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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2010

Van Gogh: Sanity behind madness

In recent years there has been a sea change in the official cult surrounding the Post-Impressionist Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). For the masses he is still the archetypal "crazy artist": razor blade in one hand, severed ear in the other, and a lovely picture of sunflowers on the easel...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Nov 18, 2010

Shrine tags

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2010

Worlds of Flavor conference adds Japan to its menu

Japan's ailing economy may lack the impact it once had on global finance, but there's one area of influence where the country's significance is on the rise: the world of gastronomy. Earlier this month, a team of 39 top-tier Japanese chefs wowed an international audience with dazzling displays of technique...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 14, 2010

Mind who you call a 'birdbrain'

Eiichi Izawa of Keio University in Tokyo calls them "feathered primates." In Japanese folklore they are the origin of the forest demons known as karasu tengu. Scientists classify them as Corvus macrorhynchos.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2010

Obituary: Frederick Harris

Artist and community leader Frederick Harris, a resident of Japan for more than 50 years, died early Monday of heart failure. He was 78 and is survived by his wife, Kazuko.
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2010

Softbank lets 3-D steal iPhone show

Softbank Corp. unveiled a winter-spring handset collection Thursday featuring a wider lineup of non-Apple smart phones, including models that allow three-dimensional images to be viewed without special glasses.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 4, 2010

CrossFit pushes exercise buffs to their limits

The grunting gets louder the further I walk down the path. It's somewhat synchronized, and suddenly I hear a buzzer and everything is quiet — for 10 seconds.
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2010

U.S. hurts itself sitting on South Korea FTA

WASHINGTON — How have the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress responded to the twin challenges of continued high unemployment and China's displacing America as the No. 1 trading partner with leading East Asian states? By retreating economically from Asia.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2010

Odd tales, torments

In the 120 years since Lafcadio Hearn first arrived on these shores, Japan has traded superstition for Super Mario. Were Hearn to disembark in Yokohama today and travel through the country, would he be able to compile contemporary "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan" or "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 29, 2010

Tokimonsta serves up 'future beats' on her post-hip-hop menu

DJ and producer Jennifer Lee, better known as Tokimonsta, is in the business of "future beats."
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2010

Asia needs to make wiser use of its water

SINGAPORE — Photographed from satellites in space, Asia and the other great continents are a spectacular sight. One of the most unique features of the panoramic view is water, in both liquid and frozen forms, which covers about 75 percent of Earth's surface.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 24, 2010

Nibutani, Hokkaido: Travel, hospitality and the Ainu identity

Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands and much of Sakhalin. However, their culture in Hokkaido, dating back to the 13th century, was decimated after Japanese settlers began flocking to the huge northern island in the 1800s.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Oct 22, 2010

Wear a kimono at a special concert

As a sponsor of Tokyo Kimono Week 2010, the hotel Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo will jointly host a concert with the Tokyo Kimono Club on Oct. 31.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Oct 22, 2010

'Saburo Miyamoto: 1940-1945'

Setagaya Art Museum
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2010

Time to let the neighbors deal with the North Korean problem

PARIS — North Korea has officially unveiled the youngest son and heir apparent of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il. Yet again the impoverished dictatorship has captured the world's attention. But the United States should leave the problem of dealing with Pyongyang to the North's neighbors. The so-called Democratic...
LIFE / Style & Design / Japan Pulse
Oct 8, 2010

The new/old face of fashion: oji-girls

Out of the forest and into the drawing room, women's fashion moves from 'mori girls' to 'old-man cute.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / LIVING IN LUXURY
Oct 8, 2010

Sankeien silk trader's legacy to the public

Sankeien, a traditional Japanese garden, is spread over a large area near Tokyo Bay in Yokohama's Honmoku district.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 5, 2010

Kids' camps; more on Baha'i

Baha'i outreach MN thanks us for writing about her community (Lifelines, Sept. 21).
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2010

N.Y. gets 'one hand clapping' Zen debut

NEW YORK — The publication of J.D. Salinger's "Nine Stories" introduced a new generation of Americans to a Zen Buddhist koan roughly translated as, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 3, 2010

Kusanagi's grass challenge; new faces, new lives; CM of the week: Suntory Torys Whisky

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, the SMAP member whose drunken, naked midnight lark in a Roppongi park several years ago gave him an extra layer of notoriety, seems more than willing to suffer for his art, whatever that is, on the three-hour TV Asahi special "Neo Variety Matsuri: Kusanagi Tsuyoshi no Tame ni Naru"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 3, 2010

Fukuoka: Designed for living

Inquiring as to the whereabouts of English-language bookstores in Fukuoka, the person at the Rainbow Plaza information center's desk straightaway handed me a printout of English listings, maps and directions. This, I began to realize, is a well organized city.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Oct 1, 2010

Four-star dinner from three regions

The Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo's Michelin-rated one-star restaurant Signature will be offering a Michelin Star Trilogy dinner, combining the gastronomy of Tokyo with the French cities of Lyon and Nice from Oct. 6 to 10.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 1, 2010

Arabic calligraphy: Let ink make you think

Calligraphy has always been popular in Japan, but some people here are now attracted to an imported, yet equally profound, form of the traditional art: Arabic calligraphy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 29, 2010

Japanese facility aimed at creating a sun on Earth

Outside a small town in Gifu Prefecture is a little-known scientific research establishment engaged in a project to "create a sun on the Earth." If successful, this venture will profoundly affect the lives of most people in the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2010

'A Single Man'

Oh to live in 1962, when people guzzled gin guilt-free and dragged innocently on cigarettes, when they drove huge great cars without worrying about global warming, when women (and men for that matter) had silhouettes instead of mere shadows. This is on the condition that it's a 1962 drawn up by Tom Ford,...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2010

Dastardly doctor with a mean scalpel and a heart of gold

It is probably not excessive to say that every Japanese male between the ages of 15 and 40 knows Black Jack, the outlaw surgeon who features in the series of comics that Osamu Tezuka created in the 1970s and early 1980s — comics that remain (thanks in part to movies and TV) popular today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Sep 18, 2010

Tokyo cafe entrepreneurs bring more to the table

Some cafe entrepreneurs are looking beyond the set menu of java and jazz and bringing more to the table.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight