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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Feb 14, 2002

Take time to savor Ryoanji's splendors

The stone garden at Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto is perhaps the most famous of all Japanese gardens, and in 1994 it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 14, 2002

Of arms races and sex battles

On Valentine's Day, what better subject to tackle than sex? Well, maybe love, but that's not what gets evolutionary biologists all hot and bothered. Sex is where it's at -- the battle between the sexes. Males and females interact like two superpowers engaged in an arms race -- each escalation in arms...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2002

Southeast Asia receives terrorism wake-up call

HONG KONG -- The wake-up call has been loud and clear. As the alarm sounded, it confirmed that terrorism in Southeast Asia is a problem in need of attention. The most urgent wake-up call did not come from the southern Philippines, where around 650 U.S. troops are now being deployed as Washington opens...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2002

Korean art of fine living

In celebration of the upcoming 2002 World Cup soccer finals co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum will hold an exhibition titled "Masterpieces of Korean Art from the Joseon Dynasty" from Feb. 19. The exhibition consists of 300 works of art of the Joseon, or Yi, Dynasty...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 13, 2002

Michelle Wilson: 'Wake Up Call'

With searing vocals, Michelle Willson delivers her clear-eyed statements on work, love and life from a woman's point of view. And in that regard, nearly every cut on her fourth release, on which she teams up with the tight, rocking Evil Gal Festival Orchestra, is a wake-up call.
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Feb 11, 2002

Recalling the Tabata district's golden age

Seeing the rows of houses and apartments clustered around JR Tabata Station, it is hard to believe the area was, until the beginning of the last century, a vast agricultural landscape marking the northeastern end of downtown Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Feb 11, 2002

Argentina's decline holds lessons for Japan

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- A J.P. Morgan analyst in Tokyo was quoted by The Globalist (Dec. 21) as saying, "Japan now faces the choice: either restructure its economy or become the Argentina of the 21st century -- a spent power." One would not have imagined even just a very few years ago that Japan and...
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Feb 11, 2002

Cold lands but warm hearts

The literally hang out the flags for visitors to the small town of Nishikawa in the snowy foothills of Yamagata's Dewa Sanzan mountains. A large British Union Jack was crossed with a Japanese Hinomaru over the entrance to Tamaki, a riverside restaurant famous for its Hina ryori (Doll's Festival food),...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Scientists in Tokyo find that cloned mice have shorter lives

Scientists at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo have found that cloned mice have shorter life spans than mice conceived naturally.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 11, 2002

California prehistory mired in La Brea tar pits

LA BREA, Calif. -- The world, 40,000 years ago -- The weather's perfect. A warm breeze from the Pacific rustles the palms, there's the sharp tang of juniper and pine in the air, and the nameless mountains, which rise beyond the plain that will one day be Los Angeles, glow mauve in the early morning sun....
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2002

The lion king of Kabul

He was the most famous lion in the world," says the hand-painted metal sign hanging on an empty cage amid the ruins of Kabul's Zoo. His name was Marjan, and though the sign makes a bold claim on his behalf, it doesn't exaggerate.
COMMUNITY
Feb 10, 2002

A true poet of the people ...

Coming soon to a sidewalk near you is one of Japan's most original street artists, Hiromitsu Noriyasu, along with his growing cult of fans. The spirited 34-year-old has covered more than 16,000 km over the past seven months on his bicycle tour of Japan, raising funds to finance a film by composing poems...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Feb 10, 2002

Battle begins for security, 'other stuff'

WASHINGTON -- In his first formal State of the Union address, President George W. Bush portrayed the terrorism threat in stark detail, disclosing that American forces in Afghanistan have found diagrams of U.S. nuclear power plants and suggested that "tens of thousands of trained terrorists are still...
COMMENTARY
Feb 9, 2002

Can U.S. find the right voice?

LONDON -- The United States is the predominant force in the world -- more so than ever. Its military reach is awesome (as Afghanistan has proved), its technology at the forefront, its universities the most advanced, its Nobel laureates the most numerous, its production now back to almost 30 percent of...
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2002

Chef's Table event to aid street children projects

Karen Lewis is wary of placing herself in the spotlight. She is part of a team -- a committee -- so finds it embarrassing to be singled out. There again, she recognizes that publicity is good for the cause she serves: protecting and caring for street children in seven facilities in the Philippines, Vietnam,...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 8, 2002

Arimori strides for success in life after marathon

Winning an Olympic medal, you would think, would be the greatest honor an athlete can achieve.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2002

Osaka stages memorial service for maestro

OSAKA -- A memorial service for Takashi Asahina, who was the world's oldest active conductor and a founder of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, was held Thursday at a concert hall in Kita Ward. He was 93.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Feb 8, 2002

It's time to say: Let's talk about sex, babies

In all my years of studying Japanese, I never learned the word I need right now. How do you say "nocturnal emission"? I need to know because my 10-year-old son is starting sex education at school, and I haven't told him that part of "the facts of life." His Japanese is pretty good, but I think he'll...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 7, 2002

Snowboarding: street cred or Olympic discipline?

For many of the dudes and dudettes that flock to the ski resorts every winter, one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City will be the snowboarding parallel slaloms and half-pipe freestyle competitions.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WORKING IT OUT
Feb 7, 2002

Early retirement, outplacement, or just pink slip?

Makoto Kawamura, 51, felt he had few options left when the medium-size life insurer he worked for collapsed and a U.S. firm took over management.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 7, 2002

Hypersexual farming

Humans have practiced selective breeding for thousands of years to develop plants, animals and fungi better suited for human use than they are in their natural states. No genetic engineering is required, yet the genes of selected strains are different, "improved." Even people opposed to genetic modification...
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2002

Mr. Bush's battles

American President George W. Bush's first State of the Union address, delivered last week, will be remembered for one striking phrase: his reference to Iraq, Iran and North Korea as "an axis of evil." It is a powerful notion and one that perhaps reveals more than was intended. Yet for all its simplicity,...
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Of nationhood and identity

Writer Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands in 1951. He attended university in Japan and has spent a large part of his adult life in Asia. His nonfiction works include "The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan," "Behind the Mask," "A Japanese Mirror" and "Voltaire's Coconuts." Buruma...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 3, 2002

Hingis-Seles final in store at Toray Pan Pacific Open

Martina Hingis can't recall the first time she faced Silva Farina Elia of Italy. Not because Hingis lost 6-3, 6-1, but because it happened in 1996 and the current No. 4 player in the world was only 15-years-old.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 3, 2002

It's not just who's cast but how they're cast out

A nother milestone in Japan-Korea cultural relations is achieved with the two-part drama special "Friends" (TBS, Monday and Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Japanese idol Kyoko Fukada and Korean heartthrob Wonbin portray a couple who meet in Hong Kong and then strike up a cross-Japan Sea e-mail exchange that turns...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 3, 2002

Makes perfect pop sense to me . . .

Beat Crusaders must have overheard one of those critics a couple of years back saying "comedy is the new rock 'n' roll" and taken it literally, for what you get at their gigs is tons of cheap stand-up comic banter sandwiched between immensely hummable pop hymns. Remember the speedy guitar pop of The...
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2002

Afghanistan faces danger of donor fatigue

ISLAMABAD -- International pledges worth more than $3 billion from donors at the Tokyo conference called last month to discuss the reconstruction of Afghanistan are unprecedented. Never before has Afghanistan been the beneficiary of such a substantial largesse.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2002

Despite being born in Japan, 7-year-old is deemed stateless

Ken was born in Japan to Thai parents. But Japan, where the nationality law is based on lineage rather than birthplace, considers him stateless.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2002

How Lon Chaney led to lifetime of Japanese film

I'm rarely nervous these days. But the prospect of sitting down with author, academic, film scholar and art critic Donald Richie has me ever so slightly on edge. Movies like Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon," seen as a student in England, were profound in effect. Forty years on and here I am with the man reputed...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2002

Cultist's term upheld for 1994 murder attempt

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a 12-year prison term handed down to an Aum Shinrikyo defendant for attempting to kill attorney Taro Takimoto with sarin gas in May 1994.

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