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Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 25, 2007

MoMA store in Tokyo, plus stylish New Year cards, cat toys and vacuum cleaners

MoMA Design steps in
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Dec 23, 2007

Triumph Tiger comes out of the wild

Triumph Motorcycles is a rare success story in the British motor industry. Rescued from the abyss of bankruptcy in 1983 by property developer and self-made millionaire John Bloor, this company with roots reaching back to the 19th century is now producing some of the best bikes around.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2007

What every travel agent knows: 'Tis the season to splurge

Although the economy remains weak and the prices of oil and other commodities continue to rise, many Japanese consumers throw caution to the wind come holiday season.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 21, 2007

Celebrate Chaplin's life in film

With his little mustache, oversize pants, bowler hat and walking stick, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), known as the Little Tramp, became the greatest comic icon in the early 20th century, and his ingenious mime still captivates audiences today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 20, 2007

Human conditions

Like Picasso at his most mythologically cubist or a dark dream from the subconscious, the Dairakudakan butoh dance troupe took its audience back to the primordial for its 35th anniversary performances last week — and then brought it right back to the present.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2007

Operating system that stole Christmas

BERKELEY, Calif. — Before asking for a new Windows PC this holiday season, remember the old adage: "Be careful about what you wish for."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 12, 2007

Wasp spider

* Japanese name: Naka-koganegumo * Scientific name: Argiope bruennichii * Description: You wouldn't really mistake this spider for a wasp, but its egg-shaped abdomen is dramatically striped in yellow, black and white, and the legs too are striped, though the overall pattern is perhaps more tigerish...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 9, 2007

Nanjing held hostage to numbers

The Nanking Atrocity, 1937-38: Complicating the Picture, edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. New York: Bergahn Books, 2007, 433 pp., $34.95 (paper) This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, but it is not yet a time for quiet reflection about the horrors of the past. Instead, vitriolic...
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 2007

Hugo Chavez, democrat

Fears about the future of Venezuela's democracy have abated, at least for now. Despite pre-vote threats about the potential cost of opposing his wishes, President Hugo Chavez has accepted the defeat of his constitutional reform package. The outcome has the potential to rejuvenate a dispirited and divided...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2007

He's in the realm of the senses

Francois Ozon is a filmmaker renowned for adopting a different style with every film — he has made scathing, pseudo-pornographic short features ("Sitcom," "See the Sea"), a rich, velvety musical ("8 Femmes"), and a restrained but sensual tale of bereavement ("Under the Sand"). His latest, "Angel,"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 6, 2007

Out from under noh's shadow

'F or kyogen actors, Japan losing the war in 1945 was a wonderful event as it liberated kyogen from its long subjugation to noh," actor Shigeyama Sennojo says. "For the first time in 400 years, kyogen was recognized as an independent form of theater."
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 4, 2007

Skin-deep success

It started with an e-mail from my editor: "Get yr (sic) camera ready. Online Dating Minus Ugly People is coming to Japan. Thinking Lifestyle page trend piece. Ready for the money shot?"
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 2, 2007

Preliminary baseball schedules reveal stretched-out season

The 2008 Japan pro baseball preliminary schedules are out, and it is always interesting for me to look ahead and see what quirks or oddities are on the agenda for the coming season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Nov 30, 2007

Champagne, sachertorte and Deep Purple covers for Christmas

Hyatt Regency Tokyo
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 28, 2007

Osprey

* Japanese name: Misago * Scientific name: Pandion haliaetus * Description: A distinctive, magnificent bird, with a wingspan of 180 cm, a body up to 60 cm long, and pure white underparts. The top side of the body is a deep brown, the head is white with a masklike stripe over the eyes that drapes onto...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Nov 27, 2007

Design Week in Tokyo; Good Design Award

Tokyo Design Week, the 2007 edition, has come and gone, and now we have to deal with the fallout: what we saw, experienced, and enjoyed throughout the weeklong design showcase. Although it truly is an international event, here are a few highlights from some of the Japanese participants.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 23, 2007

Top taiko player marks 25th anniversary

The leading taiko (Japanese drum) player Eitetsu Hayashi will play Solo Career 25th Anniversary Concerts in Kansai and Tokyo in December. He will perform four pieces by contemporary Japanese composers accompanied by an orchestra. Before the concerts, he will also release some new CDs to mark the 25th...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 21, 2007

Save a bomb and warm your bones this winter

Saving can hurt: With Christmas on the way, it's time to get saving those pennies. Toymaker Tomy is offering to help with its bomb-shaped piggy bank. Looking like one of the ancient black bowling-ball-type bombs beloved of cartoons past, it comes complete with a white skull-and-crossbones motif and a...
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2007

Robbed of childhood, bereft of a future

NEW YORK — Looking at photographs of Iraqi children maimed by the war makes the conflict unforgettable. Reflecting on the causes that led to that war makes it unforgivable. New information is steadily coming out on the effects of the war on children, and how it has affected not only their health but...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 18, 2007

Losing the plot and ratings when jumping on the Showa bandwagon

In order to keep people watching a TV drama series every week, it helps to have a loose plot thread — an overarching mystery that remains unexplained while the various story lines develop over time. The protagonist of the Friday night TBS serial, "Uta-Hime (Song Princess)" (10 p.m.), is Taro Shimanto...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2007

Soft touch with Myanmar

It was far from a perfect crime and far from a perfect coverup: a shooting in broad daylight, hundreds of witnesses, scores of video cameras recording the crime from many angles, audio recordings of the shots fired, clear photos of a man brandishing a murder weapon, an insignia identifying the suspect's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Nov 16, 2007

Flyboys

Director: Tony Bill
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 16, 2007

Bumper weekend for Tokyo clubs

This weekend, Tokyo's clubs feature sets from some of the giants of the Japanese dance-music scene, and while it will be impossible to catch all the artists, going to Air, Ageha or Womb will offer a good idea of the nation's electronic-music offerings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 16, 2007

Jane Birkin

Jane Birkin

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