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COMMUNITY

May 27, 1999

Tokyo market's quiet riot of color

By Linda Inoki

Beneath cascades of purple orchids, ferns uncoil like emerald snakes. Tokyo's wholesale flower market is a quiet riot of color.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 27, 1999

By Jean Pearce

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about...

COMMUNITY

May 23, 1999

Osaka fashion school has French leg up

By Julio Barthson

OSAKA -- Carine Zeppelini, a French fashion designer, did not want to return to France at the end of her contract because she enjoyed teaching at ESMOD Osaka, a branch of the famous Paris-based international school of fashion.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 23, 1999

By Jean Pearce

A few columns ago I wrote about pen pals. A Japanese woman who had spent many years in the United States found readjustment to Japan difficult. She discovered she had little in common with her former Japanese friends; to them, she was a foreigner. Her American friends wanted to communicate by e-mail...

COMMUNITY

May 23, 1999

Collector's 1,800 lighters like old flames, not for discard pile

By David Waddell

KYOTO -- To the average person, a cigarette lighter is just a 100 yen convenience store item to be tossed in the garbage when the fuel runs out.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

May 23, 1999

Slim down for summer with the chopstick diet

By Amy Chavez

When my mother announced she would finally be coming to visit me in Japan this September, I asked her if she had any questions. She replied, "Yes, do I have to eat with those sticks?" This is when I realized that perhaps a lesson in "chopsticking" would be helpful. Mom, this one's for you: Chopsticks...

COMMUNITY

May 23, 1999

Whaling town Taiji dreams for miracle IWC reprieve

By Michael Heazle

TAIJI, Wakayama Pref. -- Nestled between clear Pacific waters and richly forested mountains and valleys, Taiji and it's pristine surroundings have remained largely unspoiled thanks to the town's isolation in southeast Wakayama and the community's long-standing relationship with the sea and its resources....

COMMUNITY

May 20, 1999

Free university opens doors on a place to open your mind

By Lee Ordeman

There's a new and unusual place in Tokyo to learn, grow and have fun -- and it's free. Tokyo Jiyu Daigaku, or Tokyo Free University, has opened its doors for its inaugural year onto subjects ranging from Eastern and Western religion, philosophy and literature, third-world development, creative and spiritual...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 19, 1999

Once more, Chiang Mai

By Jean Pearce

I had a mission in Chiang Mai. Many years ago I bought a reclining black lacquer Burmese Buddha there. It had been gilded but much of the gold had been worn off, probably by the hands of the faithful seeking some special blessing. It has a remarkable face. It changes expression as the viewer moves even...

COMMUNITY

May 19, 1999

Redevelopment fiasco leaves locals in limbo

By Rob Gilhooly

KOFU, Yamanashi Pref. -- The home of Yutaka Endo (not his real name) resembles one in a lesser-developed nation. His living room walls are stained where the rain has leaked through cracks; the wind whistles through warped window and door frames.

COMMUNITY

May 19, 1999

Memories of old Honmoku

By Kunio Francis Tanabe

This is a story of Honmoku Motomachi, my hometown in Yokohama, a neighborhood on the southwest coast of Tokyo Bay. Not too long ago, the land extended to tidal flatlands that were abundantly endowed with a wide variety of marine life and provided sustenance and a livelihood to generations of fishermen....

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 16, 1999

By Jean Pearce

A woman writes of a quest, not hers but a friend's. This friend is looking for a man she knew many years ago. He was born in Hokkaido in 1913. He was a Christian and was active with the Young Men's Christian Association. He traveled widely in foreign countries in connection with that work.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.

Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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