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Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
May 2, 2009

Sushi bar spurs good find of a lifetime for Tokyo couple

Kyle Sexton's life in Japan began in a New York sushi restaurant decades ago. It was there the Pennsylvania native developed a sudden obsession with the faraway land. On impulse, he made his way here in 1984 with no job and only $300 in his pocket.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Mar 3, 2009

Frenchman's flavorful twist on green tea has good of farmers at heart

Stubbornness and prudence seem to have paid off for Stephane Danton, a 44-year-old French entrepreneur who runs Ocharaka, a Japanese tea shop in Tokyo's trendy Kichijoji district.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo / WEEK 3
Nov 16, 2008

Scrolling past

In early November, Kazuo Yoshihara, an antiques expert with a 30-year career in the field, carefully opened a scroll painting in a room at the 14th Yokohama Kotto World fair.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 17, 2008

Meet a band 35,000 years in the making

When The Cro-Magnons played at this year's Fuji Rock Festival, you could have sworn the Big Quake had hit, with its epicenter at the main Green Stage. The ground shook, minor tsunami were recorded in the streams running through the site and squirrels fell unconscious from trees as about 15,000 punters...
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...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 1, 2008

Suzuran: Chilling with chuka soba

Japan's infatuation with ramen can seem bewildering to the uninitiated. When you see lines around the block outside nondescript noodle joints in remote locations, with waits of up to an hour, it's hard not think the obsession is verging on the pathological.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2008

Entrepreneur pioneers Akihabara tours

Jane Fong was one of the lucky few awarded a full Foreign Ministry scholarship to a master's program in international business at Sophia University in Tokyo — but she gave that up to become an entrepreneur in "Electric Town."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 20, 2008

Sake and sculptures in an Aoyama backstreet

Tokyo's backstreets can be dank or swank, but on the whole, they're safe. The biggest risk lies in the lure of diversion. Wander off the beaten path on your way to buy eggs or mail a letter, and you'll get sucked in by bizarre Lilliputian entrepreneurships, copper-clad fronts of prewar wooden shacks,...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 17, 2008

You say Nebuta, I say Neputa

Undaunted by the current state of the dollar, John and Kate are planning to visit Japan this summer.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jun 8, 2008

In the land of pimped push bikes

It would be hard not to notice that Japan's streets are jammed with fixed-gear bikes. As reported here in December, these are simple, stripped-down bikes originally built for racing around velodromes; the single gear is locked to the back wheel, so the pedals keep turning when the bike is moving. But...
LIFE / Digital
Nov 21, 2007

Product placement seeks online consumers' wallets

Product placement within the entertainment industry has become widely accepted as commonplace. You only have to watch "Casino Royale" — the most recent movie in the James Bond series — to see that in-film advertising is big business. From cars and laptop computers to entire airlines, if it can be...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Oct 17, 2007

Florist brings affordable flowers to the masses

Hideaki Inoue, president of the company that runs the Aoyama Flower Market chain, earlier in life had no particular interest in flowers. But today, the former accountant cannot live without them.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 29, 2007

Kaiten zushi

It was a season of long days, heavy rain, loquats, hollyhocks and hydrangea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jul 10, 2007

House of Holland, Kim Songhe and HIROCOLEDGE yukata

Brand-name wear
LIFE / QUEUING
May 27, 2007

All together now: Let's form a line

It is 11:15 on a sunny Sunday morning across the road from Shinjuku Station in central Tokyo. The Southern Terrace there is already thronged with shoppers like all the city's other retail districts. And then, as you walk past fashion stores and coffee shops, a long line of men and women of all ages materializes...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 27, 2007

Masahiro Murata

Masahiro Murata, 35, is a hair and makeup artist whose salon, MaQueen, just behind the Kabuki-za theater in Ginza, is a sanctuary for both his loyal clients and staff. Murata loves people, and especially beauty in them, which he believes manifests itself in the way one treats others. As one of Japan's...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 17, 2007

A pixel paints a thousand words

What I am thinking is this: "Looks can be deceiving."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 12, 2007

Wine bars you can't afford to miss

Tokyo is awash with wine these days. Any restaurant that wants to be taken seriously -- and, more importantly, has high overheads to cover -- must boast a well-stocked cellar, preferably glass-fronted, carefully illuminated and strategically placed in full view of the dining room.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 15, 2006

Fishing around for a piece of history

"Enjoy it while you can," says Professor Theodore Bestor of Harvard University. He's referring partly to Tsukiji's famous fish market and partly to sushi and to the fact that "some species are at risk of becoming commercially extinct."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 30, 2006

Time-capsule Tokyo along a street where I lived

In the early 1980s, my wife and I lived in a tiny flat in Soshigaya on the Odakyu Line in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. The eldest three of our four children were born then, and I have only the fondest memories of pushing a pram up and down the kilometer-long shotengai (shopping street) between the station...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 25, 2006

Amadana appliances, Metaphys' Cyclone Cleaner, Jurgen Lehl furniture, Yukimasa Matsuda/Groovisions for Kokuyo

This month we go freestyle, working with our gut instinct about what we like right now. So whether it's adding a dash of design spice to the kitchen, or taking care of your basic cleaning needs, we guarantee that you'll be keeping house in style.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2006

Upgrade plan finds Shimokitazawa split

A popular Tokyo shopping and nightlife district is slated to get a major face-lift, and some local residents are resisting, saying they want their neighborhood to stay as is.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 12, 2005

Antique and vintage jewelry link Japan, Sweden

When a blonde woman wearing with great nonchalance a marvelous 200-year-old necklace walks up my drive with a friend, I can hardly believe my eyes. I have heard of but not met Daphne Fukushima for 15 years. Now it turns out that she is renting a tiny house in Koshigoe, near Enoshima, and dividing her...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 1, 2005

Sumo, golf and old maps

Sumo memorabilia Mark in Tokyo would like to purchase old sumo "tegata" (wrestlers' handprints) and "banzuke" ranking sheets. "Any ideas?" he asks.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2005

Pair who killed four lose death-sentence appeal

The Tokyo High Court on Monday upheld the death sentence for a 63-year-old dog breeder and his former wife for the murder of four people in 1993.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 18, 2005

Hakone museum displays the true genius of Lalique's glasswork

An inspirational new attraction is coming to Hakone, the highland resort in Kanagawa Prefecture renowned as a stomping ground for the rich and famous. In addition to its luxury hotels and ryokan, the curative powers of its spa water and astoundingly beautiful scenery, Hakone will soon offer another attraction...
Japan Times
Features
Nov 7, 2004

Love her or hate her...

Nahoko Takato became famous on the night of April 8 this year, when the Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera aired video footage of her and two other Japanese held blindfolded at gunpoint in Iraq.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell