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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 5, 2011

Kyudo — hitting the target

Spring is on the way with flying arrows. Which proves that islanders living in Japan's Seto Inland Sea area don't just sit around doing nothing all day (well, not every day anyway). On March 6, Awashima Island (population 300) will host a Japanese archery festival called Momote, a tradition that goes...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 4, 2011

Bunraku gets film treatment

Canadian filmmaker Marty Gross had been fascinated with Japan's traditional puppet theater, bunraku, since he saw a production during his first visit to Japan in 1970. But it was only later in that decade, when it was suggested that he make a film of a production, that he took the time to study the art...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 4, 2011

Showing art can be a load of rubbish

How are Africans seen by the rest of the world? Often as victims of tragedy, requiring our pity and charity, as I discovered when I showed a class of students a photo of the respected Ghanaian artist El Anatsui. The picture — in the catalog for his exhibition now on at the Museum of Modern Art, Hayama...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 25, 2011

Spa and lunch package in Tokyo

From March 1 to June 30, the Hyatt Regency Tokyo will offer an Anniversary Beauty Spa Package to commemorate the fifth anniversary of its Joule Spa & Wellness.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2011

Jolie acts out a teenage crush in 'The Tourist'

"Of course I always wanted to work with Johnny Depp!" laughs Angelina Jolie. "What actress hasn't? I've thought he was the coolest thing for years. I practically grew up with him and had such a crush on him in 'Edward Scissorhands'!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 18, 2011

'Hereafter'

Life is short, death eternal, and Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter" lies somewhere in between. The film starts off with a bang — a tsunami hitting a Thai resort town, a psychic contacting the dead in San Francisco, and a street mugging turning into accidental death on a tough London street. It then moves...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 18, 2011

Japan's celebrated Edo Period painters: Having the good fortune to see all that is Gitter's

The first time I met renowned Japanese art collector Dr. Kurt Gitter was at an Asian art conference in New York in 2001, where he was on a discussion panel on Japanese art. An audience member asked Gitter, "Sir, since you and others have passionately collected antique Japanese works for decades and since...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 15, 2011

Remembering a supporter of refugees; discrimination a part of human nature

In memoriam: Father Kasuya Beloved Catholic priest Father John Koichi Kasuya passed away on Feb. 9 at a house for retired Catholic clergy in Japan, aged 87.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 13, 2011

K-pop takes on the world while J-pop stays home

Last week, the Fuji TV newsmagazine "Mr. Sunday" looked at Korean pop's success in Japan from two angles. Taking a street-level perspective, the show's host, Seiji Miyane, hung out in Tokyo's Okubo district, which has become "the new Harajuku" because young Japanese women flock there to rub up against...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Feb 13, 2011

Japan's first pop culture

Pop culture. Japan's today is thriving, vibrant, spreading, turning people the world over into manga/anime freaks and costume players.
COMMUNITY
Feb 12, 2011

For Kanagawa artist, past goods offer key to creation

View the sun through a shitajiki, those transparent, decorative pencil-boards ubiquitous to elementary school children in Japan, and you can gaze, squint-free, into its rays. The world transforms when you look directly at the sun because perceptions shift. Shoichi Sakurai, 49, artist, discovered this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2011

'A Serious Man'

If you thought being Japanese is hard work, try the Jewish life for a taste of something gut-wrenching — or so implies "A Serious Man," created by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 9, 2011

Marriage has little to do with romantic love

You want to know the truth about why fewer Japanese are dating, getting married or even splurging on the occasional French dinner for two? We can of course, blame it on the big bad fukeiki (不景気, recession) but that would be a big fat lie.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 6, 2011

Focusing on Masayoshi Son and Eiga Mura; CM of the week: My Land

In the earlier half of the previous decade, Japan seemed almost overrun with entrepreneurs heading digital and cyber businesses. Few, however, have succeeded as well as Masayoshi Son, the founder and president of SoftBank, one of Japan's three leading mobile phone carriers and the only one built from...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 5, 2011

Lotus — showing the way to enlightenment

We all know that the lotus flower is a symbol of Buddhism, but is that all there is to it?
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 3, 2011

Running fever kicks in as Tokyo prepares for its annual marathon

The first Tokyo Marathon took place in February 2007 and attracted 30,870 participants, despite the dismal weather. Though it has only a short history, the event has been snowballing in popularity every year to become one of the most oversubscribed marathons in the world.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2011

Kyoto plan to boost visitors with aquarium irks locals

KYOTO — The ancient capital of Kyoto, already a major tourist destination, is moving forward with plans to further boost the number of domestic and international visitors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2011

What drew you to Expo?

To find out what pointed people in the direction of Tokyo Nail Expo — and if they could put their finger on what nail art meant to them — we roamed Tokyo Big Sight in search of willing interviewees. The following people kindly offered their views.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jan 28, 2011

A Valentine's day out with the girls

Should Japan be alarmed about sagging libidos and the rise of Valentine joshikai?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2011

'Copie Conforme (Japan title: Tosukaana no Gansaku)'

"Copie Conforme" is intimate without being intrusive, blending insight and cynicism to portray the dynamics of a marriage that never was.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 28, 2011

There's always art behind design

For some, life-changing moments involve a traumatic experience or a piercing epiphany. For others, something as simple as a teapot can elicit transformation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 27, 2011

Champion itasha drivers Rei and Cloud

Rei Densetsu and his sister Cloud are champion itasha (decorated car) drivers. At the 2010 Fuji Speedway itasha event, where Japan's best-decorated cars are judged on their designs, Cloud won the Impact Prize and Rei received the Special Award for their outrageously decked-out vehicles. The term "itasha"...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 23, 2011

Is 'Galapagos-thinking' Japan back at its evolutionary dead end?

There are expressions that buzz like busy little bees and ones that don't buzz anymore. One of the dead-bee buzzwords in Japan is shimaguni konjo, meaning "island mentality." As for a buzzword for 2011, you'd be hard put to find one more busily doing the rounds than garapagosu, which references the Galapagos...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 21, 2011

'Why is it Masterwork?'

Bridgestone Museum of Art
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jan 19, 2011

Resurgent Mao to lead strong team at Four Continents

Following last month's dramatic national championships in Nagano, where Miki Ando won her first title in six years and Takahiko Kozuka broke through for his inaugural victory in a major senior competition, Japan will send a loaded squad to next month's Four Continents Championship in Taipei.

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?