Search - life

 
 
LIFE / Travel
Dec 11, 2001

Poor from war, rich in culture

The serpentine road to Luang Prabang winds around mountains that rise above green valleys and rocky gorges, alongside ramshackle villages with no electricity and past fields of corn and rice. If you're not much of a daredevil, then don't get a window seat, because the bus has to navigate hairpin turns,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2001

Mental health challenges remain unmet

NEW YORK -- One aspect not frequently considered of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center tragedy, the anthrax scare, and thousands of people fleeing in terror from Afghanistan is that these events may create or exacerbate mental health problems. Unless they are properly treated, many among those involved...
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 9, 2001

The heat's on nature in Japan

Think of Japan 100 years from now. The average global temperature has risen by up to 6 degrees, and here is no exception. Just as the cherry blossom wave passes up the country each spring, the frontier of many species, both plant and animal, has been moving steadily northward for a century.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 8, 2001

Kazuko Honjo

When she speaks, Kazuko Honjo sets off an avalanche of words. She has ideas and energy, inborn talent and developed skills, insights and understanding. Now that she is taking stock and formulating plans, she has reached, she says, her turning point.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2001

Birth of an Imperial princess

A new baby is always cause for rejoicing, but the birth of a child to the Crown Prince and Princess on Saturday comes as especially bright news at this somber time. In an instant, the symbolic value of the monarchy -- sometimes doubted or forgotten -- becomes clear again. For a brief, shining moment,...
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 2001

Talk to TELL if you get into any kind of trouble

If the time is between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., there is a Tokyo English Life Line volunteer counselor sitting alone at a secret address somewhere in Tokyo, waiting for the phone to ring. This counselor may be male or female, young or elderly, Japanese or non-Japanese. But he or she will...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2001

Yo, what's with this Dostoevski?

Crime + Punishment in Suburbia Rating: * * * Director: Rob Schmidt Running time: 128 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2001

The empire strikes back

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rating: * * * * Director: Chris Columbus Running time: 152 minutes Language: English Now showing
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2001

Beware quick fix for Japan

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania -- Beware of economists promising easy solutions for complex problems, in this case, Japan's painful and protracted slump following the collapse of inflated asset prices in 1989. Princeton economist Paul Krugman advises Japan's government to combat deflation by announcing official...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2001

More workers embrace early retirement

As economic woes prompt companies to pare down workforces and job-security anxiety grows amid widening cracks in Japan's storied lifetime employment system, at least one new breed is rising from the ashes -- older workers who are eager to pocket a payoff and branch out in a new direction.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Doctors prescribe antiaging therapy

A U.S. doctor promoting the new field of antiaging medicine said Friday in Tokyo that the public should do away with stereotypes of the elderly as sickly and unproductive and to think instead of extending life's "usable years."
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

LDP wants to set target for inflation

An amendment to the Bank of Japan Law endorsed Friday by a Liberal Democratic Party working group includes a provision to set an inflation target, according to LDP officials.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

LDP wants to set target for inflation

An amendment to the Bank of Japan Law endorsed Friday by a Liberal Democratic Party working group includes a provision to set an inflation target, according to LDP officials.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2001

Australophile to receive award

KOBE -- When Mineko Furusawa visited Brisbane in 1965, she never thought she would end up devoting the rest of her life to fostering better Japan-Australia relations.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 31, 2001

The gift of Ghibli

When I first heard that Hayao Miyazaki was planning a museum in Mitaka dedicated to the films that his Studio Ghibli animators and he had created over the years, I imagined animation cels framed on beige walls. Save for dedicated fans, it wasn't the most thrilling prospect for a Saturday afternoon, especially...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 28, 2001

Provocative as she wants to be

SHANGHAI BABY, by Wei Hui, translated by Bruce Humes. Simon and Schuster, 2001, 259 pp., $10 (paper) Sometimes context is everything. A sexually frank novel that reeks of thinly disguised autobiography told in a confessional style would hardly cause a ripple in the West these days. In China, however,...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2001

All alone, on the edge of infinity

Turn Rating: * * * Director: Hideyuki Hirayama Running time: 111 minutes Language: Japanese Shwoing at Warner Mycal Cinemas, Itabashi (03) 3937-1551
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2001

Food from home, direct to your door in Japan

Chuck Grafft spends much of his life surrounded by the stronger sex. Not that he is complaining. As president and CEO of the Foreign Buyers Club (FBC) in Kobe, most of his staff are women -- women representing nine cultures, including Japanese. Also, wife Kelly, now back to work, with four daughters,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 20, 2001

The next tech boom: explosive electronics

Don't call me, fax me or ask me to watch TV. Don't even ask me to heat up a cup of water in the microwave. 'Cause I'm having a bad electronics month. Judgment Day has come for all the electronics in my house -- a collective kaput, consensual hara-kiri.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 20, 2001

Daniel Kelly

In his painting as in his life, Daniel Kelly is quick, exuberant and inventive. An American, he grew up valuing individualism, originality and expression. Twenty years ago, already a Kyoto resident, he loved to paint in the country, in rain, fog, snow. "The heart of things," he explained. As he painted,...
COMMUNITY
Oct 7, 2001

Going with the furo

Sitting in a tub of clear, near-scalding water up to your neck might not instantly appeal to those new to Japan who are used to stretching out in a warm sea of suds and playing with their plastic ducks. However, taking a bath that way is more than a hygienic chore for the people of these islands; it's...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2001

Epiphany in a puddle

Mamiko Kawamoto and I interviewed Katsuyoshi Kumakiri and his two stars, Susuma Terajima and Yuriko Kikuchi, at the press suite of the Focus on Asia -- Fukuoka Film Festival, where "Sora no Ana" was screened to a full-house crowd. Kumakiri was agreeably sincere and Kikuchi becomingly modest, while Terajima...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2001

Just who's ripping off who, here?

Score Rating: * * Director: Frank Oz Running time: 125 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 3, 2001

Ray Wylie Hubbard: 'Eternal and Lowdown'

The 1970s produced an amazing crop of Texas singer-songwriters, though few have survived without some, shall we say, "life experiences." Transforming the pain and confusion of such experiences into self-revelatory, tight-rocking songs is what the Texas troubadour tradition is all about.
COMMUNITY
Sep 30, 2001

We are here to help you

The British archaeologist Howard Carter was excavating in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 when he found a wall bearing the seal of Tutankhamen from the 14th century B.C. He made a small hole and peered through. From his journal:
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2001

Yasuda, Fukoku in third-sector tieup

Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. said Thursday they will jointly develop and sell third-sector insurance products in April.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2001

Living on songs and a prayer

Duets Rating: * * * Director: Bruce Paltrow Running time: 112 minutes Language: English Now showing

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years