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CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2001

Uhfmm . . . wham, bam, thank you, ma'am

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Simon West Running time: 100 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Oct 17, 2001

Where dreams come true

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. Right? That was certainly true of the various losers and sociopaths who "taught" me when I was in school. But this hoary old adage doesn't apply to a showbiz school recently launched by leading Japanese record label Avex.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 17, 2001

Return of the sound and the furry

Super Furry Animals have been the most consistently great guitar band of the last 10 years, and I've got a stack of hard evidence to prove it.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 14, 2001

The truth about the 'enemies of the people'

For the past month there's been a lot of talk about how much our sense of the world has changed since the events of Sept. 11. Actually, it's mainly changed for Americans, but as someone once said: When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2001

Kenzaburo Oe: Bridging the generation gap

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in America, large bookstores have put together special displays on Islam and terrorism, while the cult idolization of the prime minister continues with the publication of a coffee-table book of Koizumi photos (Jun-chan lounging in a robe!). However, as always in recent...
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Oct 11, 2001

Firmly rooted in tradition and daily life

In the foothills of Mount Fuji, there is a fascinating botanical garden devoted to the cultivation and display of bamboo plants and products. Unique in this country, the Fuji Bamboo Garden, which opened on its 4-hectare site in 1951, cultivates more than 500 species and cultivars of bamboo from around...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2001

There's more than one way to kill a vampire

Dracula 2000 Rating: * * Japanese title: Draculea Director: Patrick Lussier Running time: 99 minutes Language: English Showing at Marunouchi Piccadilly 2 and others
MORE SPORTS
Oct 8, 2001

Hewitt takes AIG Japan Open

Another tournament, another title for Lleyton Hewitt. The top-seeded Australian beat Michel Kratochvil of Switzerland 6-4, 6-2 to win the AIG Japan Open at Tokyo's Ariake Colosseum on Sunday.
SPORTS / TALK OF THE TIMES
Oct 5, 2001

Rhodes finds formula for success in Japan

American Tuffy Rhodes is the senior-most foreign pro baseball player in Japan, currently completing his sixth season with the newly crowned Pacific League champion Kintetsu Buffaloes. The 33-year-old Rhodes, who played for the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox during his six-year major-league...
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
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 30, 2001

A plague upon your house

Insects aren't everyone's favorite animals, especially when it comes to those such as cockroaches, termites and wasps that frighten us as well as potentially harm us and our environment.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 30, 2001

Kame no O dreamin'

Kame no O is a sake rice that has recently become popular with a number of brewers around the country. While it may not lead to the elegant, refined and lively fragrances and flavors derived from that most hallowed (yawn) of sake rices, Yamada Nishiki, Kame no O lends sake a definite character and solid,...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2001

Woodstock: three days of . . . whatever

My Generation Rating: * * * * Director: Barbara Kopple Running time: 104 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2001

Living on songs and a prayer

Duets Rating: * * * Director: Bruce Paltrow Running time: 112 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Art
Sep 19, 2001

Down and about in New York, Tokyo

The 8 x 10 monochrome prints on show at Tokyo's UNAC Salon are hardly eye-poppers, overt only in the sharp, downward angles which drag your eyes to the ground.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 17, 2001

Fans seek distraction at Fighters-M's game

Sunday was supposed to be Yankees Day at the Tokyo Dome. The American national anthem was supposed to be played by a U.S. military band. Public address announcements were supposed to be made in English. One fan was even supposed to win a round-trip airline ticket to New York. Out of respect to those...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 16, 2001

A theory in need of updating

THE ANATOMY OF SELF: The Individual Versus Society, by Takeo Doi. Translated by Mark A. Harbison. Forward by Edward Hall. Tokyo: Kodansha, Int., 2001 (1986), 168 pp., 1,800 yen. Takeo Doi, the man who made "amae" a household word, later wrote this book about "omote" and "ura" and their extensions,...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 16, 2001

Wreaking revenge by living well

SO CAN YOU, by Mitsuyo Ohira. Translated by John Brennan. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2000, 223 pp., 1,300 yen When I first set eyes on "So Can You," I wasn't sure what kind of book to expect. On the cover was a photo of a kind-faced, bespectacled woman in a plaid blazer who could easily pass for...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 16, 2001

Technology improves the old grinding stone

Over the years, every step in the brewing process has been subject to a barrage of so-called technical advances. More often than not, though, these modern technologies are not as good as the traditional methods they replace.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 12, 2001

Picking out Triennale treasures from the trash

Just 100 years ago, Monet was watching light dance over water lilies and Matisse was scandalizing art critics with his wild use of color.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2001

Criticism mounting over planned bond issue limit

Senior Cabinet members broke ranks Friday to criticize Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to limit government bond issues to 30 trillion yen for this fiscal year.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 2, 2001

More than words can say

WORDS IN CONTENT: A Japanese Perspective on Language and Culture, by Takao Suzuki, translated by Akira Miura Our eyes, says Takao Suzuki, author of this sociolinguistic text, "do not see things objectively and impartially like cameras. Our perceptions are always subject to cultural selection." Indeed,...
COMMUNITY
Sep 2, 2001

Who needs meat?

In 1984, Carl Lewis won four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics. At the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, he set a world record of 9.86 seconds for the 100 meters. By the time he retired in 1996, he had bagged nine Olympic gold medals and had written himself indelibly into the list of all-time...
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2001

AP boss looks back on eight-year stay

For foreigners who have never been to Japan, news wire services and other media often provide their only view of this country.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Entertainment firm in tax evasion tangle

Entertainment production firm Rising Production Co., which counts pop stars Namie Amuro and Da Pump in its stable, was found by tax officials to have evaded taxes on income of 2 billion yen in the three years to August 1999, sources said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 27, 2001

U.S. wants justice for all -- except itself

NEW YORK -- On Aug. 2, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia convicted Bosnian Serb Gen. Radislav Krstic of genocide. But even before the verdict, the Bush administration had made clear its opposition to the effort to create an International Criminal Court, which would broaden...
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Aug 26, 2001

Looking for beauty and utility in other people's garbage

SETTSU, Osaka Pref. -- Not a few people would agree that modern art is garbage.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001

How one white girl found her groove

Save the Last Dance Rating: * * * Director: Thomas Carter Running time: 113 minutes Language: English Now showing How are your hips these days? Do they rotate, swivel, slither like a separate appendage you can just detach and unleash onto the dance floor? If the answer is "huh?" then see "Save the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2001

Suicide bombers targeting peace process

LONDON -- Fifteen Israelis, half of them children, were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Sbarro's pizzeria in Jerusalem on Thursday. A comparable number were killed by a suicide bomber at a Tel Aviv disco in June. These outrages have a far greater impact on public opinion at home and abroad...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 19, 2001

Grant-oh puts the grrr in martinis

Mizu shobai is a fickle business at best. And these troubled economic times tend to heighten the sense of risk. So when I first heard of a plot to hatch a fun and funky martini lounge on a quiet back street in Roppongi, it struck me as downright dangerous. As I sipped a classic 007 at the opening of...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb