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Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Nov 3, 2002

Writer draws on own experiences to overcome adversity

Up to his ears in debt and with absolutely no money, Ichiriki Yamamoto made a bold prediction to his wife.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Where the moon's 'pure light' shines

Three narrow valleys indent the pine-tufted Honmoku headland. Around 1887, Hara Zenzaburo, Yokohama's leading silk merchant, built a villa atop the lip of San-no-tani, the third valley from the west. While father drank in the view of Tokyo Bay, the Tanzawa and Hakone ranges, and Mount Fuji, his adopted...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Nov 3, 2002

A 'young blood' at Yokohama's helm

Hiroshi Nakada shocked the nation in March when, at the age of 37, he was elected as the mayor of Yokohama, beating 72-year-old Hidenobu Takahide. Takahide, who died in August, ran the city for 12 years and was backed in the election by the ruling coalition and the opposition Social Democratic Party....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2002

Russian youth dodge conscript military

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- It took a while to get the young deserter to talk. Roman had fled his army unit and was staying with Tatiana Barykina and her family, and they could see the scars on his wrist and sense the pain that hung upon him like a millstone.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Yokohama: city of wide horizons

Yokohama owes its rise to political compromise and a natural harbor. The Tokugawa shogunate and Commodore Perry, on the occasion of his return in 1854, could not agree on a parley site to discuss the opening of Japan to trade. The shogunate insisted on Uraga; Perry demanded entrance to Edo. The two sides...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2002

Politician in scandal faces pay demand

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has decided to demand that Kunio Takaishi, a former vice education minister who was convicted of bribery, return his retirement payment, ministry sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 3, 2002

Meet a pianist and 'genius' chimpanzee on a poll-to-Pole journey

On Oct. 27, by-elections were held in seven districts throughout Japan for Diet seats that had been vacated by politicians forced to resign over scandals. If you weren't aware of this, don't feel bad. Not many people were. Average voter turnout was only about 33 percent. The media didn't pay much attention...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Bustling Chinatown's squeaky-clean world within

Even before you pass beneath one of the 10 ornamented gates marking the boundaries of Yokohama's Chinatown, you start picking up signals that you're about to cross into a different country.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 3, 2002

Ashkenazy signed to direct NHK Symphony Orchestra

Pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy has signed a contract to serve as musical director for the NHK Symphony Orchestra for three years, starting September 2004.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Nov 3, 2002

How a winery's rep can become tainted

One of the hottest stories sweeping the California wine industry focuses on "sick cellar syndrome," a subject of dread to all winemakers. Wine Spectator magazine recently revealed that Napa Valley stalwart Beaulieu Vineyard suffers from a systemic taint problem, which could lead to musty, moldy flavors...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Nov 3, 2002

Sapporo makes quickest ever exit from J1

Consadole Sapporo was relegated to Division Two with four more matches remaining in the season -- the quickest ever exit from the top division of the J. League.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 3, 2002

Shift into Lowe gear

Nick Lowe, who is coming to Japan this week, was supposed to tour here a year ago in support of his latest album, "The Convincer," but canceled because one of his regular backup musicians wasn't available.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2002

New Komeito re-elects Kanzaki leader

New Komeito, one of the three ruling coalition parties, re-elected Takenori Kanzaki as its leader at a party convention Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 3, 2002

Abductees watch fate unfold through TV

Fuji TV, the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun received unanimous disapprobation for their Oct. 25 interview with Kim Hye Gyong, the 15-year-old daughter of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at the age of 13 and is presumed dead. The three media companies apologized,...
JAPAN / Media
Nov 3, 2002

Vernacular Views

Philosophy Professor Kenji Tsuchiya of Ochanomizu Women's University has got a big problem, as related in his column in the weekly Shukan Bunshun.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 3, 2002

A special sauce that can travel anywhere

Not too long ago I had a chance to shrink a gap in cultural understanding. A regular customer had brought his young grandchild in to eat one afternoon, and he was eager to have the talkative boy engage me in conversation.
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Japan's hometown of jazz

Yokohama's love affair with jazz first blossomed when the West was Roarin' in the 1920s. Back then, ocean liners were bringing passengers and ships' bands from all over the world, and Japan's maritime gateway was a major port of call for steamers plying between the famed entertainment hubs of Shanghai...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 3, 2002

Oita gets promoted

SAITAMA -- Oita Trinita won promotion to J. League Division One at Omiya Soccer Stadium on Saturday, securing a top-two finish with a 1-0 win over Omiya Ardija thanks to a first-half winner through Iwao Yamane.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 3, 2002

Joy and pain falling in love again

"We're girls too nasty/We're girls too hot/We're punky girls so you can't stop us.'' Complete lyrics to Anadorei's 40-second-long "Girls Anthem"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

A pier without peer

The Yokohama International Passenger Terminal on Osanbashi Pier is slotted into a line of redevelopments along the waterfront -- a smorgasbord of ambitious architecture ranging from renovated century-old warehouses to the Blade Runner-esque towers of the Minato Mirai 21 complex.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 3, 2002

The many faces of Macao

MACAO, by Philippe Pons. Translated from the French by Sarah Adams. London: Reaktion Books, 2002. 135 pp. with 33 illustrations, £14.95 (paper) At the end of his splendid evocation of the city of Macao, Philippe Pons quotes a paragraph by journalist and novelist Italo Calvino about cities that "sometimes...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 3, 2002

Terror in our own backyard

A key phrase in my recent e-mail exchanges has been, "The world has gone crazy." The hostage drama in Moscow; the shooting spree in the Washington, D.C. area; the bombing of two nightclubs in Bali; the Finnish teenager who blew up himself and six other people in a suburban shopping mall; the killing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 3, 2002

We'll have 'the usual'

Comme d'habitude. As any linguist knows, that's French for "as usual." As the name of a restaurant, it conjures up images of a run-of-the-mill bistro with standard-issue checkered tablecloths. But the name is both modest and misleading, because Comme d'habitude in Kami-Meguro stands head and shoulders...
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2002

Bush's legacy of cynicism and contempt

U.S. President George W. Bush and his henchmen stole the presidency. They threw thousands of innocent people into prison without even charging them with a crime. They're gearing up to invade Iraq without bothering to come up with a substantial justification. Now some Democrats and progressive Americans...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Fraud victims plan to sue broadcasters over TV ads

Lawyers for victims of a massive fraud involving the G.O. investment group plan to sue two broadcasters for airing TV ads featuring the group's president, Genta Ogami, who is now under arrest.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past