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LIFE / Digital
Oct 25, 2000

Xpect the unxpected

SEATTLE -- What does Microsoft know about fun? The engineers who designed Xbox, the new 128-bit video game console that Microsoft plans to release sometime next year, know too much for their own good.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2000

Creating soundtracks for modern pop culture

Dodgeville, Mich. Ever heard of it? Perhaps not. It's just another small Midwestern town you pass through on your way to the big city. It certainly wouldn't occur to you it's where one of America's most talented and hardworking composers was born.
COMMENTARY
Oct 23, 2000

LDP is up to its old tricks

The current 150th Diet session is in unprecedented chaos over an electoral reform bill to revise the Upper House voting system. The bill would change the roster system for candidates nominated in the proportional-representation segment of the Upper House polls. Currently, parties predetermine the ranks...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 23, 2000

Clock tolls for environmental action

Mika Suzuki may not be a professional designer, but her keen eye and concern about the environment recently won her the top prize in a Tokyo eco-design contest.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2000

An 'extreme' sport that's truly off the wall

As we search for bigger thrills and harder adrenaline rushes, more and more people are pursuing a break from the norm with "extreme" sports.
COMMUNITY
Oct 22, 2000

ZERI student volunteer recalls Expo experience

Agreeing to be interviewed but only 18, Ikuko Sato brought along her elder sister Kyoko for support. Actually, Kyoko had her own motive for joining us. Soon to visit a Filipino friend in England, she wanted information on traveling in the U.K.: "Is there a special rail pass for tourists? And what do...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 21, 2000

Songs and sausages in Balkan backwoods

KOPRIVSHTITSA, Bulgaria -- Bulgaria may be one of the worst places to visit in Europe if you're looking for an advanced level of economic development, but it is a great place to go if you want a music festival where you can take off your shirt.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Shirakawa urges firsthand science classes

Nobel laureate Hideki Shirakawa suggested Friday that elementary school children in Japan more firsthand experience in their science education.
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 20, 2000

Bloodthirsty tales of revenge

The Kabukiza's October afternoon program features Seika Mayama's 1940 masterwork "The Hama Detached Palace" and Segawa Joko's well-known 1853 sewamono (realistic play) "Genjidana." Nizaemon Kataoka takes lead roles in both plays, while Tamasaburo Bando appears as Otomi in "Genjidana."
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Oct 19, 2000

Restoring health with flowers

To continue with our rather jolly theme of happiness-inducing strategies, today we take a look at the Bach Flower Remedies.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 18, 2000

Oh-Nagashima showdown highlights Japan Series

The final Japan Series of the 20th century promises to be a trip down memory lane, oozing with nostalgia, as two of baseball's brightest stars square off as managers for the championship of professional baseball.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2000

Foot cult member gets suspended term for fraud

A former member of the Honohana Sanpogyo foot-reading cult was sentenced Tuesday to a suspended 18-month prison term for swindling about 4 million yen from two women who consulted the cult about issues related to illness and child-rearing.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 18, 2000

Ghost hunting in York

With Halloween just around the corner this column bravely steps beyond the boundary of nature travel and pops its toes into the chilling twilight realm of "supernature" travel.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 18, 2000

Seeing spots before your eyes

Rain brings changes to the African savanna. As storm clouds near, even the smells change. The temperature flutters, falls; the stuttering, buzzing and sawing of insects takes on a different pitch; then a hush, before the pittering of raindrops splashes dust from the baked ground. The pittering turns...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 17, 2000

Japanese will fight for rights

THE RITUAL OF RIGHTS IN JAPAN: Law, Society, and Health Policy, by Eric A. Feldman. Cambridge University Press, 2000, 219 pp., 14.95 British pounds (paper). Debunking myths is a noble endeavor, especially for scientists who are in the business of separating fact from fiction. The belief that Eric Feldman...
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

Rail firms to beef up mobile-phone ban

A Tokyo subway operator and six major private railway firms plan to launch a joint campaign today to stress their ban on mobile-phone use in trains during rush hour, due to the danger of interference with pacemakers, the companies announced Sunday.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 16, 2000

Halard-Decugis, Schalken claim Japan Open tennis titles

It was death by a thousand cuts or, to put it another way, victory by a thousand errors.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Dioxin in mother can shrink son's prostate gland: report

Even minute quantities of dioxin in a pregnant woman may cause shrinkage of her son's prostate gland and weaken his immune system, according to the results of recent experiments on rats conducted by a Japanese scientist.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Oct 15, 2000

Rexroth revolution comes home to Japan

Yokohama-based essayist and poet Morgan Gibson has been and continues to be one of the most prolific contributors to Japan's English literary scene. Of his own work he had poems published in the 1970s in pioneering journals like One Mind and Kyoto Review and later, in the '80s, in publications like Blue...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 15, 2000

Lapentti, Schalken book spots in Japan Open tennis final

With the top three seeds out of contention, it was left to the fourth seed, Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti, to lead the way into the final of the Japan Open tennis tournament on Saturday, and the world No. 16 duly obliged with a clinical 6-3, 6-4 victory over Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Japan 'has never apologized': Zhu

Visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji stated Saturday that Japan has never officially apologized to the Chinese people for its wartime aggression and said he wants the Japanese people to consider that fact.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 15, 2000

Hawks pitcher Fujii passes away at 31

Daiei Hawks pitcher Masao Fujii died at a Fukuoka hospital Friday. He was 31, three days short of his 32nd birthday. Fujii had been hospitalized at the National Kyushu Medical Center for interstitial pneumonia.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2000

Olympic success puts Sydney at the top

SYDNEY -- So you liked watching the world's best-ever Olympic Games? Wait, there's more. Hold that remote control for the next sports extravaganza from Australia, the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.
COMMUNITY
Oct 12, 2000

Till bedtime do us part

At midnight every night, Shoko Ohara, a 39-year-old construction company employee, drives to the station to pick up her hard-working husband Takeshi, an engineer. The two chat during the 10-minute ride to their suburban home, and while Takeshi takes a bath, Shoko warms up his dinner in the kitchen. She...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 12, 2000

Bunny thrives in Predators' den

Yujiro Nakajimaya, captain of the Kokudo Bunnies and a member of Japan's national team, is not your average Japanese professional hockey player. In four teenage years spent at Notre Dame College, a high school in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, the Hokkaido native gained more than just a fluent command of English....

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