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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 6, 2002

A safari of jungle trails, animal tales

As readers of our last column know already, we are currently floating gently down the Lower Zambezi in canoes. And though it might sound recklessly intrepid, it's really a piece of cake.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 5, 2002

Death and the old maid

"Tokyo Friend Park II" (TBS, Monday, 6:55 p.m.), hosted by veteran announcer Hiroshi Sekiguchi, is a prime example of the mindless, pointless game-show genre. The main idea is to match up two complementary celebrities who will work together to win prizes for themselves and selected viewers. Because the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
May 5, 2002

Thoughts of an accidental politician

Kyosen Ohashi was born in Tokyo in 1934 and studied journalism at Waseda University. He enjoyed a long career as a respected jazz critic and TV presenter, before quitting the entertainment world in 1990.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
May 5, 2002

Now is the season to indulge your shellfish gene

For thousands of years, populations living close to the sea have found shellfish an easily obtainable and convenient source of protein and trace minerals. Shellfish is the general term for crustaceans (shrimp, crab, lobster) and mollusks (clams, oysters, squid and octopuses). All of these shellfish (kokakurui...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 5, 2002

Memories are made of this

TOKYO CENTRAL: A Memoir, by Edward Seidensticker. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002, 256 pp. with b/w photographs, XXXVI. $30 (cloth) Translator extraordinaire, historian and beloved pedagogue, Edward Seidensticker has given us the definitive English versions of "The Tale of Genji" and the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2002

Why it must be Bush vs. Gore in 2004

NEW YORK -- It is impossible to overstate the importance of tossing U.S. President George W. Bush back onto the unemployment lines in 2004. His illegitimate presidency isn't even half-over, yet Bush's disreputable Cabinet of tin-pot gangsters has already succeeded in causing irreparable harm to our great...
JAPAN
May 4, 2002

Old habits die hard, especially group pressure to chug the ale

NARA -- Since the days of Prince Shotoku in the early seventh century, Japanese have been encouraged to respect "wa," or harmony in a group.
JAPAN
May 4, 2002

Group pays respects to slain reporter

KOBE -- Police officials, detectives and private citizens visited on Friday the Asahi Shimbun's Hanshin Bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, to lay flowers and offer prayers for a reporter who was gunned down there 15 years ago by an unknown assailant.
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
May 3, 2002

Pilot project to use Internet to link doctors, foreign patients, translators

KOBE -- For foreigners who cannot communicate in Japanese, having an interpreter is important when seeing a doctor.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

A cocoon of grandeur and propaganda

PYONGYANG -- Is change really in the air north of the Korean Peninsula's 38th parallel?
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

Kawasaki finds cultural assets among industrial blight

A year ago, a ward along Kawasaki's waterfront launched a campaign to rediscover the district's attraction and dispel its negative image as a pollution-plagued home to smokestack industries.
LIFE / Language
May 3, 2002

Never too young to start making a difference

You don't have to wait until you're grown up to be counted. In fact, if you're between 10 and 12 years old, you're the perfect age to take part in the International Children's Conference on the Environment. And to start thinking of how to preserve and improve the world that you are living in.
SOCCER / J. League
May 2, 2002

Antlers fall to Reds in Nabisco Cup

SAITAMA -- The Urawa Reds held off ten-man Kashima Antlers 3-2 in the Nabisco Cup thanks to defender Masami Ihara's last-minute header Tuesday night at Komaba Stadium, giving them the lead in Group D.
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
May 2, 2002

Nago ponders base-for-cash community conundrum

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- A prefabricated building behind Jisei Asato's home in the Toyohara district of Nago used to be an office occupied by the Kube Area Economic Promotion Council. It is now closed and bears "for rent" signs.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
May 2, 2002

Are you going to Kayabacho plant fair?

Yakushi-in Temple in Kayabacho, Edo, is hosting a bustling plant fair, and people of all ages and every walk of life are there. In this woodcut print (right) by Hasegawa Settan (1778-1843), we can see tonsured monks, geisha, a senior samurai holding the hand of a little boy, a young woman under an umbrella...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
May 2, 2002

Don't cast out 'Outcast'

"Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" will be released in the United States next month and a lot of movie goers have clearly got Jedi fever.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 1, 2002

Mizuho boasts of 12-million-transaction day

The Mizuho financial group, hit by serious computer problems upon the launch of its two banks at the beginning of April, completed 12 million settlements Tuesday, the largest number of daily online transactions handled by a bank.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 1, 2002

Young artists are making a splash

The third installment in an almost-annual series (they skipped it last year), "New Media New Face 02" is now showing at the NTT InterCommunication Center, in Shinjuku. The work here, from four Japanese artists, falls into the vague but trendy, technology-based genre known as "media art."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 1, 2002

Marc Chagall: painting the great power of love

In Japan, July 7 is a special day. It is the festival of Tanabata, the one night of the year when two celestial star-crossed lovers -- the Weaver (Vega) and the Cowherd (Altair) -- are said to cross the Milky Way to meet.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 1, 2002

N*E*R*D: 'In Search Of . . .'

'This album is like a life soundtrack," N*E*R*D frontman Chad Hugo says on their Web site. "It's a diary of shit we've been through over the last year or two."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 1, 2002

A heaping spoonful of satire helps the politics go down

Mixing music and politics is always tricky. While it sometimes results in great art (e.g. Bob Dylan's pacifist tirade "Masters of War"), often the music is ruined by too much didacticism (John Lennon's "Some Time in New York City" is a prime example).
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 30, 2002

Fashion world banking on teenage girls' yearning to grow up

In an effort to capitalize on the Golden Week holiday period, many department stores across the country are targeting preteen and early teen girls with a series of brand-name clothing promotions, fashion shows and makeup classes.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2002

Japanese cheerleader back for second season with NFL team

When Ai Yasuda was named to the San Francisco 49ers' Gold Rush cheerleading squad for the second straight year, she realized that although the door may not be wide, it is always open.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Apr 28, 2002

Scientist's conscience prevents him from toeing institute line

Hoisting banners with the single Chinese character for "damnation," victims of the mercury poisoning outbreak known as Minamata disease rallied in Tokyo in 1971 to draw national attention to their plight.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2002

Latest Chinese puzzle has experts baffled

HONG KONG -- For China-watchers, the puzzling China contrast is between a nation that sends the capsule Shenzhou 3 into space and one that drags a seemingly useless rusty hull halfway around the globe. China's first aircraft carrier has finally arrived in port, but the mystery remains as to what conceivable...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 28, 2002

Shinjo-mania begins to wear thin with Giants teammates

CHICAGO -- When the San Francisco Giants arrived at Wrigley Field on Tuesday for a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs, Tsuyoshi Shinjo was batting a depressing .168. Considering how much attention he was receiving from the Japanese media, you'd think he was batting 1.000.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Apr 28, 2002

Japan's 'long-awaited spring'

In the morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun, Monday, April 28, 1952, there was a front-page editorial titled "A New Start for Japan." The Occupation, Asahi opined, had been "almost akin to colonialism," resulting in people becoming "irresponsible, obsequious and listless . . . unable to perceive issues...

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