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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 12, 2011

Monja-yaki restaurant owner Minoru Maruyama

Minoru Maruyama, 68, is the owner of the Maruyama Monja restaurant. Located in Tsukishima's Monja Street in Tokyo, his tiny joint is one of the 70 or so mom-and-pop shops in the area that all serve monja-yaki, a, pan-fried loose-batter shitamachi (downtown) snack food that is loved by children and adults...
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Jul 11, 2011

The latest and greatest gear for keeping it cool

It's gonna be a scorcher out there today, and tomorrow, and tomorrow ... Make sure you have the right gear for the dog days ahead.
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2011

Restoring confidence for tourists

The very pertinent June 29 editorial "Boosting Japan's flagging tourism" mentions that grassroots and government efforts will be equally important. I agree 100 percent, and would like to give an example of one grassroots effort to promote tourism.
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2011

Dangers from our dependency

This is a daily happening in a university classroom: While a professor lectures, each student freely does what he or she wants. Some students take notes, some sleep and some read a textbook. Someone's cellphone rings out and the owner replies as cool as can be. Most people think this is impolite, but...
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2011

The talent to help prevent suicide

Tokyo English Life Line suggests that journalists and anyone writing about suicide please read the readily available "Guidelines on Reporting Suicide in the Media" (www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/426.pdf).
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2011

Believe in human relationships

Thank you for Michael Hoffman's excellent July 3 article, "Japan needs to do more than simply 'cope' with stress." Hoffman expresses what I have felt for many years while living in Tokyo. Many people in this straitjacket society either have to put up with humiliation and daily insults at work, or risk...
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2011

Cities, lay down the tree shears

I want to thank Sherilyn Siy for her June 26 letter, "Spare the cut and save the shade." I've long thought about writing this kind of letter, but never got around to it.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 10, 2011

Media were quick off the mark with March 11 disaster publications

Within a couple of weeks of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, major magazine publishers and newspapers were already putting out extra editions covering the disaster. The first were mostly A4-size on glossy paper, which made them easy to display in the magazine racks at convenience stores and bookshops....
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2011

Reasons to remain in Japan

The June 26 Counterpoint article by Roger Pulvers, titled "Hearn the Western misfit finally found himself at home in Mejij Japan," prompted me to write. I was in Japan between 1946 and 1954, and have continued to be at home here since 1980.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 10, 2011

Banana's fabulous fables

THE LAKE, by Banana Yoshimoto. Melville House, 2011, 192 pp., $23.95 (hardcover) It's hard to believe it's been six years since Banana Yoshimoto had a new novel published in English. Her early novel "Kitchen" was hugely popular with foreign audiences, but since the release of "Hardboiled and Hard Luck"...
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 10, 2011

Kim's contribution crucial to Pyeongchang's victory

In a performance almost as dominating as the one that earned her the Olympic gold medal 16 months ago, South Korea's Kim Yu Na put on a show for the ages this week at the International Olympic Committee's meeting in South Africa.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 10, 2011

Pro baseball hopes to inspire Fukushima in return

On July 29, the Yakult Swallows will be playing the Yomiuri Giants at Azuma Stadium in Fukushima City, the closest a Japan pro baseball game will be played this season to the restricted zone around the crippled Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant No. 1. Yakult will be the home team for the encounter that...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 10, 2011

Marvelous Minakami: the great year-round escape

Face it, you need to get out of Tokyo during the dog days of summer, when it gets like a fetid sauna.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 9, 2011

Nagoya assistance for disaster-hit city a bit rocky at times

More than two months have passed since Nagoya started sending its officials to support the understaffed municipal government in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, where 68 out of its 295 employees were killed in the March quake and tsunami or remain missing.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 9, 2011

On rock worship and the Shinto gods

On my morning jogs on Shiraishi Island, I pass many things: some scary (spiders and snakes), some interesting (what's been washed up on the beach overnight) and some spiritual. The other day I had to take a detour to avoid a Shinto priest and a procession of men climbing the stairs to Myoken Shrine for...
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2011

A new face at the IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the world's most influential financial institution, has a new boss. Ms. Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister until her appointment last week, replaces Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who stepped down amidst allegations of sexual assault. Ms. Lagarde's selection...
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2011

Water treatment, cooling systems finally working

After suffering numerous problems, the newly installed treatment system for decontaminating radioactive water at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant and another system designed to recirculate that water to cool the reactors are finally working.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jul 8, 2011

Live from Tokyo, it's Saturday Night!

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Saturday Night Live Japan!
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2011

Machinery orders up most in four months

Machinery orders rose in May at their fastest pace in four months, government data showed Thursday in a sign that companies are increasing spending to restore businesses and production disrupted by the March 11 quake and tsunami.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2011

'Bal'

As Hollywood films become ever more breathless — with special effects sidelining nearly all plot and character development, and digital-editing abuse leading to few shots that last beyond a second — art cinema has moved just as extremely in the opposite direction, with slow, meticulous pacing; long,...
Reader Mail
Jul 7, 2011

Different opinions on counseling

Regarding Richard Rogers June 30 letter "Why put down counseling?": Let me thank Rogers for taking the time to respond to my June 24 review of the film "Hesher."
Reader Mail
Jul 7, 2011

Politicians neglect the obvious

Regarding Natsuko Fukue's July 5 article, "Matsumoto rips Tohoku governors": Newly appointed reconstruction minister Ryu Matsumoto (who resigned this post Tuesday because of his reported remarks) needs to understand some things:
Reader Mail
Jul 7, 2011

Sensible transfer goes begging

I was glad to see the June 28 article "Daylight savings is it finally time to convert?" I have been a summer resident and law teacher in Kyoto for six of the past eight summers and have found many things about Japanese life that are more sensible than in America, my home country.
Reader Mail
Jul 7, 2011

Japan's accountability for fallout

Regarding the June 29 article "Elderly volunteers to help Fukushima nuclear cleanup": It's good that Japan is using the elderly to clean up the radioactive disaster at Fukushima. It might also consider using the mentally disabled, prisoners and orphaned children to clean up Fukushima.
COMMENTARY
Jul 7, 2011

Yemen continues to inspire amid great odds

The Yemeni people are unrelenting in their demands for democracy. Millions continue to stage rallies across their country in a display of will that is proving the most robust out of all the Arab revolutions. The Yemenis face great challenges, including the political vacillation of their country's opposition,...
Reader Mail
Jul 7, 2011

Food safety precedes 'uniqueness'

Regarding the July 1 Kyodo article "UNESCO listing for Japan fare?": While it is apparent that Japanese authorities need to do what they can to promote safe Japanese food products in the aftermath of the recent tragic events in Japan, I am concerned, after reading this article, that too much emphasis...

Longform

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