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Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 13, 2008

Puff your way to health through a pipe

If you are looking for a fitness activity that combines the tranquillity of Japanese archery and the thrill of blood-curdling ninja — along with the fun of playing darts — then fukiya (blowpipe darts) is maybe for you.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jan 4, 2008

Where ambitions have long soared

First of two parts
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 4, 2008

Beijing: punk paradise in waiting

As Beijing enters its Olympic year, The Japan Times meets the Japanese mogul who's hoping to put the city on the musical map
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 3, 2008

The artist and the island

Because of strong pressures to belong and conform in Japanese society, the country can be a difficult place for those otherwise inclined. One reaction to this is the hikikomori phenomenon, in which chiefly young males reduce contact with society to a minimum by staying in their rooms. A recently suggested...
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 29, 2007

Japanime holding all the cards in buildup to All-Star Game

Glenn Kardy calls himself a "crazy baseball fan." His earliest sports memory is a wild one. He can still remember the heated seventh inning of Game 2 of the 1972 American League Championship Series between the Tigers and A's.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 27, 2007

The flash of the unflashy

Although much fanfare, excited TV coverage and celebrity casts accompanied the opening of new theatrical venues in Tokyo this year, such as Akasaka Red Theater, Theater Creation in Hibiya and Owl Spot in Ikebukuro, many would be hard pressed to truly wax lyrical about Japan's drama world over the last...
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2007

A man of principles in desperate times

LOS ANGELES — There are times when — from a moral standpoint — men and women simply should not remain silent. In such times, seemingly fine lines need to be turned into unequivocal hard lines. This is when the men and women of conscience stand out.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 26, 2007

Wrapping up the year with dollops of whale and tuna

With Christmas behind us and New Year's less than a week away, this month's column combines a bit of yearend desk clearing with some suggestions for belated stocking stuffers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 25, 2007

Natsuki Maeda

Shop clerk Natsuki Maeda, 19, is a charismatic fashion leader in Tokyo's world-famous Shibuya 109 building, the epicenter of cool threads for girls and for women who, regardless of their age, would like to look as young as they feel. Working in one of the 100 shops here is synonymous with celebrity status,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2007

'I carry The Who brand with pride'

I first met The Who's Pete Townshend 10 years ago at a hotel near his home in London for an interview. He entered the first-floor suite energetically. When he sat down, his crossed legs bounced with barely contained passion in response to each question.
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Dec 21, 2007

To survive a corporate scandal or to crumble

Reflecting a year that was jam-packed with food makers' scandals, including false labeling, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation announced earlier this month that "nise," meaning "fake," best symbolized 2008 in a single character.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Dec 21, 2007

Broncos, Rizing develop at different pace

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. — Two teams walked off the basketball court on Monday night with identical 5-7 records. These teams, however, have different tales to tell about what they hope to accomplish this season in the bj-league.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 30, 2007

Nikko: spiritual highs, down-to-earth pleasures

Located about 140 km north of Tokyo, the city of Nikko nestles in the mountains of western Tochigi Prefecture. Its three holy sites — Futarasan Shrine, Nikko Tosho-gu Shrine and Rinno-ji Temple — were collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.
LIFE / Language
Nov 27, 2007

New translation vividly depicts postwar Tokyo

Shishi Bunroku (the pen name of Iwata Toyoo) is a writer who deserves to be better known. His novel "Jiyu Gakko (School of Freedom)" was a best seller when it first appeared in 1951, and gives as vivid a picture as we're likely to get today of what daily life was like in postwar Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2007

'Grbavica'/'Children of Glory'

When the civil war broke out in Bosnia Herzegovina, Jasmila Zbanic was 17 years old.
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2007

Is the democracy image losing its glow?

BALI, Indonesia — There's no guarantee that an intellectual counter-revolution will last any longer than a major monsoon. But there is in the works in this region growing disenchantment with the views of what one might call democracy fundamentalists. These are the people who insist that the democratic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 8, 2007

New MOT curator aims to do a lot with a little

Yuko Hasegawa delivers instructions to her staff in an even, polite manner that often belies the burden they impose. It's a style perhaps more suited to a corporate boardroom than an art museum. But, since she took over as chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT), in April last year,...
BASKETBALL
Oct 30, 2007

Neumann eager to build winning team in Fukuoka

Building a professional basketball team from scratch requires patience, energy and a never-wavering commitment to promoting the product in nearby communities.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 30, 2007

Lean, green and no hippy aftertaste

Imagine a lasagna without the meat. Now drop the cheese and pasta too. Not much left?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 28, 2007

Young, curious and adventurous: the 17th-century backpacker

The Travels and Journal of Ambrosio Bembo, translated from the Italian by Clara Bargellini; edited and annotated, with an introduction by Anthony Welch; with the original illustrations by G.J. Grelot; and maps. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007, 452 pp. $24.95 (paper) In the summer of 1671...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Oct 26, 2007

Narco

Director: Tristan Aurouet
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 21, 2007

The power of telling tales versus making apologies

In his new book, "The Political Brain," Drew Westen analyzes in detail the election debates of 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush. Westen points out that it was Gore's dispassionate approach to issues that hurt him. Bush, then as now, presents himself as someone who knows what is right (and moral)...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 19, 2007

In hot water at the seaside

I'd heard about the "bath in the sea" in Aomori Prefecture, Honshu's northernmost prefecture and a mere 600 km north of Tokyo. But this kaichuburo, as they call it in Japanese, isn't about splashing in the waves; it's a hot spring, and it's named Furo Fushi Onsen (hot spring of eternal youth and eternal...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 18, 2007

A film director in the theater

Daisuke Tengan is an acclaimed filmmaker, but search for him on the Internet and the first thing you'll discover is that he's the son of director Shohei Imamura, who won the Palme d' Or at the Cannes Film Festival for "Narayamabushiko" in 1983 and "Unagi" in 1997.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2007

Design meets art at 'Roppongi Crossing'

The world loves Japanese design. Because of this, Design Week, coming up next month, is arguably one of the most successful international events in Tokyo. By contrast, Tokyo Fashion Week and Tokyo International Film Festival hardly generate in those fields' fans the rabid excitement that the designers'...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 18, 2007

Putting students' works on the block

The evening was a festive red that illuminated the enthusiastic bidding by the 300-plus attendees at Japan's first ever university-run contemporary art auction. At the Kyoto University of Art and Design (KUAD) last Saturday, 18 students and three teachers, dressed in student-designed fire-red outfits,...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2007 NPB PLAYOFFS
Oct 17, 2007

Glynn comes up with goods

SAPPORO — With the Chiba Lotte Marines threatening to take control of the series, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters were looking for a good game out of starting pitcher Ryan Glynn. He responded with the game of his life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2007

'The Kingdom'

It seems impossible to make a movie about 9/11 or the "war on terror" without getting sucked into the political dogfight surrounding the mess America now finds itself in. Whether it's "The Road To Guantanamo," "United 97," or even the latest season of "24," it's hard to portray current events — even...

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building