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CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Dec 17, 2000

Speaking to both the eye and the ear

Poet Keiichi Nakamura first wrote tanka, and then composed monotype lithographs after graduating from the University of Sapporo. Later he created collages in which he explored the fusion of poetry with images.
COMMUNITY
Dec 14, 2000

Network crusades for dogs in distress

If the pope were to visit Yokohama, he would have to consider Kiyoto Kitaura for sainthood, for the modern-day St. Francis is nothing short of a godsend to animals in need.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2000

Book bites

MANGEKYO/KALEIDOSCOPE: Modern Senryu with English Versions, translated by Okada Hideo and Adrian Pinnington, boxed cards, XYLO Co. Ltd., 2000, 3,150 yen (+200 yen postage). This is a most unusual and attractive publication, consisting of four dozen short poems printed in Japanese on separate cards, with...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 10, 2000

Filling in the contours of a changing world

Sometimes people are disappointed with the quality of exhibitions visiting Japan, but there are no reservations about the superb drawings now at the Tobu Museum of Art.
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...
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2000

Mr. Fox gets down to business

Mexico's new president, Mr. Vicente Fox, has wasted no time in getting down to business. During the campaign, he promised sweeping change. The Mexican people believed him, voting him into office in a historic election. In his inaugural address last week, Mr. Fox stuck to his theme of renewal. But the...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 3, 2000

The cutting edge of sound and vision

For some, myself included, the U.K. Sound Design exhibition, held Nov. 23-27 at the Ground in Harajuku, was a stroll down memory lane. Organized by the British Council in Japan, the show assembled record sleeves from seminal British designers of the last 30 years. Seeing many old records that had made...
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 2, 2000

Movement at its purest

The only international production in the dance section of the continuing Tokyo Festival of Performing Arts turned out to be a heavyweight contender, a collaboration betweentwo of the German dancers and choreographers who, with Pina Bausch, have formed the representative triangle of German dance for the...
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.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 29, 2000

Pilgrimage to Chiba's stone daibutsu

KYONAN, Chiba Pref. -- Finding the perfect, companionable Buddha can become an obsession. Foreigners living in Asia are often struck by this calm, enlightened face; its features contrast sharply with the figures of Western religious art and their often contrived depictions of the ecstasy of Christian...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2000

Agency drafts new rules for 'green' reports from firms

The Environment Agency on Tuesday released a draft for overhauling its environmental reporting guidelines to help a growing number of corporations publish their environmental reports under a standardized format.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 19, 2000

Chris Ishikawa

A new cookbook has recently been published by the Yokohama International Women's Club. Titled "Food for Furoshiki," it has been compiled from an unusual and interesting angle.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 18, 2000

Hara celebrates new facelift with show of Zhou Teihai

Two developments this autumn serve to illustrate both what is good and what is bad about the current condition of the Japanese contemporary art scene.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 15, 2000

The yellow (or white or blue) treasure of Kaliningrad

Monopoly is not a word you would naturally associate with Kaliningrad. Yet the tiny Russian enclave possesses a remarkable -- and entirely natural -- one: amber. Ninety percent of the world's commercial amber comes from just one site, the open-pit amber quarry at Yantarny on Kaliningrad's Baltic coast....
CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2000

Textbooks in the service of the state

CENSORING HISTORY: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany and the United States, edited by Laura Hein and Mark Selden. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 301 pp., $24.95. History loomed over the recent visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji like a threatening storm cloud. But other than some scattered...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Nov 15, 2000

A democratic farce

www.infoplease.com/spot/closerace1.html Infoplease goes all the way back to the 1876 election to explain what happened the last time the U.S. Constitution overruled U.S. voters. As in last week's presidential race, the voters elected the Democratic candidate only to see their government overturn their...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 15, 2000

The secretive rabbits of Amami

Hunting rabbits is something I have only ever done on one island. When I say hunting, I don't mean with a gun; I mean armed with a spotlight, binoculars and notebook. The rabbits I hunt stay alive. That's rather crucial, because I am talking about the rabbits to be found marooned on an isolated island...
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 2000

Through a glass creatively

"Truly, though our element is time," said the English poet Philip Larkin, "we are not suited to the long perspectives/ Open at each instant of our lives./ They link us to our losses."
LIFE / Travel
Nov 8, 2000

Catching Dolly Varden trout in Hokkaido's Churui River

After quickly catching my daily limit of pink salmon during a recent fishing trip to eastern Hokkaido's Churui River, I spent the next couple of hours pursuing smaller game, the oshorokoma, Japan's little native Dolly Varden char. This is a fish that makes up in looks and spunk what it lacks in size....
CULTURE / Books
Nov 7, 2000

From great fiction, more fiction still

THE TALE OF MURASAKI: A Novel, by Liza Dalby. Doubleday, 2000, 424 pp., $25.95. What if the author of "The Tale of Genji" had written an autobiography and it had remained undiscovered until now? What would it be like?
CULTURE / Music
Nov 5, 2000

Long live the rock 'n' roll animals

A rock musician flaunts his intellect at his own peril, which is why Lou Reed is more of a survivor than his tired rep as the droning voice of the New York demimonde would have you believe. It's been almost 20 years since he started heads a-scratchin' with "My House," his ode to Delmore Schwartz who...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2000

Tax evasion vs. official misbehavior

Globalization is widely seen as contributing to clear increases in economic growth. Yet many governments view this development as a poisoned chalice. Politicians and bureaucrats fear that eliminating exchange controls and removing barriers to capital flows will lead to extensive revenue losses from tax...
LIFE / Style & Design / SIMPLY DIVINE
Nov 2, 2000

New line boosts Levi's street cred

Levi's and well-known New York graffiti artist Futura, whose rare, original artwork has been in demand since he was spraypainting trains and walls back in the '80s, have joined up to collaborate on a limited-edition, Japan-exclusive denim line.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000

Hard lessons Japan failed to learn

JAPAN'S FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ITS PARALLELS TO U.S. EXPERIENCE, edited by Ryoichi Mikitani and Adam S. Posen. Washington: Institute for International Economics, Special Report 13, Sept. 2000, 228 pp., $20. There's an old joke about a politician's plea for a one-handed economist, one who can't say, "but...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2000

Paper bottle invention could be rival to plastic

Kao Corp., a major manufacturer of soap and cleansing products, has developed what it claims is the world's first technology to make recyclable paper bottles that are as strong and versatile as plastic.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2000

Creating soundtracks for modern pop culture

Dodgeville, Mich. Ever heard of it? Perhaps not. It's just another small Midwestern town you pass through on your way to the big city. It certainly wouldn't occur to you it's where one of America's most talented and hardworking composers was born.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.