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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2014

Hideaki Anno: emotional deconstructionist

With dozens of the renowned filmmaker's works scheduled to be screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival over the next two weeks, we speak to the man behind the 'Evangelion' sci-fi franchise about his apocalyptic influences and prod him on the question that is on every fan's lips
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 3, 2014

Bourne's 'Swan Lake' puts a dance revolution on stage

To the delight of the nation's ballet fans, "Swan Lake" will shortly be gracing the Tokyo summer for two weeks — not in its traditional classical form, but in the new-classic guise of "Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake," a revolutionary twist on ballet's most tried-and-true tutu tale.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 24, 2014

A "New Interpretation of Japanese History"; the seawall debate; CM of the week: Yomeishu

Teacher-cum-TV personality Osamu Hayashi has made Toshin, where he works, the most famous juku (cram school) in Japan. One Toshin colleague who has ridden on his coattails is history instructor Shinichiro Kanetani, the host of the new series "Shinkaishaku Nihonshi" ("New Interpretation of Japanese History";...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 1, 2014

A-bomb survivors tell stories

Documentary filmmaker Shizu Azuma wants to send a message through her latest film, "Utsukushii Hito": Just as we should never forget those who lost their lives in the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we should not forget those who survived, either.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Mar 7, 2014

Early joys, trials put potter on path to the simple life

Growing up with severe asthma, Australian Euan Craig was acutely aware of the fragility of life from an early age.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jan 18, 2014

In Jomon and Heian, the times weren't a-changin'

"Man the change-maker." That is one definition of Homo sapiens. Other creatures are changed — by Nature, by evolution — over vast expanses of time measured in hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Humankind consciously generates change. We innovate, build, invent, destroy, build again. Even...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Dec 3, 2013

Nail salon with childcare is a rare treat for mom

Close your eyes and imagine the serene confines of a beauty salon with its minimalist white decor, gentle music and smiling therapists — and now add to the scene a hungry, red-faced toddler on the rampage.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2013

Photographer 'faces future' with portraits of centenarians

The idea of getting old scares most of us. We don't want to think about getting wrinkles, becoming bedridden or succumbing to Alzheimer's disease. Still, we must come to terms with the fact that growing old is a reality for all of us lucky enough to live long lives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013

'Things Left Behind'

When the Japanese refer to "the war," they mean World War II. When they talk about "the bomb," they mean the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. The event is so familiar, the contours of its tragedy are painfully etched into our collective memory.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 19, 2013

That's me in the picture: how 'selfies' became a global craze

It starts with a certain angle: A smartphone tilted at 45 degrees just above your eyeline is generally deemed the most forgiving. Then a light source: the flattering beam of a backlit window or a bursting supernova of flash reflected in a bathroom mirror, as preparations are under way for a night out....
LIFE
Jul 13, 2013

Gender bending in Japan

Do our genitals define us? Increasingly, they do not. Is sexuality more complicated than male/female? Increasingly, it is.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Nov 17, 2012

Ink artist pushes the boundaries of tattooing

The skin as canvas, inks and needles replacing the palette: tattoos by Khan transcend mere decorations. Whether he is depicting eye crinkles in a portrait of the Dalai Lama or the leer of a supernatural ghoul, his rich color and technical realism redefines the boundaries of art and pop culture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2012

'Poulet aux Prunes'

Iranian expat author/artist Marjane Satrapi had a breakthrough hit with "Persepolis," her graphic novel about growing up in revolutionary Iran, and she teamed up with director Vincent Paronnaud to bring her story to the big screen in 2007. It worked fantastically well, fully retaining the unique black-and-white...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 8, 2012

Communion with the spirits of wood

When you first encounter the sculptures of Koji Tanada, you might get the initial impression that he's being facetious or whimsical, and assume that his sculptures are all part of an elaborate practical joke, designed to drive home some droll but not very profound point. And why not? After all, this...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 16, 2012

Charming short stories about man's tarnished imperfections

The Beautiful One Has Come, by Susan Kamata. Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2011, 212 pp., $15.00, (paperback) Long-term Japan resident and writer Suzanne Kamata juxtaposes the charming and the unappealing in an understated elucidation of flawed humanity with her collection of short stories, "The Beautiful...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

'Heruta Sukeruta (Helter Skelter)'

One of the signs of aging is that the sort of loud music you loved as a teenager now bores and irritates you, if it doesn't drive you out of the room entirely. Movies can be the same way: Try as I may to channel my inner 15-year-old in the screening room, I sometimes mentally push the volume control...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

High price of the most gorgeous show in town

Note to self: Never be a young woman in Japan. It's just too harrowing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jul 10, 2012

The beautiful future of fashion

The "Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion" exhibition first showed at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 2010 and traveled to the Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2011. Highly acclaimed by art critics and fashion fans, the show is finally making a pit stop in Japan, at Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary...
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 25, 2012

Sakura: Soul of Japan

"If I were asked to explain the Japanese spirit, I would say it is wild cherry blossoms glowing in the morning sun!" — Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), nativist thinker and poet
CULTURE / Books
Feb 26, 2012

Fuji-san: reflections on Japan's iconic mother mountain

MOUNT FUJI: Icon of Japan, by H. Byron Earhart. The University of South Carolina Press, 2011, 238 pp., $40 (hardcover) It is significant that in a country where nature has long been transfused with the numinous, that Japan's most iconic image is neither a building nor a monument, but a mountain — Fuji-san....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2012

'Pina'

The name Pina Bausch may not strike a chord with many, but even a perfunctory look at her work will lock you in a hold that's layered with emotions: enchantment, enthrallment, even perhaps total bewilderment.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Nov 1, 2011

More ways to try before you buy

Not sure if you're ready to Roomba? Trial offers let you take just about anything for a spin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 25, 2011

Japanese brothers who championed Korean ceramics

In ancient times, Japanese arts and crafts were greatly influenced by the introduction of techniques and aesthetics from Korea and China. In particular, Japan owes the development of its ceramics to the skilled craftsmen brought over from Korea at the end of 16th century, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded...
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 3, 2010

Dancing on Mishima's waves

Childhood, a time of purest innocence, is also a spring of dark imagination. Maurice Bejart, French choreographer and collaborator with the Tokyo Ballet in the 1990s, took the childhood and life of writer Yukio Mishima as his muse when creating the original ballet "M" in 1993, but his imagination of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2010

Modern serving of traditional tea

If you've ever been fortunate enough to attend a tea ceremony, then you know that within the simplicity of movements, the quiet beauty of the room and the refined elegance of the utensils, there is a deep world where the moment becomes living art.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 26, 2010

Big birds have big fun

With the evening breeze, the water laps against the heron's legs

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes