venue as they waited for upward of half an hour to get inside. Only on reaching the head of the queue did it become clear that the bottleneck wasn't being caused by a surfeit...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 14, 2014
Review: Chaos Conductor at Shinseiki Dance Hall in Tokyo
The events organized in the course of the monthlong Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo have run the gamut from tired to inspired. This breezy, entertaining evening of improvised music at the Showa-era Shinseiki dance hall in Uguisudani slotted happily into the latter category, while putting the current class...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 12, 2014
Inside the kingdom of Kodo
As world leaders in the performing art of Japanese drumming, Kodo state on their website that their mission is: "To explore the limitless possibilities of the traditional Japanese drum, the taiko (aka wadaiko), and to forge new directions for this vibrant living art form."

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