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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 5, 2004

Taking the long road to nowhere

Out on the straight freeways of higher enlightenment, many an astute Japan watcher has tied the cautious, noncommittal qualities of Japanese personality to various cultural and linguistic features, such as tightknit group society and ambiguous language structure.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 5, 2004

Don't count out blue-collar Detroit

LOS ANGELES -- To be perfectly prickly, nobody outside this city's limits, exempting Yankee fans, perhaps, likes the Lakers. How can we when the Lakers don't like themselves?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 4, 2004

Zen-modern cuisine on a higher plane

Like a lotus growing from the mud of a murky pond, Gesshinkyo is a still point of serenity amid the hubbub of Harajuku. Its simple wooden door lies just steps away from Omotesando's fashion boutiques and preening temples to high-end spending. But when you step past the the coarse-woven hempen noren you...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 28, 2004

Ancient port of quiet delights

By the time footsore travelers on the old Tokaido Highway made it to Otsu, the town must have been no unwelcome sight. Many of them would just have trudged some 500 km from Edo (present-day Tokyo), and Otsu was the last of the 53 official way-stations strung out along the great thoroughfare. Just 10...
JAPAN
May 27, 2004

Pronto exec held over bogus loans

Police arrested a former vice president of coffee shop chain Pronto Corp. and three others Wednesday on suspicion of taking out loans worth about 100 million yen under false pretenses.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 23, 2004

Should be handled with extreme caution

Violence is in, pop-pickers. You've seen those pictures of those troops whooping it up in Iraqi jails. Violence is clearly fun. It's cool. It basically rocks! Just ask Bush and Rumsfeld. They kicked the whole thing off.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 22, 2004

Queen of Orlane turns 70 (but who'd know it)

In 1960, Reiko B. Lyster answered a "help wanted" classified ad placed in this paper by Max Factor. She had no particular interest in working for a cosmetics company, but (having helped Marlon Brando on a film set just the year previously) the job as a translator appealed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 21, 2004

Osaka's west side story

In the cult-film classic "Death Ride to Osaka," there is a scene in which tough Tokyo yakuza drag a Western hostess kicking and screaming out the door. The hostess has just been banished from the bright lights of Tokyo's Ginza to the foul backwater of Osaka.
Events
May 16, 2004

KANSAI: Who & What

Indian handicrafts on sale for charity Mustard Seeds, an organization providing support for children and nongovernmental organizations in Kolkata, India, is holding a charity exhibition and sale of Indian handicrafts in Kyoto and Nara.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
May 14, 2004

Obscure Otago is now New Zealand's 'Lord of the Reds'

Salvation is at hand for worshippers of Antipodean Pinot Noir. The "Pinot Noir grail" is to be found in Central Otago, writes British wine expert Jancis Robinson in the latest "World Atlas of Wine."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 14, 2004

A special weekend in Izu to remember and enjoy

Last year was the 150th anniversary of the first appearance of U.S. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's "Black Ships" in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay. Their mission, by order of President Millard Fillmore, was to demand -- under threat of force if necessary -- that Japan, closed to the world for more than two...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 13, 2004

Confessions of a schizo environmentalist

I have a confession to make. For the past month I've been suffering from a strange affliction: I can't seem to buy and dispose of plastic bottles without being overcome by a mild case of environmental schizophrenia.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 11, 2004

Insurance, pension cash and divorce

Health Insurance I have been in Japan for almost 6 years and I have paid into the social health insurance system during my 3 years on the JET Program. After I had finished JET, I dropped out of the system and have not enrolled in the national health insurance system.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 11, 2004

Struggling Daiei adapts stores to suit local shoppers' needs

Debt-ridden Daiei Inc. has begun adapting its stores to suit the needs of local shoppers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 5, 2004

Future through sepia-colored glasses

Immortel (ad vitam) Rating: * * 1/2(out of 5) Director: Enki Bilal Running time: 104 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] The future is not now, it's retro in "Immortel (ad vitam)" (released in Japan as "God Diva") -- the latest Euro sci-fi created...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 5, 2004

'Kill Bill: Vol. 2': Back into the pit of vipers

True originality is a many-splintered thing. Let us recall that Shakespeare was indebted to Marlowe, Picasso drew inspiration from African totems and Van Gogh dug ukiyoe prints. Then this thing called postmodernism gave artists carte blanche to quote, sample, appropriate, reinterpret -- you name it,...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 3, 2004

Will intervention-happy BOJ see new risks as danger or deja vu?

Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui has entered his second year at the helm of the central bank, and in an economic climate radically different from the time when he first took up the job.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 2, 2004

Ryuichi Hirokawa: Picture this . .

With soldiers silhouetted against dramatic desert sunsets, or helicopters swooping over cityscapes, most mainstream-media photographs we see of the war in Iraq are nothing if not models of artistic composition and taste.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2004

Gray city's parks green escapes

No plans for the Golden Week holidays? Spending a relaxing day in a park under blue skies may be just the ticket for weary urbanites.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 23, 2004

Overlooked -- and undervalued

If there is one major spot in Japan that visitors somehow tend not to make a beeline for, it is Nagoya.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 16, 2004

The great outdoors -- on a plate

All it takes is the first hint of warm spring weather and we start thinking of the great outdoors. By that, we do not mean sea kayaking, a vigorous hike in the hills or a jaunt to some provincial onsen. For us, it is quite sufficient to salute the first blossoms and leaves from the vantage point of a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2004

Interpreter's notes

Lost in Translation Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Sofia Coppola Running time: 102 minutes Language: English, Japanese Opens April 17 at Cinema Rise [See Japan Times movie listings] The dialogue of "Lost in Translation" never sizzles, never gets out of line, doesn't really reveal...
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2004

Communities vie to be site of new Tokyo Tower

Local governments in the Tokyo area are vying to host the world's tallest broadcasting tower in hopes of attracting tourist revenues.
BUSINESS
Apr 9, 2004

Worker sentiment best since August '01

Business sentiment among workers with jobs sensitive to economic fluctuations rose in March to the highest level since August 2001, the government said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2004

Korean love story heats up Japan

As a milestone in Japan's ongoing love affair with Korean entertainment, which has been deepening over the past few years, "The Hotel Venus" is a big one.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2004

Guests of a grand hotel

The Hotel Venus Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Hirota Takahasi Running time: 125 minutes Language: Korean Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kyo no Dekigoto Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: isao Yukisada Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Currently...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 6, 2004

Singers, antiques and racism

Singing hope K.M. is a 23-year-old singer from Sweden with some 8 years performing experience who would love to sing at jazz clubs, corporate events and private paries. "How can I get in touch with the right people?"

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