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CULTURE / Books
Feb 3, 2008

Journal of an uncommon traveler

WINDOWS ON JAPAN: A Walk Through Place and Perception, by Bruce Roscoe. Algora Publishing, 2007, 308 pp., $31.95 (paper) On the premise that speed blunts the mind, New Zealander Bruce Roscoe decided to make his journey on foot, following a route across the waist of Japan, from the port city of Niigata...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 3, 2008

Documentary on abandoned children, chocolate travel special

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there are presently 2.2 billion human beings in the world under the age of 18, 300 million of whom do not exist in any sort of official capacity.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 2, 2008

The changing Japanese face and the eye of the beholder

"The camera doesn't lie," says my friend, a professional photographer with long years in Japan.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2008

Humanist harks back to cinema's golden age

How many directors make great movies after turning 70? John Huston did it with "The Dead," likewise Akira Kurosawa with "Ran" and Clint Eastwood with "Letters from Iwo Jima," but the numbers are few.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2008

Tilting the balance back to darkness

In the minds of casual observers, Japan is simple. Between lovers of tradition and those enraptured by Japan's quirky window into an urban future, it's either the former land of austere, honorable warriors or the current one of air-headed, emotionally overwrought manga characters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2008

A steady hand in the culture

For more than 700 years until the modern period, members of the Konoe family have been prominent among the nobles of the Imperial Court. Descended from Fujiwara Iezane (ca. 1179-1242), whose own elite clan can be traced back to the beginnings of written Japanese history in the seventh century, the Konoe...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 27, 2008

The other wild side of Zimbabwe

In recent years Zimbabwe has consistently made headlines for all the wrong reasons: despotism, the highest inflation rate in the world, human rights abuses. You name your classic African fiasco/atrocity/act of idiocy, President Robert Mugabe's has done it. In spades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2008

'Bee Movie'

"Bee Movie," the latest animated feature from DreamWorks Animation, is about as funny as its title. B-movie, get it? It's a rather weak pun, more so considering there already was an ironically titled "B-Movie" made in 2004.
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2008

How Ma's 'three nos' policy could impact cross-strait ties

TAIPEI — Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou has proclaimed a "three nos" policy — no unification, no independence, no use of force — in outlining his planned approach to cross-strait relations should he win the March 22 Taiwan presidential election.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 19, 2008

Paying one's respects to the sea god

It's winter on Shiraishi Island, and there's not much to do. So most people spend their time storing up luck for the year.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 18, 2008

'Earth'

The nature documentary has long been a staple of the small screen, whether its NHK or the BBC, but in recent years more and more have been showing up in the cinemas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 18, 2008

Depp: "If you ate me I would taste of deep-fried frog's legs"

Despite the gore depicted in trailers aired on screens, the atmosphere was nothing short of festive as director Tim Burton, actor Johnny Depp and producer Richard Zanuck entered the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo's Roppongi district last week to promote "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 17, 2008

The faithful student

"I love Las Vegas shows," says kabuki actor Ichikawa Kamejiro. "I go to Las Vegas because I think they use the most advanced techniques to create stunning productions. I find their attitude toward show business completely different from ours."
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 13, 2008

Shimmying to fitness in South Seas style

Their hips swathed in tight, colorful skirts, and their shoulders bare above tight tube tops, about 30 women shimmy and shake sexily to fast, powerful drum rhythms and the cheerful melody of Tahitian banjo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 11, 2008

In praise of picture-postcard Japan

As Ana and Roberto, my two good friends from Brazil, and myself gorged ourselves through the multicourse kaiseki dinner at the very pleasant and relaxed Tachibana Shikitei, a Japanese-style inn in Ishikawa Prefecture's Yamashiro Onsen, I convinced myself that food, when served on quality pottery —...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 9, 2008

Can we be forever young?

Jeanette Winterson's latest novel, "The Stone Gods," is set in the future on a distant planet whose resources have been over- exploited by colonizing humans.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / STYLE WISE
Jan 8, 2008

Raf Simons, Bulgari, Marc Newson and more

Candy-colored covers
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jan 6, 2008

Games so real the best of drivers take them seriously

Advancing technology blurs the line between virtual and real-world driving as today's champions practice on television screens.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 4, 2008

Linda Thompson "Versatile Heart"

When she and Richard Thompson were setting the standard for English folk rock in the 1970s, Linda Thompson was burdened with interpreting her husband's songs of "doom and gloom." Twenty-five years after their divorce, and two albums into a late comeback, Linda finally seems to be lightening up, at least...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jan 4, 2008

Where ambitions have long soared

First of two parts
JAPAN / Q&A
Jan 3, 2008

G8 summit to showcase environment technologies

Known for its cool summers and snowy winters, Hokkaido, the venue of the Group of Eight summit in July, is blessed with a rich natural environment and vast landscapes. It is a popular destination for nature lovers and people looking for outdoor activities such as skiing and rafting.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jan 3, 2008

Hot tickets: Art

Twilight of the Turbulent Gods Long known for photographs in which he transforms himself into Western culture's feminine icons — from Mona Lisa to Marilyn Monroe — Yasumasa Morimura decided two years ago it was time to tackle the male "realm of politics and war."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 25, 2007

Natsuki Maeda

Shop clerk Natsuki Maeda, 19, is a charismatic fashion leader in Tokyo's world-famous Shibuya 109 building, the epicenter of cool threads for girls and for women who, regardless of their age, would like to look as young as they feel. Working in one of the 100 shops here is synonymous with celebrity status,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2007

The many faces of a complex city

TOKYO TOKYO TOKYO, photographs by Gorazd Vilhar, text by Charlotte Anderson. IBC Publishing Co., 2007, 144 pp., ¥3,300 (cloth) The very title of this new collection by Gorazd Vilhar and Charlotte Anderson suggests multiple Tokyos. It posits a city so multifaceted that only various versions of it can...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2007

High court upholds 20-year term for Shigenobu

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a 20-year prison term for one of the most notorious members of the Japanese Red Army, saying she played an indispensable role in plotting and aiding the 1974 seizure of the French Embassy in The Hague.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2007

'L'heure zero'

French filmmaker Pascal Thomas has a thing about Agatha Christie. "L'heure zero (Toward Zero)" is his second adaptation of a mystery by the "Queen of Crime" following "Mon petit doigt ma dit . . . (By the Pricking of My Thumbs . . .)," and he re-creates the Christie microcosm, as before, with the earnest...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2007

"Work : Man"

Zeit-Foto Salon
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 16, 2007

Comic child-detective, comedians visit the poor, blind singer docu-drama

One of the longest-running comic series is "Meitantei Conan (Famous Detective Conan)," about an elementary-school-age private eye named Conan Edogawa who was once a high-school-age private eye named Shinichi Kudo before the evil Black Organization (Kuro Soshiki) used some kind of "chemical" to make him...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2007

'Les filles du botaniste'

Banned in China as "unsuitable for viewing," "Les filles du botaniste (The Botanist's Daughters — released in Japan as 'Chugoku no Shokubutsugakusha no Musumetachi')" is a luscious, languid tale of forbidden love in 1980s China.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb