More Environment Articles - The Japan Times

October 16, 2025

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Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Sep 23, 2004

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Segurokamome * Scientific name: Larus argentatus * Description: Herring gulls are large, noisy, boisterous birds. They are white with light gray backs, black wingtips and pink legs that have webbed feet. A key identifying mark is the red spot on the lower tip of their yellow bills....

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH

Sep 23, 2004

Good stuff, people and advice on how to tailor your consumption

By Stephen Hesse

It's back-to-school time again, and whether you are going back, sending your child off, or just getting swept up in the streams of backpack-wielding kids, change is in the air. Time for new books, new people and new gossip, and time to clear the desk even if only for a place to rest your head.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Sep 16, 2004

The changes that come what may

By Mark Brazil

The arrival of just one dramatic, even devastating, typhoon, storming to the center of the seasonal stage like a massively overblown diva with a case of bad timing, is enough to signal autumn is on its way. This year the global signs of the season change have been untempered in the extreme. Hurricanes...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Sep 9, 2004

Barn swallow Tsubame

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Tsubame * Scientific name: Hirundo rustica * Description: A common and easily recognizable bird, barn swallows have long, pointed wings and deeply forked tails. The feathers on the back and wings are a metallic dark blue; the underside is white or cream. The face is scarlet red....

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Sep 2, 2004

Ravens, shamans and 'shrooms

By C.W. Nicol

In 1988 I made a documentary with the Hokkaido Broadcasting Co. We filmed on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeast Siberia, in Alaska and in Japan. Our main theme was the raven and the many raven legends that link the peoples of the Pacific Rim.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Aug 26, 2004

Brown-lined puffer

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Kitamakura * Scientific name: Canthigaster rivulata * Description: Puffer fish have plump bodies and thick, smooth skin interrupted by large bulging eyes. In many parts of Japan, puffer fish are called fugu, which is written using Chinese characters that mean "river pig." In western...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Aug 19, 2004

Down in the grim intertidal zone

By Mark Brazil

A coffee-shop friend of mine recently summed up his appreciation of our local lowland forest just outside Sapporo, saying: "You know, it's wonderful here; every season is the best season." And, you know, he has a powerful point.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Aug 12, 2004

Black-eared kite Tobi

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Tobi * Scientific name:Milvus lineatus * Description: Kites are large raptors, birds of prey with a noticeably forked tail. The black-eared kite has dark brown plumage (darker than the plumage of its close relative, the red kite), and black feathers over its ears. They have large wings...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH

Aug 12, 2004

Environment groups who do it in the streets

By Stephen Hesse

Hester Van Hooven Ward is pretty hard to miss when she greets you on the street with a wave and a big smile, then launches into her "rap": "Hi! How are you? Do you have a minute for the environment today?" she calls out to strangers.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Aug 5, 2004

Woodland beauty there for all to sense

By C.W. Nicol

Just about the time when the wild wood irises burst into glorious purple around early July up here in Nagano Prefecture, high in the treetops there is a dancing, fluttering ballet of countless white-winged creatures.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT

Jul 29, 2004

Who prefers concrete and cars to Tokyo's natural gem?

By Ken Kawashima

With its oddly ear-shaped black-and-white striped body, the hammer-size mimigata tennannsho, a grass that grows in the depths of Mount Takao's forests, has long been an object of fascination and loathing to hikers in the western Tokyo quasi-national park, where it's not just its grotesque shape that...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS

Jul 24, 2004

Down by the watersides

By Linda Inoki

In the heat of summer we are naturally drawn to water, and for centuries water has been a vital element in Oriental gardens. In the ninth century, the Chinese poet Po-Chu-i (known as Hakurakuten in Japan) wrote about a small pond in his garden, and his words still evoke the timeless pleasures of the...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.

Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building

By Patrick St. Michel

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

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