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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 11, 2005

Little grebe

* Japanese name: Kaitsuburi * Scientific name: Tachybaptus ruficollis * Description: Little grebes, also known as dabchicks, are quite small and rather dumpy birds with blunt rear ends. They are dark brown, with a chestnut-brown throat and face. This chestnut color becomes richer and more shiny...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 5, 2005

Weekend trance party picks 08.05

Friday 08.05
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

Retail mecca reborn

Many of Japan's thousands of shotengai (mom-and-pop retailers' districts) are struggling these days as customers desert them for major department stores, discount shops and suburban malls. The Osu district of Nagoya, though, is a notable exception. Bucking the nationwide downturn, this area is popular...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

Fare to love -- or loathe

If you plan on visiting Expo 2005 Aichi, you may find you have to join long, long lines and brave the summer heat to get into the most popular pavillions. And should you go through Nagoya on your way back home, don't be surprised to see more long lines in the city center. But these long waits are nothing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 31, 2005

Dawn of New Wave

If you're reading this on Sunday then most likely you're not at the Fuji Rock Festival this weekend. But if you're kicking yourself for not having made the trip to Naeba, you still have a chance to enjoy at least a fraction of the Fuji fun, because six bands who are playing at the festival will be doing...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

Speaking up for a 'right-size' city

In their search for the soul of Nagoya -- a city some dub "Japan's best kept secret" -- staff writers Setsuko Kamiya and Yoko Hani met up with five long-term foreign residents. All five happened to be American, and all have been in business there for between five and 10 years. Settling down for a chilled-out...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

'Secret' city basks in its low-profile limelight

It's at the geographic center of Japan and has in the past been at the hub of its history. It's also the nation's fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.2 million. But despite these, and many more, claims to fame and prominence, Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture has always been outstanding for its...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2005

15 abductees alive in '91, spy tells Diet

A former Pyongyang spy told a Diet panel Thursday that 15 abducted Japanese were alive in North Korea between 1988 and 1991 and suggested one of the five repatriated in 2002 has information about many of those still missing.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 28, 2005

Oriental long-headed locust

* Japanese name: Shouryou-batta * Scientific name: Acrida cinerea antennata * Description: Although it is called the long-headed locust, this member of the grasshopper family of insects has a stranger appearance than the more familiar swarming locust. "Shouryou" refers (bafflingly) to the Buddhist...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jul 28, 2005

A one-way trip down psycho alley

Feeling that virtual, killer instinct when playing violent games is a guilty pleasure of the PlayStation era. We kill zombies in "Biohazard," Chinese warlords in "Dynasty Warriors" and police officers in "Grand Theft Auto." For many of us, the aim-fire-reload mechanics of games have become second nature....
Japan Times
Features
Jul 24, 2005

Mama Calcutta

Emiko Dhar moved to Calcutta (now renamed Kolkata) in 1962 after she married an Indian engineer whom she met through her job in Japan. She has lived there ever since.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 22, 2005

AND1 tour headed to Japan

With trick plays and acrobatic shooting action accompanied by hip-hop music, a rebel brand of basketball is coming to Japan again.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2005

Dangerous diesel fumes identified

A Japanese research team said Wednesday it has identified several chemical substances emitted from diesel-powered vehicles that can cause low blood pressure and other cardiac irregularities in people who inhale them.
BUSINESS
Jul 22, 2005

Female tips solicited to simplify appliances

Electrical equipment manufacturers, including Sony Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., are exploiting the female perspective on the design of household electrical appliances by appointing women to relevant workshops.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2005

Worker badly hurt at theme park

A female employee at Namjatown, an indoor amusement park in Tokyo, was seriously injured Thursday while inspecting equipment at a haunted hotel attraction, police said.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2005

Dangerous diesel fumes identified

A Japanese research team said Wednesday it has identified several chemical substances emitted from diesel-powered vehicles that can cause low blood pressure and other cardiac irregularities in people who inhale them.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2005

Nissan offers navigation-iPod system

Nissan Motor Co. said Wednesday it has started marketing a car navigation system enabling music fans to connect their iPod players to the system when driving in Nissan vehicles.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2005

'Connoisseur tourists' flock to charter jets

The major travel agencies are chartering an increasing number of jumbo jets to offer bargain-priced package tours to "rather unusual" tourist destinations across the world.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2005

Eddie Palmieri's Latin All-Stars

After years of playing hot, percussive piano in other people's Latin bands, Eddie Palmieri formed his own group in 1961. In battles of the bands in dance clubs like New York's famed Palladium, Palmieri's always came out on top. He called his band La Perfecta for one reason: It was perfect.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2005

Tokyo eyes global catwalk

The Japanese fashion business is abuzz with the news that the six-week-long Tokyo Collections event that has forever been largely ignored by the international media is to be compressed into a government-backed, 10-day industry showcase staged in the grounds of Meiji Shrine in Tokyo's supertrendy Harajuku...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2005

Jumbo lotto hopefuls unfazed by heat

People across the country line up to purchase this year's Summer Jumbo lottery tickets that went on sale Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2005

Maglevs may be fast but costs make linear motor trains more practical

Linear motor trains are seeing more use in major subway systems thanks to their compact size, cheaper cost and safety.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2005

Interest now obsessive for first 'otaku' test

Thousands of young Japanese men are expected to take a nationwide exam next month that would, if they pass, grant them recognition as experts in the field of "otaku," or geeks.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 14, 2005

Japanese littleneck clam

* Japanese name: Asari * Scientific name: Ruditapes philippinarum * Description: Clams are bivalve mollusks, meaning that they are shellfish, like mussels and oysters. The shells are elongated and pinched together in the center where they join. There are both radial and concentric ribs on the...
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2005

KDDI to offer handsets for JR East payments

KDDI Corp. said Monday it will start a new service in January in which its handsets can be used as smart tickets for trains operated by East Japan Railway Co.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 10, 2005

Drug firms cashing in

For depression sufferers, medicines to relieve their misery are nothing less than godsends. So they are, too, for those firms pumping ever-more antidepressants into the drug-friendly Japanese market.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 10, 2005

DEPRESSION

'Istarted to get to work late -- sometimes at 11, then at 12 and then at 2; and then I had to quit my job."
Japan Times
Features
Jul 10, 2005

Support groups to aid of all affected

When people become clinically depressed, it's not just they who suffer. Families of the depressed are deeply affected -- riding an emotional roller coaster -- and when a breadwinner is afflicted, as is often the case, financial struggles inevitably ensue. Worst of all, many families must live with the...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past