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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2008

'Les Paul: Chasing Sound'

Any devotee of the electric guitar soon comes to learn the names of those pioneering musicians who realized the instrument's potential: people like Charlie Christian, who first started overdriving his amps and incorporating distortion into his playing, or Jimi Hendrix, who took that concept to the nth...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 15, 2008

Everything old is new again

Too often — in this column, just as in life — we have to say goodbye. So it's been a rare pleasure this year to welcome back a couple of longtime favorites that have been sorely missed during their time away.
COMMENTARY
Aug 14, 2008

Growing energy disarray

The energy policies of European nations, and of Britain in particular, are in disarray. Admittedly the ferocious rise in crude oil prices has eased, but how long the present dip will last, with the Russians bombing one of the main oil transit pipelines from the Caspian region through Georgia and the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2008

Street players give hoops diplomacy a shot

On one sunny Sunday afternoon this spring, dozens of people of various ages and nationalities converged on the basketball courts at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. Juking, dunking, shooting and scoring, they played with grit as their competitive juices flowed.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2008

New hope for Aborigines

SYDNEY — The richest man in Australia has come up with the first solid plan to get "lost" Australians off welfare dependence and into dignity-rewarding jobs. It's a breakthrough that has been 200 years in the making.
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2008

Phelps in esteemed company at top of Mount Olympus

BEIJING — Here's the answer to an obscure trivia question: Michael Phelps' middle name is Fred.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2008

Ainu stepping out of social stigma

SAPPORO — For someone who grew up ashamed of her ethnic identity, they are powerful words.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 13, 2008

Gamers can tap into their neural impulses

Head games: A magician's hand may be faster than your eye, but is your eye faster than hands on a keyboard? PC gamers now have the chance to find out with the new Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) from OCZ Technology.
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2008

Stimulus package outline unveiled

The government on Monday unveiled an outline of a stimulus package to help the economy out of its downtrend amid rising oil prices and a global slowdown due to the U.S. subprime crisis.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 12, 2008

It's ghost season in Japan — who you gonna call?

If there are eerie goings-on in the neighborhood — and Halloween is still two months off — it could be because Japan's traditional "ghost season" maxes out at this time of the year.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 12, 2008

It's ghost season in Japan — who you gonna call?

If there are eerie goings-on in the neighborhood — and Halloween is still two months off — it could be because Japan's traditional "ghost season" maxes out at this time of the year.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / JAPAN NATIONAL BASEBALL TEAM
Aug 10, 2008

Japan routed by CL squad in final tuneup

Japan's final Olympic tuneup featured a team that put on a gold medal-worthy performance both at the plate and on the mound on Saturday.
OLYMPICS
Aug 10, 2008

Important message not quite lost in translation

BEIJING — Olympic blunder No. 1: For any writer making his first trip to the Olympics, the individual will make his/her share of silly mistakes: getting from Point A to Point B in time, misreading the event schedules, etc.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Aug 10, 2008

Fiat's 'Bambina': a 'small car with a big heart'

Japan makes plenty of fun little cars, but it is far from having a monopoly on the aesthetic.
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2008

Change begins with children

I have followed Debito Arudou's articles for five years, whenever they show up, and find them interesting, but he seems rather like the Lone Ranger. He has had a political cause ever since he arrived and became a Japanese citizen, fighting the Japanese legal system and trying to improve its human rights...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 10, 2008

Engineering a historical oblivion for soldiers of the wrong wars

My dad was a lucky man. Born in 1903, he was just too young for service in World War I and a bit too old for the same in World War II. Not that he couldn't have volunteered for the latter. He certainly could have, but decided not to.
OLYMPICS
Aug 9, 2008

In the Olympic Village, for real and for not so real

Call him the people's champion or an everyday man, either way Rafael Nadal is sure to win his fair share of new fans during the Beijing Games.
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 8, 2008

Selection of runner Lomong to carry U.S. flag particularly poignant

BEIJING — After a tasty buffet meal at a nearby hotel restaurant followed by a few cups of delicious green tea — I had plenty of choices; there was a separate tea menu, featuring at least a dozen varieties — I'm content to return to job-related duties.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2008

U.S. details sub Houston's radiation leaks

The U.S. government notified Japan Thursday that trace amounts of radioactivity leaked from the nuclear submarine USS Houston at a port in Kanagawa Prefecture and one in Okinawa between July 2006 and this April.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2008

Green efforts before Games deserve praise

BEIJING — Images of the Beijing skyline seemingly bathed in a soup of smog and haze have been a common sight on the world's TV screens in recent days and weeks. Foreign journalists with hand-held air pollution detectors have been popping up on street corners checking levels of soot and dust. Everyone...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 8, 2008

Fans, young musicians to unite under the sky at Sora Matsuri

If nature-lovers are tree-huggers, how to describe people who love the sky? Air heads? Plane-huggers? There isn't much else up there you can wrap your arms around. But you can always express your affection through song.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 7, 2008

Nihon buyo dancers pass on their culture

As far back as elementary school, Yukari Hatori, now age 34, dreamed of becoming a nihon buyo (Japanese dance) performer.
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 6, 2008

Compelling stories plentiful as Beijing Games near

BEIJING — I learned this when I was a wee lad: One of life's great diversions is learning about other people's eccentricities. My maternal grandparents taught me this, using sports as the backdrop for this timeless principle.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Aug 5, 2008

The business of building an MBA program

When Yoshito Hori quit Sumitomo Corp. in the early 1990s and started a business school, many of his colleagues thought he was taking too great a risk. As it turned out, he was on the leading edge of the venture boom.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 5, 2008

Schools aim to cultivate returnee students' 'second culture'

Yuki, 7, zooms around the school lounge in her neon T-shirt, hugging teachers, gesturing wildly, making jokes and chattering away in perfect English. Yuki is Japanese and learned English when her family lived in Los Angeles for two years. She is affectionate and expressive, or at least she is on Saturdays...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2008

In memory of dreamer Bronislaw Geremek

WARSAW — When a friend dies unexpectedly, we recall his face, his smile, the conversations forever unfinished.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years