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LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 28, 2003

A horror smorgasbord

With monsters in the hallways, blood on the wall and gross-outs lurking behind every corner, "Silent Hill 3" is an all-out assault on the player's sensibilities.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 27, 2003

Broadcast: "Ha Ha Sound"

Rarely does a gem shine out from the dull ground of contemporary electronica, but when one does it should be treasured. Such is "Ha Ha Sound," Broadcast's second album.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 26, 2003

Life imitates art for gaijin charmers

We had a fantastic response to our "Charisma Man" competition in last week's Community Page.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2003

New Zealand struggles to stay nuclear-free

MADRAS, India -- One of the first things that strikes a visitor to New Zealand are the innumerable signboards that proudly proclaim the small Pacific island country to be nuclear-free. Even the common man on the streets of Wellington or Christchurch or Auckland will tell you New Zealand fiercely protects...
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2003

Looking for a few bad men

LONDON -- Will Prime Minister Tony Blair's government fall as a result of the inquiry being led by Lord Hutton into the apparent suicide of weapons expert Dr. David Kelly? Unlikely.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2003

U.S. a misunderstood giant

HONOLULU -- "Once the Bush administration is done attacking North Korea, will Vietnam be next?" This seemed to be the burning question in the back of many people's minds as I visited Vietnam for a series of lectures on U.S. foreign policy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Bandai's sword-brandishing robot begets yet another corporate acronym

CEO, COO, CFO and even CSO (chief strategy officer) are part of today's simmering pot of corporate alphabet soup as Japan Inc. increasingly adopts U.S.-style management regimens.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 23, 2003

A sound bite of married life

On the morning of his son's wedding, Frank Gibbs, the neighborly physician in Thorton Wilder's "Our Town," confesses to his wife that his chief concern in the early days of their own marriage was how to make small talk with his bride.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 22, 2003

Wanted in Kafue: tourists, not poachers

The rains had just broken over the Zambian capital, Lusaka. Lightning was tearing open the skies. And we were sitting on a tiled veranda listening to the bedlam of water crashing off the tin roof, the thudding percussion of thunder and the thrilled shouts of children in the street beyond the hibiscus...
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2003

Libya accepts responsibility

Libya's decision to accept responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, is a victory for the families of the 270 victims who had demanded accountability from the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. It is a diplomatic triumph for the United...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 19, 2003

Biculturalism, accessories and recession

Greetings from Baghdad. It is a good place to appreciate all the blessings of Japan -- peace, freedom, safety -- all the things we take so for granted.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 17, 2003

Monastic comparisons and the rightness of left

MONASTIC DISCIPLINE: Vinaya and Orthodox Monasticism, an Attempt at Comparison, by George Sioris. Chiang Mai: The Knowledge Center, 375 pp., 495 baht (paper). LEFT VERSUS RIGHT, by George Sioris. Chiang Mai: The Knowledge Center, 150 pp., 195 baht (paper). George Sioris, a Greek scholar on Asia and a...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 16, 2003

Gopalakrishnan Venkataraman

For Gopalakrishnan Venkataraman, his work is his passion. Newly appointed as regional director, East Asia, of Indiatourism, he could hardly be a happier man. He believes in his product. It excites him. India, he says, is a journey of mind and soul, of the five senses, of self-discovery and self-fulfillment....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 16, 2003

If olives be the food of love, then eat on

Todd English is the first to admit that being American and of Italian ancestry makes his family name exceedingly odd. He has no idea where it comes from, but supposes that one day he may try to find out. No chance of this happening in the near future, however. This is a man with more restaurants to open,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2003

Baron of porn spills it all

HONG KONG -- His pictures beamed across the nation's television stations and front pages of all of its newspapers from down market tabloids to sober-sided broadsheets: the grin on his face was as wide as a melon and he held, fanlike, a huge wad of currency notes for all the world, like a television game...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2003

Looking for a SARS-free holiday option? Try Alaska

More vacationers are heading for domestic destinations and fewer venturing overseas, in part due to the lingering impact of SARS and a slumping economy.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 10, 2003

Arias enjoying life

Four years in Japan and George Arias says he is finally where he had always longed to be as a player -- at the very top.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 10, 2003

Making tracks across moor and marsh

In the autumn of 1865, two Victorian gentlemen set off on foot from the Yorkshire town of Settle. They walked north through moorland haunted by the lonely cry of rooks, struggled through marshes, scaled mountains, skirted lethal potholes, were lashed by shrieking winds and stinging rain and, for most...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

Treasures too much for one

For one man alone, the Tokugawa treasures were simply too much to handle.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 10, 2003

Foreign visitors who found the old in a new Japan

THE GREAT WAVE: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan, by Christopher Benfey. New York: Random House, 2003, 534 pp., with monochrome plates, $25,95 (paper). In the middle of the century before last, Japan was -- as the West termed it -- finally opened up. The mysterious...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

Lost pet? No sweat -- except in the tub

You may think you've got just about everything for your pet -- from brand-name waterproofs and jewelry to its weekly trips to a pet cafe and yoga classes. Now, though, there's a new out-of-this-world accessory for the pet owner with everything: the no-hiding-place collar.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2003

Debt-collectors push professionalism, not pain

Despite popular perceptions, profanities and threats are not screamed down the phone and the receiver doesn't end up getting slammed down.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 7, 2003

Golden 'weeds' of wondrous ways

It was a breezy day at Cape Notoro overlooking the Sea of Okhotsk on Hokkaido's north coast. The sun was glinting on the waves below the cliffs and a skylark singing somewhere above was producing a cascade of summer sound.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 7, 2003

Lessons in rage control

"Hulk," a game that is ever so loosely based on the new Universal Studios movie, has an element missing from most superhero action games -- fun.
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2003

FSA sets up project team to study using public funds to bail out banks

The Financial Services Agency has set up an in-house project team to study a proposed system for injections of public funds into banks, Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka said Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 5, 2003

If you can't beat the Japanese, serve them

If you're looking for contentment in Japan, serve the Japanese. At least that's the impression one gets from being around Andy Lunt, Kerry Cox and Johnny Miller.
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2003

LDP leadership race heating up

With the end of the regular Diet session, the political focus has shifted to the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership contest in September. The LDP ballot is attracting all the more attention because it is expected to be followed by a general election, possibly in November.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 3, 2003

Out of time

At the age of 18 I fled suburbia, tripping into the dusty corrupting enlightenment of the bloody Vietnam War, like an Alice in an evil wonderland, never to return. Simply put, I was sent to Vietnam to defend a lie, to destroy those (the totalitarian commie "them") who dared oppose the "greatest nation"...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 3, 2003

Becoming down to earth

ISAMU NOGUCHI AND MODERN JAPANESE CERAMICS: A Close Embrace of the Earth, by Louise Allison Cort and Bert Winther-Tamaki, with contributions by Bruce J. Altshuler and Niimi Ryu. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 2003; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. 240 pp., 81 color photographs, 78...
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2003

Exaggeration leads to tragedy

LONDON -- Politicians always exaggerate, or at least embroider the facts. Like lawyers they have a case to make and an audience to persuade. So they emphasize the strongest points in their argument and slide over the weaker ones.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami