Search - things-to-do

 
 
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2001

FSA to tighten supervision of insurers

A Liberal Democratic Party panel gave the green light Wednesday to a proposal by the Financial Services Agency to tighten its supervision of insurance companies, starting with the March book-closing.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2001

Politicians test online waters for votes

Staff writer In a country where nearly 30 million people out of the 120 million population use the Internet, about 400 out of 732 Diet members have their own Web site.
COMMUNITY
Feb 15, 2001

A playground for the imagination

From the outside, Minamisawa Steiner Hoshi-no-ko Kodomo-en kindergarten looks much like any other home-run preschool. The two-story house is approached from a quiet side street, and you enter through a garden gate.
LIFE / Travel
Feb 14, 2001

The Chinese are coming!

BEIJING -- For centuries, Chinese living away from home loyally trekked back to their ancestral villages every Spring Festival. Last month, a record 45 million people hit road, rail and airlines during the seven-day public holiday. The most auspicious date in the lunar calendar is a time for family reunions....
COMMENTARY
Feb 12, 2001

Destroying a fragile trust

In the semirural area near Tokyo where I and some others spend weekends, we have just suffered our first break-ins. Nothing serious. Someone, probably delinquent kids, going through unlocked parked cars looking for loose items. Far more interesting is why we have been able to leave our houses and cars...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 12, 2001

Let the spring light the fires

THE PILLOW BOOK OF SPRING AND LAUGHTER: Eroticism in Meiji, Taisho and Showa Japan, by John Stevens. Tokyo: The East Publications, Inc. 156 pp., profusely illustrated, color plates/b/w photos. 4,200 yen. We associate spring pictures ("shunga") with the Edo period, lovers usually fully dressed with...
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

Still thrilled every spring by start of Wimbledon

There was America's No. 2 seed, Lindsey Davenport, on court in the final stages of the Toray Pan Pacific Open, thrashing Croatia's Iva Majoli, and looking a lot softer and prettier in the flesh than TV ever suggests.
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2001

In the land of the militantly mellow

NEW YORK -- San Franciscans, if we're to believe reporters who've spent the last week running up their New York employers' expense accounts, are searching the bottom of their recyclable souls in the aftermath of the death of Diane Whipple. Whipple, 33, was killed by one (or two, according to some sources)...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 11, 2001

Christopher Hughes

Bath in southwestern England, his birthplace and home for his first 18 years, played its part in the makeup of Christopher Hughes. Several generations of his family have lived in that beautiful town of squares, crescents and terraces. Set in a bend of the River Avon and famed since Roman times, Bath...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 11, 2001

A passage to modern sculpture

There is a wraith of a bird stalking the basement of the Canadian Embassy, and if you are interested in contemporary sculpture it is worth tracking down. "Passages" shows 20 works by four Canadian artists, ranging from whimsical wildlife to meditations on a cube.
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

Shinto priestess finds freedom while minding duties of past

On summer weekends, Kugenuma Beach turns into a parody of the nearby metropolis' encroachment on the holidaymaker, with girls in bikinis and 20-cm platform sandals struggling across the sand while loudspeakers on towers belch J-pop at 50-meter intervals, making it difficult to find a moment for quiet...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2001

Richard Thompson defies death and lives to tell

By his own estimate, Richard Thompson played about 100 concerts last year, "which means you're on the road for about 150 days."
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 8, 2001

Brash, bright, cheerful and fun

As a matter of principle, the Food File doesn't write up places within the first few weeks of their opening. Instead we prefer to wait until the kitchen has settled in properly and recovered from the inevitable strain of dealing with the local media and the surge of customers that inevitably follow....
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 8, 2001

Roti: Brash, bright, cheerful and fun

As a matter of principle, the Food File doesn't write up places within the first few weeks of their opening. Instead we prefer to wait until the kitchen has settled in properly and recovered from the inevitable strain of dealing with the local media and the surge of customers that inevitably follow....
COMMUNITY
Feb 8, 2001

Kids who learn by doing what comes naturally

The melting snow has transformed the playground of Hiratsuka Yochien into a muddy winter wonderland, but the kids follow their own pace. Some plunge ecstatically into the puddles, some carefully make their way to the chicken coop, while still others keep warm in the library.
LIFE / Digital
Feb 7, 2001

Post-Dreamcast, Sega set to become world's top game publisher

SEATTLE -- With its recent decision to abandon the 128-bit Dreamcast video game console and to publish games for PlayStation2 and other gaming platforms, Sega appears to be leaving the game hardware business permanently. Sega Enterprises cofounder David Rosen says it's about time.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 7, 2001

Why not join the marine corps?

Welcome to the second week of the second month of the United Nations-designated "International Year of Volunteers." To mark this joyous occasion, we are pleased to announce the release of a book named "Kokusai Volunteer Guido," aka "Inside International Volunteer Work," published by The Japan Times and...
COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2001

In defense of Davos' ideals

DAVOS, Switzerland -- President Vicente Fox of Mexico was received very warmly at this year's World Economic Forum summit in Davos. His message was clear: that globalization creates dangers, such as a deepening divide between rich and poor, and that these must be addressed if the globalization "backlash"...
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Inefficient public works projects creaking under debt burden

KOBE -- The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge, looks superb as it spans the Akashi Strait, linking Kobe and Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 5, 2001

Davenport topples top-seeded Hingis for Pan Pacific crown

Lindsay Davenport rode her booming serve to victory on Sunday in the final of the $1.18 million Toray Pan Pacific Open, downing defending champion Martina Hingis 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-2 before a crowd of 7,523 at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2001

Ginger, the new IT girl

Among the many things for which whiz-bang American inventor Dean Kamen is famous is an automated wheelchair that can ride over uneven ground and climb stairs. That particular breakthrough device was code-named "Fred." Now, as everyone this side of the grave must have heard, there is also "Ginger." Some...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

Parasitologist says excess hygiene threatens Japan

Far from being next to godliness, the Japanese obsession with cleanliness puts individuals at higher risk of disease and may even threaten the entire country, according to parasitologist Koichiro Fujita.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 4, 2001

Shizuo Mochizuki

Shizuoka, the warm, sunny prefecture known for its peaceful hillsides where tea bushes grow, has always been home to Shizuo Mochizuki. His father kept a shop in Shizuoka where he sold Japanese cakes. Mochizuki says that neither tea bushes nor sweet cakes especially influenced him in choosing to make...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 4, 2001

Cosmic artist leaves a legacy of world harmony

Cosmic artist Sachiko Adachi knew intuitively that her art was powerful, so she went to great lengths to dispel any misunderstanding that she was playing with fire.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 4, 2001

The elephants walk

Peter Pommerer likes to think big. Like, elephant big. His drawings, paintings and installations almost always revolve around depictions of the herbivorous mammal. Actually, there is a rumor floating around the art world that the Stuttgart artist actually believes he is an elephant.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 2, 2001

Local girls make good at Toray tennis

It was a good day for the home fans at the $1.18 million Toray Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament Thursday as Japanese players Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama won through to the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2001

Sega Corp. shuts down Dreamcast production

Video game giant Sega Corp. officially announced Wednesday it will halt production of its loss-making Dreamcast game console by the end of March and shift to game software.
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2001

Resist the revisionist impulse

LONDON -- Digging up the past has become politics, not archaeology. All round the world, whether in dusty archives or beneath sand-covered mounds, new "facts" are being uncovered, half-forgotten outrages reanalyzed, old myths debunked, old grievances exhumed and apologies or compensation, or both, demanded....
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2001

And the restructuring begins

There are two ways to look at this week's announcement that DaimlerChrysler is retrenching operations and laying off 20 percent of its workforce by 2002. On the one hand, it is another move by an auto manufacturer that has had trouble responding to a rapidly changing market. On the other, it reflects...

Longform

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