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LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Aug 2, 2001

From old Edo to South Park

www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/0009/ National Geographic has been running a flashback series highlighting its rich photographic history. Here's the September 2000 peek-to-the-past: a Hadaka Matsui feat at Saidaiji Temple in Okayama just after World War II. The photographer's flash provided...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 25, 2001

The misanthropic genius of Ensor

Living in densely populated cities, we survive by ignoring the crowd, by refusing to acknowledge those forced into physical proximity with us. The artist, however, is excluded from this luxury. He is expected to be aware of everything around him, including the seething mass of humanity. The etchings...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 22, 2001

The kimono celebrated

KIMONO. Text and photos by Paul van Riel, introduction and comments by Liza Dalby. Leiden: Hotel Publishing, 144 pp., color photos, $49.95. Folklorist Kunio Yanagita long ago said that "clothing is the most direct indication of a people's general frame of mind." If this is so, what then is one to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 21, 2001

Life through the lens in Seoul, Paris and Tokyo

It is hard to imagine Mi-Yeon producing art prints of such emotion and refinement amid the familial clutter of her apartment, but maybe this is the mark of the true artist: beauty can be created against all odds. "My daughter's at kindergarten," she offers as explanation.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Painting all the layers of knowledge and color in the Buddhist universe

'There is no room for originality in thangka painting," says Yumyo Miyasaka. "The iconography, the colors, even the way you hold the brush -- everything must be done just so." Self-expression is not the goal here; the pictures are an aid, a tool for meditation. The self is what you are trying to lose....
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

From Here To Inanity

After you've sat through three hours of "Pearl Harbor" -- 90 minutes' worth of passionless romance, 45 minutes of incessant explosions and then a seemingly endless 45-minute coda -- while your butt is screaming to get off that seat and out the door, the final bomb drops. As the credits roll -- including...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

Love town where time stands still

OSAKA -- Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura repeatedly says he wants to turn the city into an international tourist destination. But camera-toting foreigners snapping pictures of Tobita, one of its oldest and most famous neighborhoods, are probably not what either he or the local business community have in...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2001

Stop me if you've heard this one before

Nadie Conoce a Nadie Rating: * * Japanese Title: PuzzleDirector: Mateo Gil Running time: 108 minutes Language: SpanishOpens June 30 at Cine La Sept in Yurakcho At this point in time, we, as an audience, have learned to expect things from the psycho-killer genre: elaborate mutilation; a hip and queasy...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jun 24, 2001

Juttoku covers all the bases

Juttoku comes close to being all things to all people. Although it has been around for 20 years, it doesn't attract too much attention, sitting quietly on the edge of the concrete jungle of Shinjuku.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2001

Sounds of a poet who writes to live, and lives to write

COLLECTED POEMS OF SHUNTARO TANIKAWA, CD-ROM. Iwanami Shoten Publishers, Tokyo, 2000, 19,000 yen. It's been a recent trend in the music industry to come out with boxed sets commemorating the work of some of our most celebrated musicians, from John Coltrane to the Beatles. That such a trend has spread...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Will Koizumi factor win Tokyo for LDP?

The apparently overwhelming popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will be put to its first real test in less than 10 days, when the results of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election — campaigning for which began Friday — are announced June 24. And in spite of his popularity, those involved...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2001

Somewhere over the DMZ

JSA Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Park Chan Wook Running time: 110 minutes Language: Korean Now showing at Hibiya Scala-za and other theaters Two types of Korean movies used to be released in Japan. One was the art film, usually something dark, raw and intense. The other was the erotic film, usually...
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Reporters are asked for a little common courtesy

OSAKA — Anger on the part of the local community toward the way the media reported on the slaying of eight children at Osaka Kyoiku University Ikeda Elementary School and on the aftermath prompted mental care experts Sunday to demand an end to what they call psychologically damaging coverage.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 12, 2001

Fujiya Hotel: At ease in a Miyanoshita time capsule

Most visits to the Hakone area of Kanagawa Prefecture begin at the heavily touristed town itself, from where numerous well-trodden routes head off through the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park of which it is the official center.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2001

Waseda Egyptologist says key to future is learning from past

A free ride to the Middle East on an oil tanker may not be the flashiest start to a career. But for Waseda University professor Sakuji Yoshimura, the voyage he organized to Egypt in 1966 was the first step in what has become 35 years of archaeological exploration born from a childhood fascination with...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

LDP's Kyuma photographed with senior gangland figure

Fumio Kyuma, the acting policy research council chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, was photographed with a senior member of a crime syndicate while serving as Defense Agency chief in 1997, sources close to the case said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Obituary: Kiyonaga Ito

Kiyonaga Ito, a Western-style painter specializing in pictures of female nudes and recipient of the Order of Culture, died Tuesday evening of heart failure at a hospital in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, his family said Wednesday. He was 90.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

DoCoMo launches trial of high-speed service

NTT DoCoMo Inc. on Wednesday launched a trial run of its third-generation mobile phone service that promises to eventually allow users to watch video transmissions on their handsets.
CULTURE / Film
May 23, 2001

K.O. punch from the heart

Girlfight Rating: * * * * * Director: Karyn Kusama Running time: 111 minutes Language: English Now playing at Marunouchi Picadilly in Yurakucho and other theaters The only regret of seeing "Girlfight" is that it wasn't made two years earlier. Then it could have been released along with "Fight Club,"...
CULTURE / Art
May 23, 2001

On the streets of Oguiss' town

When I first saw the oil paintings of Paris by the Japanese artist, Takanori Oguiss (1901-1986) I was strangely reminded of the neutron bomb, a weapon notorious for its ability to annihilate humans without damaging buildings.
CULTURE / Art
May 16, 2001

There goes the neighborhood. . . into the future

Until last week, I thought there were basically three types of factories: oily old clunkers where maybe the beaten-down workers go on strike and a gritty hero emerges who is played by Jeff Bridges in the made-for-television movie; gleaming, robot-dominated technological wonders; and grim Third World...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 10, 2001

Nomo still getting job done his own way

As interest in Major League Baseball in Japan grows exponentially with each passing day, it could be easy to forget the man who is most responsible for the current tidal wave of attention the game in North America is enjoying here.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 6, 2001

A guide to Yunnan, China, that brings the province alive

CHINA: YUNNAN PROVINCE, by Stephen Mansfield, with contributions by David Reynolds. Buckinghamshire, U.K.: Bradt Travel Guides, 2001, 292 pp., with maps and 20 color plates, 13.95 UK pounds. Yunnan is China's most diverse province. Not only is it geographically varied, with glaciers in the north and...
JAPAN
May 2, 2001

Japan to launch first Venus probe in 2007

Japan plans to launch its first unmanned space probe to Venus in 2007, with the probe expected to begin orbiting the planet in 2009, according to project members at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.
Events
May 1, 2001

'Memoirs of a Geisha' muse vents spleen at author

KYOTO -- Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha" sold over 4 million copies and lingered on the New York Times best seller list for 58 weeks. The story of a country girl sold into virtual slavery who rises to become one of Japan's most celebrated geisha captivated the world.
MORE SPORTS / THE DUKE OF HAZARDS
May 1, 2001

Faldo designing plans for the future

Nick Faldo, a six-time major winner, shot 151 (75-76) in the first two rounds of the Masters last month and missed the cut. This means he earned nothing.

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