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Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2008

Toy company CEOs dress up to play Santa

To help boost the sagging toy market, toy company executives transformed themselves into one-day Santa Clauses on Saturday to promote their products for Christmas.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Dec 17, 2008

Ichigo (Strawberry)

Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 21, 2008

'Tis a gift to be simple

The best holiday presents wrap themselves — in your arms, that is. The rest of your gift-list responsibilities, whether for Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Japanese oseibo (yearend gifts), can be taken care of near Asakusabashi Station. I'm usually way behind schedule getting presents together, but...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2008

'Be Kind Rewind'

How much cute can a straight man generate (and we're not talking about his looks here) without getting thwacked on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper? If the man happens to be French filmmaker Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "The Science of Sleep") the answer is: TONS. During...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 8, 2008

How to avoid an attack of the new year blues

For as long as I can remember, Oshogatsu (New Year's) and me just haven't gelled.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 22, 2007

Tokyo American Club prepares to move

Michael Bumgardner is not only the general manager of Tokyo American Club; he's a "keeper of trees," as his ancestral German name Baumgartner suggests.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 15, 2007

Coming alive with gospel music

Orren Tanabe stands tall above the rest of the crowd in front of Shinjuku's ALTA sign. Having not made this a meeting place for years, the experience is proving more than a little nostalgic. Knowing the way central Tokyo changes at the tip of a hat, he leads the way to a favorite pizza dive with some...
LIFE / Language
Dec 11, 2007

Yearend love stories cap a yucky 2007 for girls

Here's a toshinose renai hora banashi (yearend love relationship horror story) -- always a favorite topic of conversation during the season's more casual nomikai (drinking parties).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 2, 2005

Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo: Haute cuisine with altitude

Aside from some road-laying and cosmetic work, the bristling high-rises of the Shiodome complex are complete. It's a brutal, soulless landscape on an inhuman scale. There's only one thing that can tempt us along those sterile walkways and mazelike underpasses: the promise of fine dining. And no one does...
COMMUNITY
Jan 10, 2004

Buddha, Shinto artifacts make great new business

Having purchased a figuratively decorated enameled wall vase before Christmas for my daughter in Toronto, but not quite sure what I'd got, I headed for the home of Byron Monasmith in Tokyo's Shinanomachi.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 1, 2003

Human slingshot flings herself overseas

Today I'll tell you my own experience with The Beckham Phenomenon, when Japanese women turn themselves into human slingshots and launch themselves at a man to get his attention. When a young Japanese woman wants a particular guy, get out of her way. Especially if that guy is a foreigner.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 3, 2003

Mistletoe magic

I am back in my local wood in Hokkaido yet again. From one spot, I can see the fluffed-out form of a Ural owl sunning itself at the entrance of its day roost, while looking in another direction and a little higher in the canopy of a towering elm, I find more than half a dozen spherical clumps, like strange...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2002

El Nino plays havoc with drought-stricken Australia

SYDNEY -- First a devastating drought grips the nation. Now bush fires have begun burning down houses. And the real sting of summer is still months away.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 2, 2002

Still tastes like Shonen spirit

Raspberry rock? Pineapple pop? Just plain old vanilla? Osaka-based all-girl band Shonen Knife -- age 21 this year -- haven't been flavor of the month for many a moon.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 23, 2001

Beating the game -- at last

"Dad, could you show me how to make a jump shot?" So my younger son once requested as we stood beneath a hoop in his junior-high playground.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Nov 25, 2001

I'd like to teach the world to karaoke

If, like me, you cannot sing, karaoke is a curse. One of the first things I learned to say in Japanese was, "If I sing, all your customers will leave."
COMMUNITY
Dec 10, 2000

Iron chef champ's book hailed best in the world

One of Katsuyo Kobayashi's strengths is that she is 100 percent reliable. With 140 books published to date, even the most inept cook can take home her latest compilation of recipes and come up trumps every time. Not only are they easy to make, good to eat and affordable, but joy of joys, some are now...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 2, 2000

Concert to raise funds for seeing-eye dogs

The St. David's Welsh Society is presenting its 14th annual Christmas Charity Concert 5 p.m. Dec. 3 at the Imperial Hotel.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2000

Romance is in the air: tour the city by helicopter

Tomoko Suzuki's boyfriend gave her a special birthday present this year -- a night view of the Tokyo metropolis from an altitude of 600 meters and at speeds up to 200 kph.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 6, 2023

China’s economic woes are multiplying — and Xi Jinping has no easy fix

The world's second-largest economy faces sluggish consumer spending, a crisis-ridden property market, flagging exports, record youth unemployment and towering local government debt.
Philippine Coast Guard personnel patrol the South China Sea
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

Philippines allows civilian vessels and plans more joint sea patrols

Officials say many countries have expressed an interest in joining the Southeast Asian nation in patrolling contested waters.
When Japanese American makeup artist Kazu Hiro first started experimenting with makeup as a teenager in the 1980s, one face leapt out at him from books and magazines he saw in shops: legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 4, 2024

Oscar-nominated makeup genius Kazu Hiro comes full circle with 'Maestro'

Nominated for his fifth Academy Award, Kazu Hiro faced some criticism for the way he depicted Bradley Cooper as conductor Leonard Bernstein in "Maestro."
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris might maintain some of the economic policies of former President Donald Trump.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jul 30, 2024

A President Harris might be decidedly Trumpy in approach to Asia trade

The efforts to contain China economically is a common theme that is likely to be maintained after the election.
Customers enter Aeon's Shinagawa Seaside store in Tokyo for a Black Friday sale in 2022.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 29, 2024

Master this double negative to better express your Black Friday urges

What better time to learn how to say you can't resist a deal than on a weekend of discounted shopping.
Naoya Inoue practices at the Ohashi Gym in Yokohama on Dec. 4
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Dec 14, 2024

Inoue world title fight off after Goodman suffers cut in training

Sam Goodman, the mandatory challenger for Inoue's WBO and IBF titles, needed four stitches and was told he could not fight for four weeks.
Kenichi Takito (left) and Non play literary nemeses working in close quarters in Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s lukewarm comedy, “The Hotel of My Dream.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2024

‘The Hotel of My Dream’: A literary comedy that never really gels

Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s adaptation of Asako Yuzuki’s novel promises a festive treat, but casting and cadence prevent it from realizing its full potential.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives to speak during Turning Point's annual AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 23, 2024

Trump upending global politics a month before taking office

While it’s not unusual for political leaders at home and abroad to jockey for the ear of an incoming president, the scale of Trump’s pre-inauguration influence is vast.
Comedian-turned-investor Toshiya Imura (left) and former Goldman Sachs analyst Keizo Takeiri pose prior to an interview in Tokyo on Dec. 3.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2024

Japanese comedian-turned-investor launches fund with 'stock geek'

The one-time entertainer, Toshiya Imura, has teamed up with Keizo Takeiri, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, to launch Japan's newest stock fund.
The highly anticipated call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping came in the middle of a dispute over "rare earths" minerals that threatened to tear up a fragile truce in the trade war.
WORLD
Jun 6, 2025

Trump and Xi pledge more talks as trade disputes brew

In a rare call, Trump and Xi pledged to resume trade talks, but tensions over rare earth minerals and Taiwan remained unresolved.
Pick up some country-style bread from Boulangerie Aman on your road trip in Kamikawa, Hokkaido.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 13, 2025

Road-tripping through central Hokkaido? Don't miss these bakeries

Slice through lavender fields and flaky croissants on your drive through the scenic region of Kamikawa.

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