More Community Articles - The Japan Times

October 30, 2025

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Dec 1, 1999

By Jean Pearce

Recently I quoted letters from a university English writing class commenting on a column about General MacArthur. That prompted a letter from longtime resident G.A. Chandru who has done much over the years to promote his adopted city of Yokohama as well as Indian culture and products. A few years ago...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Nov 28, 1999

Work full-time and raise a bonsai? No thanks

By Amy Chavez

The other day I mentioned to my husband that I might like to take a class in growing bonsai trees. I don't even know why I mentioned it. I had been growing some pretty good mold in the bathroom and refrigerator so perhaps it seemed like a good time to move on to something more challenging.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Nov 27, 1999

Unwelcome companions

By Jean Pearce

Thanks to e-mail, a vast assortment of unsolicited information comes my way. Some of it is even interesting and occasionally I share it with you. My amazement is not so much with the information I am sending your way today as it is with the person who noticed it and then did the necessary projection....

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Nov 24, 1999

The ultimate solution

By Jean Pearce

This notice was posted recently on my neighborhood bulletin board -- To people who feed stray cats: Please also take care of spaying or neutering them. While strays have become a problem recognized by the government, little has been done to eliminate it by the most obvious way: providing an inexpensive...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Nov 17, 1999

Hemingway's dead; long live the future

By Thomas Dillon

Hemingway once said that good writing begins with the simple production of but one true sentence. OK. Here's something that's true. Hemingway is dead.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Nov 17, 1999

Getting things done

By Jean Pearce

From time to time I have been asked to remind people that although Japan is a very safe country, there are times when it is not. The yearend has always been a time when people should be especially careful. In old Japan, all debts had to be paid by the end of the year, but even a cursory perusal of today's...

COMMUNITY

Nov 13, 1999

Goodwill ambassador delivers hope

By David Chester

Akasaka Prince Hotel's Crystal Palace Room was filled with billowing arcs and floating columns of peach, rose and violet balloons Nov. 9 to help celebrate the opening of the stage play "Friendship (Yujo)" and the release of "The Paradise of Angels (Tenshi no Paradaisu)," a five-volume set of children's...

COMMUNITY

Nov 10, 1999

Walking the way of the gods

By Jon Burbank

As long as there has been Japan there has been Shinto: the "way of the gods." Shintoism is not organized around any central religious text or authority. It is perhaps best described as an amalgam of thousands of local deities (kami) and beliefs observed within a base framework of rituals and customs....

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Nov 10, 1999

Pre-holiday planning

By Jean Pearce

It seems a bit early to be writing about Christmas, but there is a lot of planning to do if you must ship things home, or even pack them to take with you. That's why the Tokyo charity-oriented International Ladies Benevolent Society now schedules its ILBS Christmas Fair even before we have ordered the...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Nov 7, 1999

Hail Japan, for you will surely miss it one day

By Amy Chavez

The foreign community in Japan is transient. People come and go. The funny thing is, when they go, they're usually ready. It's something biological: that need to return home.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Nov 7, 1999

Our troubled world

By Jean Pearce

Only 55 more days to go until the end of this century. It has been a troubled one, yet one filled with new discoveries and hope. More people have been assured of at least the basics of comfort in life while large numbers have been left in devastating poverty. Perhaps it will be remembered as a century...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Nov 3, 1999

For better or worse

By Jean Pearce

November? Already? How different it is for little kids who think there is a generation between one Christmas and another. November is a stepping stone to the yearend holiday celebration, which this year will have both special meaning and reasons for concern. Regardless of assurances, people wonder what...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.

Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports