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LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2001

On a mission from Korea

Kimchi is not just a daily food for Koreans, it's a potent symbol of national identity. Hence the outcry when the news broke of Japanese companies marketing ersatz versions not made according to the traditional process. This was sacrilege on the same order of trying to pass off carbonated grape juice...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2001

Saikabo: On a mission from Korea

Kimchi is not just a daily food for Koreans, it's a potent symbol of national identity. Hence the outcry when the news broke of Japanese companies marketing ersatz versions not made according to the traditional process. This was sacrilege on the same order of trying to pass off carbonated grape juice...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 13, 2001

'Poses': Rufus Wainwright

'Everything I like is a little bit stronger, a little bit thicker, a little bit harmful for me." So croons Rufus Wainwright on "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk," the opening cut from his new album, "Poses."
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Obituary: Kiyonaga Ito

Kiyonaga Ito, a Western-style painter specializing in pictures of female nudes and recipient of the Order of Culture, died Tuesday evening of heart failure at a hospital in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, his family said Wednesday. He was 90.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 5, 2001

Sparks fly in Mexico's city of artists and artisans

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico -- Having grown up in Los Angeles, where only the sanest of fireworks were legally sold, I was taught that colorful sparks shooting up higher than 30 cm would surely make someone pay for their reckless abandon. How happy I was to discover here that it's not necessarily true....
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 3, 2001

From simple folk to the royal couple

When the American folk revival landed on the shores of Japan in the early '60s, it gave rise to the "modern folk" movement. Japanese musicians copied The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, and it was only a matter of time before students started writing songs that reflected their own situations....
LIFE / Travel
May 22, 2001

Mists of time and fable fade at Janakpur

JANAKPUR, Nepal -- There are few places where history and allegory blur more easily than the Indian subcontinent. The line dividing fact and fable meanders and shifts like the great Ganges River that figures so prominently in both.
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2001

Am I the girl you're looking for?

Suzhou River Rating: * * * *Japanese title: Futari no Ningyo Director: Lou Ye Running time: 115 minutes Language:Cantonese, with Japanese subtitlesNow showing "If I leave you someday, would you look for me forever? Your whole life?"
CULTURE / Art
May 9, 2001

Links in a chain of ambiguity

As the spring exhibition season hits its stride, the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art has come up with an accessible and quite interesting show in the diffusely titled "Chain of Visions -- Family, Politics and Religion in the Last Generation of Italian Contemporary Art." The exhibition features about...
COMMUNITY
May 6, 2001

Think you're safe? Think again

Japan has long enjoyed a reputation for being one of the safest countries in the world. It's said that you can trust your neighbors here. That there's little need to be constantly worried about your belongings. That you can walk the streets safely at night.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 29, 2001

Tradition and mother nature make classic Piemonte wines

Poor Piemonte. Tucked away in the northwest corner of Italy, its gentle slopes have produced grapes for over 2,000 years and extraordinary wines for nearly two centuries. Yet, for many wine drinkers, Chianti is the only Italian wine they will ever know. Pity.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 25, 2001

Undying loyalty in ancient China

Ennosuke Ichikawa is presenting his latest "Super Kabuki" production, "Shin Sangokushi II (New Record of the Three Kingdoms, Part II)" at Tokyo's Shinbashi Enbujo Theater through May, leading members of his personal troupe including Danshiro (his younger brother), Ukon, En'ya, Emiya, Emisaburo and Shun'en....
CULTURE / Art
Apr 18, 2001

Growing in new directions: Yanobe's star rises again

Just in case you didn't know already: Kenji Yanobe is back.
COMMUNITY
Apr 15, 2001

A yen for thrift

There was a time when Japan prided itself on its thriftiness. Hard times after World War II produced the need to save money and cut every corner. Children were taught that each grain of rice was sacred and not to be wasted. Sardines and mackerel were standard fare, beef reserved only for special occasions....
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2001

K-pop, ya don't stop

BoA Last month, 500 members of the media gathered for the debut of singer BoA at the Roppongi club Velfarre.
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 6, 2001

Super League seen as boost to Asian soccer

Asian Football Confederation general secretary Peter Velappan said in an interview with The Japan Times that the AFC is aiming to boost the sport in the region with the launch of a new Asian Super League and also hopes to bring next year's World Cup cohosts closer together with the establishment of a...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2001

Homegrown IT plans are best

The government has unveiled the "e-Japan" strategy that it hopes will turn Japan into the most advanced information-technology-based nation in five years. Most mass media and IT experts are critical of the strategy. They say it lacks vision and workable plans, is late and is designed to benefit only...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2001

Reform out of reach for Kim Dae Jung

SEOUL -- Some weeks ago, I attended an academic conference that attempted a critical evaluation of the performance of administration of South Korea President Kim Dae Jung three years after its inception. I sat on a panel with probably the most prominent liberal political scientist in South Korea today,...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2001

Australians try to sort good economic news from bad

SYDNEY -- With the government of Prime Minister John Howard still reeling from a by-election humiliation, along comes a morale booster -- a corporate deal that makes Australia the dominant player in global-resources trade. Comeback Kid Howard has done it again, although his chances of staying prime minister...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 24, 2001

Ritchie's rogues return

"Snatch" is more than a movie: It's a bubbling, babbling comic strip on wheels. Not fitting into the usual British movie mold -- it's neither a Merchant-Ivory rendition of upper-crust angst, nor a working-class saga passed on by Ken Loach -- "Snatch" is in a genre by itself, showcasing a crack ensemble...
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 23, 2001

Mori planning major overhaul for BayStars

It's been said that life is all about truth and time. Well, truth be told, new Yokohama BayStars manager Masaaki Mori would prefer to spend as much of the time he has left on Earth doing what he loves most -- working in baseball.
COMMUNITY
Mar 4, 2001

Japanese estate agent right at home in London

"I'll have the agreement drafted by Monday, then fax it over," Kazuyuki Nakamura was saying to a client over the phone last week in northwest London. "It's not your property? So who is the landlord? Well, he can appoint you to collect (rents) on his behalf. Otherwise we can, but then that will cost you;...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2001

Missing U.S. kids' safety bemoaned

It was a routine visit for Tokyo metropolitan child-care officials when they checked on five American children early this month. Only this time, the Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, apartment where they had been living since November was empty.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Feb 22, 2001

Selling tax cuts to Congress

U.S. President George W. Bush continues his attempt to make friends and influence important constituencies. He has spent more time with the Congressional Black Caucus than with the Republican leadership. He has traveled to schools to promote his education priorities. He has been to small businesses explaining...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 16, 2001

This one's for the record

Call me a vinyl junkie if you will, but I'm one of those guys who files his memories with his music. I could tell you what record I played over and over when my first girlfriend went off to college and stopped answering my letters ("Love Will Tear Us Apart Again," Joy Division, just released as a funereal...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Feb 12, 2001

Getting back on the right track

In all walks of life, those who make successful comebacks have always been admired. They become figures of resilience with a commendable never-say-die attitude; think Muhammad Ali or even Bill Clinton.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 11, 2001

More than 15 minutes of fame

In many ways, prints take the pulse of modern art. The flowering of techniques early in the 20th century gave artists a wild new freedom of expression, just as their personal opinions and emotions began to move center stage. Prints also reflected the growing democracy of art, the seismic shift that occurred...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Feb 10, 2001

The beauty of the dark side

Black is usually associated with the "dark side" -- evil, frightening, and negative. But in the Way of Tea, a black chawan (tea bowl) is prized above all others.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2001

Trauma in a sepia-tinged Kyushu

It's not easy filming the inner lives of human beings. Novelists can go on at length about their protagonist's stream of consciousness (see "Ulysses") while filmmakers cannot show scene after voiced-over scene of that same stream without inducing audience catatonia. See Joseph Strick's misbegotten 1967...

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