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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2012

'Faces in the Crowd'

Here's something you don't see often: Milla Jovovich not battling zombies, and not wielding some impossibly menacing piece of artillery. In "Faces in the Crowd," we see Jovovich in a rare mode of vulnerability and fragility (in spite of those muscular shoulders) — even giving the impression that she...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 4, 2012

Nirvanam: Savor the subtle spice of South Indian cuisine

What's the best season for eating Indian food? Summer, when all the spices help you sweat out Tokyo's clammy heat? Or in the chill of winter, to put fire in your belly? The answer: Any time at all, if the cooking is as consistently good as it is at Nirvanam.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 3, 2012

Rizing's Palmer headlines bj-league's Best Five team

As the bj-league's rapid growth has infused new talent into the nation's first pro basketball league, those players and coaches have made a big impact on the sport.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Apr 29, 2012

Foxtrotting around Asukayama

Rising amid flat farmland, Asukayama had long been an untended haunt of foxes and their small prey when, in 1720, Yoshimune Tokugawa, the eighth shogun to rule in Edo (present-day Tokyo), had the hilly upland planted with 1,200 cherry trees, 100 maples and 100 pines, to create a public park for flower-viewing....
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 28, 2012

Taxis' internal surveillance cameras create stir over privacy

Taxi companies are installing video systems in their vehicles to reduce passenger conflicts in a move that is raising privacy concerns because of vague warnings that are leaving many unaware they are being recorded.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2012

'Thermae Romae'

Reading manga can teach you a lot, be the subject wine ("Kami no Shizuku [Drops of God]"), gourmet food ("Oishinbo") or the arcane world of feudal-era concubines ("Sakuran"). But the Japanese bath? Isn't that a subject Japanese are immersed in almost from Day One? Why would they need to read about it...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2012

Identifying the world's 'invisibles'

They have no twitter army, no righteous war being waged for their rescue. They are visible; they are out there on the streets. From ruthless lanes of Dhaka to dangerous dark alleys of Rio, tens of millions of children the world over are daily fighting hunger, violence and abuse just to survive and scratch...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2012

Capitalistic consensus moved Brazil investors

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's visit to Washington earlier this month offers an occasion to consider how some once-poor countries have broken out of poverty, as Brazil has. Development institutions like the World Bank have advocated improving business law as an important way to do so. Are they...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 22, 2012

Past and present on Route 66

"Ah, there's nothing like a Polish sausage smothered with jalapenos to settle a queasy stomach," I said to my skeptical traveling companion Bob Allen, adding a squirt of mustard for good luck and taking a humongous bite.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 21, 2012

Spirituality drove Mie native to scale mountains for 9,738 consecutive days

A photo exhibition celebrating a Mie Prefecture man who climbed mountains for nearly 10,000 days straight, and who only stopped because he died last year, opened earlier this month at the Mont-Bell outdoor and climbing goods store in Nagoya.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 20, 2012

For Iwate's Malloy, Hurricane Katrina provided valuable life lessons

Natural disasters can alter one's outlook on life in a positive way, and give an individual a greater sense of purpose or focus in everything he/she does.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 19, 2012

Rustie to bring hyperactive set to SonarSound Tokyo

When Rustie (Russell Whyte, 29) makes his Japan debut at SonarSound Tokyo this weekend, it will mark the culmination of a remarkable few years that has seen the Scottish producer swap house parties in his hometown of Glasgow for headline spots at some of the biggest clubs in the world.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Apr 18, 2012

Why good Wi-Fi is so hard to find in Japan

Friends visiting Japan often ask me why there are no, or very few, Wi-Fi hotspots available at hotels and cafes in Tokyo. They mention that in their countries, many places offer free Wi-Fi for guests — often it is completely open, or you simply need to ask the staff for the password.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 16, 2012

Outlet malls another American concept that may not work in Japan

The craze for auto-centered outlet malls may have stalled before it even began.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 14, 2012

De-icing agent in deer debate

Nagano Prefecture applies a de-icing compound to its roads to prevent them from freezing over in winter, but the substance may be endangering wild deer by luring them to busy routes to feed on the salt it contains.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 14, 2012

Canadian black-belt takes pride in action not words

For Robert Hughes, the shortest answer is doing. From his early determination to procure a traditional Japanese sword to his more recent work with Japanese students in the poverty-stricken streets of the Philippines, Hughes, 54, has spent over 30 years in Japan allowing his actions to speak eloquently...
COMMENTARY
Apr 13, 2012

Russia's 'shadow market'

We should keep in mind that Russia is a country that has spent 70 years in an inhuman experiment aimed at arranging all sides of socioeconomic life within a giant centrally planned system. Even if this time is over, many features of today's life go on reminding us of this heavy and in many ways onerous...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Apr 13, 2012

Westin Tokyo Golden Week bus tour

For the Golden Week holidays, The Westin Tokyo in Yebisu Garden Place is offering a special accommodation plan that includes an open-air night bus tour of Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 12, 2012

The Cigavettes "We Rolled Again"

The Cigavettes have opened for the likes of British rock act 22-20s and Asian Kung-Fu Generation's Masafumi Goto and have appeared at Osaka's Minami Wheel festival. Originally from Fukuoka, two years ago the quintet decided to make Tokyo their home base. "We Rolled Again" is their sophomore offering....
CULTURE / Books
Apr 8, 2012

18th-century murder mystery still delivers

MURDER IN THE RED CHAMBER, by Taku Ashibe, translated by Tyran C. Grillo. Kurodahan Press, 2012, 268 pp., $16.00 (paperback). Anthony West has called "Dream of the Red Chamber," a Chinese novel written in the 18th century, "beyond question one of the great novels of all literature," and many eminent...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 7, 2012

Deaf student qualifies to teach English in Nagoya

A deaf student at Nagoya Gakuin University who obtained a license to teach English to students with impaired hearing graduated on March 15.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 5, 2012

From the ruins rose greatness

Modernity is characterized by a linear concept of time, with the past cast in the role of an ever-diminishing point on the horizon behind us. One of the charms of the exhibition "Hubert Robert: The Gardens of Time" at the National Museum of Western Art is that it challenges this notion, and suggests...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 5, 2012

From the ruins rose greatness

Modernity is characterized by a linear concept of time, with the past cast in the role of an ever-diminishing point on the horizon behind us. One of the charms of the exhibition "Hubert Robert: The Gardens of Time" at the National Museum of Western Art is that it challenges this notion, and suggests...
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2012

Nissan unveils new yellow cab for NYC

New York City's next generation of yellow cabs will be minivans featuring sliding doors, antibacterial seats, air bags in the back and outlets to charge mobile phones.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami