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Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE

Jul 17, 2002

Really looking forward to old age

By Steve McClure

Rock stars can do things us regular folks can't. They can get good tables at crowded restaurants without a reservation. They can have promiscuous sex and take all sorts of exotic drugs and then be knighted by the Queen. And if they're Eikichi Yazawa, they can travel forward in time to visit their future...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 14, 2002

Olu Dara's bringing it all back home

By Tom Bojko

Olu Dara has just finished his sound check at Club Quattro when he breaks into a grin and waves enthusiastically from behind his mike. An instant later, he's hopped off the stage, bounded across the floor and is proffering his hand, as eager for the interview as a school kid for recess.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 14, 2002

An impassioned indictment of terror

By Jeff Kingston

SRI LANKA: The Arrogance of Power-Myths, Decadence and Murder, by Rajan Hoole. Colombo: University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), 2001, 504 pp., 8,000 rupees (cloth) During the nearly two decades of Sri Lanka's civil war, more than 60,000 people have died or disappeared, leaving behind wounded families...

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 14, 2002

Living outside the box

By Janet Ashby

The days of Japan as the No. 1 business model for the world are long gone, but a new and perhaps more interesting model combining Japanese and Western elements seems to be developing. Unfortunately, the transition from a system based on lifelong employment, seniority and unthinking loyalty to one's company...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jul 14, 2002

The trouble with today's disaffected youth

Long before he said "no" to America and became the controversial governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara was one of Japan's most important postwar novelists, more influential than Mishima, if not as gifted. His most famous work, "Taiyo no Kisetsu (Season of the Sun)," is certainly the last word on youthful...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY

Jul 14, 2002

Skip the jazz club, it's festival season

By Michael Pronko

Most jazz people are night owls who don't get much sun, so summer festivals give the music, players and fans all a good airing out.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 14, 2002

Medieval-age scholar cleaves reality from romantic illusion

By Donald Richie

As Mitsuo Kure points out at the beginning of this excellent account of the samurai, "a class of people who served the aristocracy with arms," there is still considerable scholarly dispute over when the class emerged and precisely what it consisted of. Though it "led" Japanese society for seven centuries,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN

Jul 10, 2002

The Sept. 11 Care Bear Bunch

By Monty Dipietro

Cleveland-born, New York-based Dan Asher lives and works in an East Village apartment/studio. Although the 54-year-old artist didn't actually see the hijacked jetliners crash into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11 last year, he has followed -- with not a little consternation -- the many changes that struck...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 10, 2002

Seigen Ono: 'So Peaceful, Simple and Strong'

By Tom Bojko

Last month, when Marc Ribot was playing Aoyama Cay, one of Seigen Ono's people proffered an advance copy of "So Peaceful, Simple and Strong" to him backstage, saying, "It's good, Marc. It's really good." Ribot, heavy-lidded with jet lag and fatigue from touring Europe, grimaced and dropped the disc onto...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 10, 2002

Skist: 'Ellipsis'

By Philip Brasor

If the purpose of abstraction is to get as far away from representative forms as possible, then the ultimate abstraction is something that's totally unrecognizable as anything. In the 1950s, Abstract Impressionists went to such lengths to avoid even suggesting the use of paint that judgment of their...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE

Jul 10, 2002

Summer sees ceramic talents in full bloom

By Robert Yellin

Crunchy powerhouses of protein and vitamin E, sunflower seeds are much consumed in the West though their health benefits have never really been appreciated here in Japan. When it comes to pottery, we sometimes see himawari (sunflowers) painted on porcelains, but I've never come across a ceramic one complete...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE

Jul 10, 2002

A card-carrying regular guy

By Steve McClure

One interesting aspect of Japanese meishi (name-card) etiquette is that entertainers never give them out. It took me a while to figure out that one. Several interviews with musicians I thought had begun inauspiciously when I handed the artist my meishi only to receive nothing in return.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.

What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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