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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 18, 2007

Some things never change

In the last edition of this column, I sewed together a few of the major changes I have seen in Japan since first arriving here close to 30 years ago.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 27, 2007

Russell reflects on remarkable career

NEW YORK — Some things you never forget, no matter how cluttered the compartments of your mind become over the years.
Reader Mail
May 27, 2007

Are defibrillators worth it?

I read with interest Alice Gordenker's column about the legal change that permits laypeople in Japan to operate the automated external defibrillator (AED), and the installation of AEDs in public places ("So what the heck is that?" April 17).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 10, 2007

Reported stalking cases likely just tip of iceberg

The day started like any other. The alarm clock rang at 7 a.m. and Laura Fitch, a Canadian then 28 years old, made her sleepy-eyed way to the shower to freshen up before brewing her first coffee of the day.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 17, 2007

Niseko -- snowflake Mecca

It snowed 30 cm last night. And another 30 cm today. Nature is expressing herself.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 31, 2006

Test where you stand on 'shared Japanese values'

Perhaps it is fitting on this, the last day of 2006, to look back at the year and reflect on the state of Japanese culture, society and life.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2006

John Toler, 75, unlikely Zen abbot bridging East, West, dies at temple

John Toler, abbot of Seisen-An Temple in Ouda, Nara Prefecture, died of heart failure on Nov. 14 at the temple. He was 75 years old and a key link in the history of foreigners living in postwar Japan.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 28, 2006

Forcing Eriksson out early makes perpetrators look weak

LONDON -- The hypocrisy, double-talk, deceit and lies have plummeted to new depths this week.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 11, 2005

Gaijin in cyberspace

It's a pretty lively gathering. A group of eikaiwa teachers are noisily denouncing their employers, while nearby a pair of leery Charisma Men are swapping tales of sexual conquests, and next to them some language students are loudly debating the Yasukuni Shrine.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Oct 1, 2004

Up and down the byways of Yotsuya

Koshu Kaido, one of the five official highways laid by Shogun Ieyasu in Edo (present-day Tokyo), which is now known as Route 20 or Shinjuku-dori, runs west from Hanzomon, the rear gate of the Imperial Palace, formerly Edo Castle, heading straight toward the Province of Koshu (now Yamanashi Prefecture)....
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 15, 2004

Fungal alchemists snatch bodies to live

Step back in time a mere 1,000 million years and the three great domains of the Plantae, Animalia and Fungi shared a common ancestor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jan 14, 2004

New year musing of a 'pottery poet'

As this is the first Ceramic Scene of 2004, I'd like to wish all readers a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 4, 2003

Alarm mars a runaway success story for salmon

In October, I spent some time in Vancouver. I have grown-up children there, as well as grandchildren and a lot of old friends, most of whom I met while working for the Environmental Protection Service. Even though I left Canada in 1978 to come to Japan and pursue the often dubious course of a writer,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Aug 7, 2003

"Tell the Moon to Come Out," "Illustrated Oxford Dictionary"

"Tell the Moon to Come Out," Joan Lingard, Puffin Books; 2003; 208 pp.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 29, 2003

The party is over for 'Super Free' sex gang

The hormone-fueled stupidity that characterizes the behavior of your average college student is a fact of life, and people who are bothered by the unsafe sex, nonstop boozing and mindless pranks that typify spring break in the United States usually advocate moderation rather than outright prohibition....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jun 26, 2003

"Follow Me Down," "Frank and the Chamber of Fear"

"Follow Me Down," Julie Hearn, Oxford University Publishing; July 2003; 224 pp. Strange things are happening in the basement of an old house in East London -- and not for the first time. The floor has parted, forming a kind of channel, and faces from the past are floating in it in an endless stream....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 20, 2003

Happiness and how to achieve it

We are all in search of it, and while some have it, many don't. The pursuit of it was even written into the American Declaration of Independence. We're talking about happiness, surely an ancient and universal human desire, a desire that arose in our brains when we arose on the Ethiopian savanna. But...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 4, 2002

The secret language of janitors

Although it is my pleasure to cover contemporary art by living artists in this column, I hope readers will give me leave to discuss a dead one this week, because the Henry Darger exhibition at the Watari-Um Museum of Art is just too fantastic an event to ignore.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 10, 2002

Summer sees ceramic talents in full bloom

Crunchy powerhouses of protein and vitamin E, sunflower seeds are much consumed in the West though their health benefits have never really been appreciated here in Japan. When it comes to pottery, we sometimes see himawari (sunflowers) painted on porcelains, but I've never come across a ceramic one complete...
LIFE / Travel
Jun 26, 2001

The temples of the Nile

To float down the Nile, stopping at the temples, sleeping on my ship -- this was my desire and now I am in a stateroom on the Cheops I, a floating hotel rather than a mere boat, looking at the wharf at Aswan and reading Flaubert's journal of a similar voyage he made in 1849. I notice many of the same...
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Columnist feels 'stronger' despite living with HIV

Patrick Bommarito is a 35-year-old openly gay American who lives in Tokyo.
COMMUNITY
Sep 1, 2000

Internet makes itself felt in publishing

Stephen King is currently shaking up American publishers with his experiment in making his novel "The Plant" available for downloading one chapter per month directly from his own Web site. In Japan, too, various ventures are taking place in digital publishing and distribution.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 9, 2000

Conductors introduce some new stars

It is fair to assume that anyone reading this column is a music lover of some degree. Take a moment to reflect, though, that there was a time in your life when you had never heard a note of music. What was it that inveigled your innocent ear? When was it? Where were you? Who introduced you?
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 1, 2000

Why ignore the canaries in the coal mine?

For all that the toads that I wrote about in this column a few weeks back have thick warty skins, amphibians in general are thin-skinned and very sensitive. That sensitivity is proving their undoing, and we should be paying much more attention to their demise than we are.
COMMUNITY
Apr 8, 1999

If it could happen to Superman . . .

Founded in 1995, the Japan Spinal Cord Foundation (provisional, since members are still raising the money necessary to legalize the foundation) has just achieved a major breakthrough. For months, members had been trying to make contact with an established similar organization, the American Paralysis...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 2, 2023

War-themed video game fuels wave of Ukraine conflict misinformation

Footage from Arma 3, often marked 'live' or 'breaking news,' has been used repeatedly in recent months in fake videos about the Russian offensive.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / ADOPT ME!
Oct 16, 2022

Zengina is one of many unique sweeties who are ready to share your home

Zengina got her name from hiding behind a household appliance, but she has no reason to hide anymore.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 6, 2022

Incoming British leader Liz Truss can’t escape Boris Johnson’s legacy

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson changed British politics, but he left his successor, Liz Truss, with a pile of problems.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 25, 2021

Yoko Ono: ‘Possibly the most famous Japanese person in the world’

John Lennon recognized her sometimes startling originality. His fans didn't. It looks like they were wrong.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 6, 2021

Does Japan breed leaders? Does it even need to?

A panel of four men at the tops of their fields discusses what it means to be a leader and comes to the conclusion that Japan doesn't necessarily breed them.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?