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 Kris Kosaka

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Kris Kosaka
Kris Kosaka, a resident of Japan since 1996, contributes regularly to The Japan Times. She is a lecturer at Meiji Gakuin University in the Faculty of International Studies.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 16, 2013
Historical biography captures the spirit of early feminist Japan
Time distorts, concealing the individual drops of humanity within the great tide of history. "Beauty in Disarray" attempts to reveal one such individual threatened to be lost in time, a woman named Noe Ito. In telling Ito's tragic story, biographer Harumi Setouchi (now known by her Buddhist name Jakucho)...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 8, 2013
Yoga teacher finds creative voice — and success — in 'surreal' Tokyo
While hammering nails and cutting planks in the prop department at New York's Lincoln Center for the Metropolitan Opera in the early 2000s, Barry Silver never dreamed of a life in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 30, 2013
K-ballet brings back 'Giselle' and introduces new leads
As summer approaches with the misty other-worldliness of Japan's rainy season, Tokyo's K-Ballet graces the stage in June with a revival of the hauntingly romantic masterpiece "Giselle." Six different ballerinas will perform the lead role as the production synthesizes K-Ballet's changing image from a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 26, 2013
Women's writings provide window on Tokugawa life
The Edo Period in Japan seems pretty much a feminist's nightmare. Samurai rule and strict societal boundaries confined women within the neo-Confucianistic bonds of a deeply patriarchal society.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 11, 2013
Head of international short film festival finds fertile ground up north
Toshiya Kubo consistently gravitates to the peripheral. As a teenager, while his friends rushed to buy Beatles records, Kubo searched for lesser-known musicians; the mainstream in media flocked to Tokyo while Kubo preferred Hokkaido, the prefecture of his birth; producers look toward feature films as...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 30, 2013
Samurai moms and the art of brood maintenance: a mother from the West's lessons from the East
May in Japan is the perfect month for mothers. Wreathed in the fertile blooms of spring, bolstered by days of absolute perfection, May is also a month of muddy contradiction.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Apr 27, 2013
Trendsetting restauranteurs succeed in bringing bit of Bohemia to Osaka
You're in a breezy, open space, bathed in light. Frothy indoor plants and burnished wood surrounds vibrant splashes of azure. While sipping a "green fairy," that traditional spirit of artists around the world, someone passes you a shisha, or water pipe, and you inhale sweet, fruit-soaked tobacco. You...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 21, 2013
There are no shortcuts to enlightenment, but plenty of laughs on the journey
Spring in Japan: a time to re-evaluate, to explore spiritually the choices of the upcoming fiscal year. A season of pilgrimage.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Apr 6, 2013
Irrepressible Irishman promotes Japan culture
Humor may be the hardest genre to translate, but laughter speaks any language. Poet and literary translator Peter MacMillan's recent foray into visual art, "Thirty-Six New Views of Mount Fuji," delights with wry whimsicality, employing mixed-media print-making to reveal a multicultural drollery.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 29, 2013
Dine with a backdrop of cherry blossom
With an ephemeral canopy of pink sweeping Japan, the JT's food writers know the perfect spots to dine with an eyeful of sakura (cherry blossom) — or just the right sake to sip as you picnic under the petals.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 24, 2013
Abashiri astounds with its ice and convict connections
In April 1890, the Japanese government shipped more than 1,200 political prisoners from all over the country, including samurai insurgents from the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion against the government of Emperor Meiji. Nine years before, more than 250 years of rule by the Tokugawa shoguns had finally ended....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 23, 2013
Photography buff behind Japan Camera Hunter thrives in Tokyo, the capital of cameras
Bellamy Hunt's name is part of his business: Japan Camera Hunter, a one-man enterprise supporting film photo buffs around Asia and the world. His work mainly involves hunting down vintage cameras, whether an elusive early model Nikon or a classic Leica.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 9, 2013
Power of poetry penned by survivors of 3/11 is showcased by ASIJ project
Kathy Krauth, a social studies teacher at the American School in Japan, admits she was never a huge fan of tanka, traditional Japanese poetry. "Tanka never really spoke to me. I dismissed it as early Japanese history with cherry blossoms." That all changed when Krauth sat in a classroom at the University...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 3, 2013
'A person and a possession': Japanese women in history
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 15, 2013
British photographer documents lives outside the lines
Uchujin, aka Adrian Storey, a British photographer and filmmaker based in Tokyo, drolly explains his rather unusual business moniker: 'I'd rather be an alien than an outsider.'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 8, 2013
Founder of TIS makes creativity cornerstone of school's curriculum
Patrick Newell, 47, founder of Tokyo International School, calls himself a “learning activist,” a zealot on the frontlines of learning.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Feb 1, 2013
Canadian uses sports as bridge to teaching, writing, understanding
Writer, teacher and sports fan Trevor Kew, 32, pedals and kicks his way through culture shock. He uses sports to help him adapt to unfamiliar cultures or new places when traveling, trusting his bike or a soccer ball to bridge the gap with locals.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 25, 2013
New Yorker opens doors for foreigners in Sapporo
Ken Hartmann, 71, still opens doors for ladies, and still speaks with a brusque, no-nonsense New York accent even after 27 years in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 24, 2013
With 'Desh,' Khan proves you can go home again
If art's purpose is to ask the relevant questions, then British-Bangladeshi dancer Akram Khan successfully interrogates humanity — and himself — with his latest production, 'Desh.'
MULTIMEDIA
Jan 12, 2013
Nomad writer and photographer keeps his passions fueled by travel
Fiction can work like a cheap flight; a good novel takes off, jetting readers to new worlds. Writers and photographers triple the distance traveled. Sean Lotman, 37, an avid reader, writer, photographer and nomad, has logged thousands of kilometers around the world.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami