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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Sep 23, 2003

What was your impression of Japan before you came here?

Mark Friesen Industrial Designer, 40 I heard the whole packing people on the train story a lot, but before I came here I thought, "Oh, come on, nobody would ever do that." But it's true. Of course, since having lived here I've seen a lot more stranger things than that.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 19, 2003

The facets and the faults

Morning dawns to the background crash and suck of the Indian Ocean's waves breaking into scuds of foam on the beach. Sunlight bathes the bedroom; there is bird song audible from the hotel's tropical garden, and I draw back the lace curtains ready to inhale Sri Lanka's heady mix of sea salt, heat and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Sep 18, 2003

Step this way, pilgrim

This 1830s woodblock print by Edo Period artist Hasegawa Settan depicts the grand view of a temple on a wooded hill with a low-lying town in the foreground and peaceful Edo Bay in the distance. The picture is actually the right half of a sweeping landscape depicting Hommon-ji, an enormously popular Buddhist...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 13, 2003

Shop until you drop: Eriksson may be next on Chelsea's list

LONDON -- Sven-Goran Eriksson quits his job as head coach of England to become manager of Chelsea where he takes over from Claudio Ranieri.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2003

'Hansonism' alive and well

SYDNEY -- In Asia, her name smelled of White Australia. In Australia, she stirred up prejudice and division. More by accident than design, she got elected to Parliament. Today she languishes in prison.
BUSINESS
Sep 11, 2003

Drugstore leader raps Don Quijote

The president of Japan's largest chain of drug stores voiced opposition Wednesday to a general discount store operator offering free drugs after shop attendants obtain instructions from pharmacists by videophone.
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2003

Workers on the front lines more positive

Sentiment on the current state of the economy among people who deal directly with consumers improved in August to a 16-month high, according to a government survey released Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Sep 7, 2003

Freedom at his fingertips

Yosuke Yamashita is one of the rare Japanese jazz musicians who is a household name in his native land. Despite his uncompromisingly avant-garde style, he is also one of the few to establish himself as a well-respected jazz pianist in Europe and the United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 30, 2003

Scones, fresh lemon curd and cream teas, anyone?

Glen Taylor is on a mission. He wants to help dispel the notion that English food is terrible. "Forget any negative image. I'm out to prove it's easy to make, tastes terrific and is very healthy."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 30, 2003

Andy and Karla Morris

WOORE, England -- This small Shropshire village in the Midlands of England is set in countryside that, even in the 21st century, keeps a picture postcard quality. Although it is near the thriving towns of the Potteries, and is on a major highway to the ancient cathedral city of Chester and the rugged...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 24, 2003

The incredible remixing man

A good remix uncovers an element of the song that was already there so the listener perceives it in a whole new way. A bad remix often ends up as a vehicle for someone else's ego, with the original becoming so contorted and manipulated that it is unrecognizable in the final product.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 24, 2003

Slowly does it

Great works of art take time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 20, 2003

Joe Gibbs Production

Soul Jazz Records has issued a couple dozen outstanding compilations of unusual music ranging from New York punk-funk and Philadelphia soul-jazz to Yoruba music and Haitian voodoo drumming. Particularly great are their releases of both vintage and modern Jamaican music, of which "Joe Gibbs Productions"...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 19, 2003

Cometh the man, cometh the charisma

Adashing & suave lady-killer and a misfit loser?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 16, 2003

If olives be the food of love, then eat on

Todd English is the first to admit that being American and of Italian ancestry makes his family name exceedingly odd. He has no idea where it comes from, but supposes that one day he may try to find out. No chance of this happening in the near future, however. This is a man with more restaurants to open,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2003

Baron of porn spills it all

HONG KONG -- His pictures beamed across the nation's television stations and front pages of all of its newspapers from down market tabloids to sober-sided broadsheets: the grin on his face was as wide as a melon and he held, fanlike, a huge wad of currency notes for all the world, like a television game...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 13, 2003

'Girl! Girl! Girl!' just wants to have fun

I've been looking forward to the new show at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery. Trying not to sound sexist here, there was more than a little appeal in the show's title: "Girl! Girl! Girl!" I guess I'm just a regular guy, sweltering through summer, looking for some easy distraction. A Steve McQueen film...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 8, 2003

Keeping your cool this summer

Summer is here, the season of lethargy and listlessness, of sweat and stunted appetites. There are ways to ameliorate (if not actually beat) the big heat, but very few of them involve eating. For us, summer is about sitting outside in the cool of the evening, a nice cold beer at hand, or a bottle of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003

Rough Trade Shops: "Post Punk 01"

When punk hit a recession-ridden U.K. in 1975-'76, using a rudimentary version of rock 'n' roll as a platform to scream obscenities and threaten to smash the state, it was enough to ignite outrage across the land. And then, before your grandfather could curse "They should bring back military service,"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2003

Tsutaya rental chain charts diversification course

The nation's largest rental video chain hopes to stay ahead of its rivals by diversifying, inaugurating a point-card system in tieups with off-industry partners and offering its customers more convenience and comfort.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 31, 2003

When in doubt, just blame it on the wind

The Japanese have traditionally described their island country as being governed by the forces of mizu (water) -- what, with all this rain falling for what seems like 360 days of the year, but our grandmothers say kaze (wind) is the other ruling force that tends to be overlooked. Mizu will wash everything...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 30, 2003

Confessions of a Frida lover

In the interest of full disclosure: I have been hopelessly enamored with the beautiful, communist, bisexual artist Frida Kahlo ever since I happened across -- and was shaken to the core by -- a print of her painting "Broken Column" (1944) in a Montreal art book shop back in 1979. I also wept uncontrollably...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 29, 2003

In search of senbei and more culture

Senbei fan Randall writes from California, reporting that around 1900 a Japanese gardener in San Francisco started serving cookies with thank you notes inside at that city's Japanese garden.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2003

Just go with the flow

You know the summer routine: The sun comes up, the mercury goes up . . . and the heat and humidity get you down, down, down.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Osaka braces itself for festival fallout

OSAKA -- Osaka's annual Tenjin Matsuri festival, held in late July every year, draws tens of thousands of visitors and is considered one of the country's largest and most popular summer events. But this year, city officials are worried that once the party is over, the streets will look like a rock star's...
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Suicidal kidnapper collected nude photos

Police have confiscated photographs of naked women and a list of women's names from a Tokyo condo in which a 29-year-old man had allegedly confined four elementary schoolgirls, investigative sources said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2003

Town hopes wind bells ring in some new vitality

The tinkling of some 3,000 glass wind bells in a small mountain town in Aichi Prefecture is not just a sign of summer but a sound of hope for community revitalization.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan