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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 6, 2003

Making an exit, Japanese style

My grandmother used to say that people of her generation never expected much out of life. In her prime, her mantra was "Ikiteiru dakede arigatai (I'm thankful just to be alive)" and in her final years, that changed to "Pokkuri ikitai (I want to die suddenly and quietly)."
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2003

Wait and see on Iraq: New Komeito

New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki said Sunday it is in Japan's interest to see whether the United Nations adopts a new resolution prior to a possible U.S. attack on Iraq before Tokyo begins discussing how to deal with the issue.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 6, 2003

Navigating Japan health insurance

Deciding which I have lived in Japan and worked for the same company for six years. During this time the company has provided health insurance and paid all of the premiums. However, I will soon leave the company and thus lose my coverage.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2003

Two dead as heavy snowfall continues on Sea of Japan coast

Heavy snows continued Sunday to blanket a broad area along the Sea of Japan coast stretching from southwestern to northern Japan, and two people died in snow-related accidents while the snow shut down some expressways and other transport systems.
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jan 6, 2003

"Human Body Revealed," "The DK Guide to the Human Body," "Eyewitness Pirate," " 'Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,' Said the Sloth"

"Human Body Revealed," Sue Davidson & Ben Morgan, Dorling Kindersley Limited; 2002; 38 pp. "The DK Guide to the Human Body," Richard Walker, Dorling Kindersley Limited; 2002; 64 pp. "Eyewitness Pirate," Richard Platt & Tina Chambers, Dorling Kindersley Limited; 2002; 72 pp. Ever wanted to look up...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2003

Ferry adrift due to engine trouble

A Japanese ferry carrying 490 passengers went adrift Sunday after its engine broke down in waters off Akita Prefecture, the Japan Coast Guard said.
EDITORIALS
Jan 5, 2003

The tale of a Spix's macaw

Two weeks ago, a lonely specimen of one of the world's rarest birds made a very special trip. "Presley," a male Spix's macaw, had been found last summer living quietly in a Denver suburb with his owner, a woman who had no idea of his importance in the scheme of things. Now Presley was finally on a plane...
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2003

Returnees swamp airports, stations

Japan's major airports and railway terminals were packed Saturday with travelers returning from New Year's vacations at hometowns and resorts, according to airport and railway authorities.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2003

Time for a U.N. response

HONOLULU -- North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship is escalating. Pyongyang is now claiming that only a nonaggression treaty between North Korea and Washington can prevent "a catastrophic crisis of a war" on the Korean Peninsula.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 5, 2003

Students spoil Seagulls' party

Tetsuo Takata threw for a tie-breaking touchdown and Kota Yagi followed with a key interception early in the final quarter Friday as Ritsumeikan University pulled away to pound the Seagulls 36-13 for its first Rice Bowl national championship.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2003

Obituary: Koreyoshi Kurahara

Movie director Koreyoshi Kurahara died Dec. 28 of pneumonia at a hospital in Yokohama, his family said Saturday. He was 75.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2003

No room for thoughtful patriot in China

HONG KONG -- China's release of prominent dissident Xu Wenli on Christmas Eve was a welcome gesture, but not much more than a gesture, unless the Communist Party fundamentally alters its policies and allows its citizens basic rights such as the peaceful expression of differing political views and the...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 5, 2003

Milner the hottest new kid on the block

LONDON -- James Milner will celebrate his 17th birthday on Saturday by signing a new contract with Leeds United that will earn the forward £800 a week -- 10 times his current apprentice salary of £80.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 5, 2003

Author reveals the human face of Japan's kamikaze pilots

KAMIKAZE, CHERRY BLOSSOMS AND NATIONALISMS: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History, by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 2002, 412 pp., nine black-and-white photos, cloth ($45)/paper ($20) How is state nationalism developed? Why do individuals sacrifice...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 5, 2003

Rock 'n' roll that's as good as it gets

OK, the best album of 2002 goes to a bunch of teenage upstarts from Merseyside, England, but the place to be was underground in Japan. Veterans Shonen Knife and Guitar Wolf delivered their best albums to date, Salt Water Taffy and All Tomorrow's Party kick-started the indie-guitar revival with heart-melting...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 5, 2003

All aboard: a nation in motion

Monday is the first business day of the new year, so on Sunday the nation's airports, highways and rail lines will be crammed to overcapacity by a mass migration known as the "U-turn."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 5, 2003

Safety first on the shinkansen

July 15, 2000, was just another hot and humid summer's day in Japan. For the hundreds aboard the Joetsu Shinkansen "Asahi 402," though, it was a day they would never forget -- after they were trapped on the train for two hours without water or air conditioning.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 5, 2003

Staging stellar shows at bargain prices

As the commercial networks wind up their holiday offerings of low-budget blooper specials and celebrity-heavy quiz shows, regular programming slowly returns. However, things don't really get back to "normal" until next week.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jan 5, 2003

All the world's this scion's stage

Despite a daunting work schedule, and the added demands of this holiday season, Mansai Nomura made it -- albeit sleepy faced, but at the appointed hour -- to this interview in the coffee lounge of the Waseda Rihga Royal Hotel in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2003

Israeli 'transfer' of Palestinians feared

NEW YORK -- A war against Iraq could have devastating consequences not only for the Iraqi people but for the course of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as well. A statement by 187 Israeli academics -- later joined by several hundred from overseas -- calls attention to the possible "transfer"...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 5, 2003

Japan's own meals on wheels

In the early morning of Dec. 1, the first "Hayate" shinkansen left Hachinohe Station in Aomori Prefecture. Its departure for Tokyo in a blaze of publicity signaled that Japan's fastest express trains had a new northernmost limit -- some 96.6 km further on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line from Morioka in Iwate...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 5, 2003

Essay collection by master haiku poet wins high praise

THE NICK OF TIME: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics, by Paul O. Williams. Edited by Lee Gurga and Michael Dylan Welch. Foster City, CA: Press Here Books, 2001, 112 pp., paper ($12) What is a haiku, really? How do we know one when we see it? Are English-language haiku less authentic than Japanese haiku? And...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight