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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Oct 4, 2002

Sea cucumber

* Japanese name: Torafunamako * Scientific name: Holothuria pervicax * Description: Despite their name, sea cucumbers are not plants but animals, close relatives of sea urchins and starfish. They are all echinoderms, and members of this group are radially symmetrical. This kind of symmetry is most...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 2, 2002

John Zorn: "Film Works XII"

John Zorn is not afraid of saturating the market with his film scores -- nor should he be; on each new release, the composer invites us into yet another exquisite little world. "Film Works XII" presents the scores to three documentary films and the music is as varied as the films themselves.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 29, 2002

Father, son mix it up in Yokohama

Yokohama was once the undisputed headquarters for foreigners in the Kanto region. Its wide accommodating port facilities were the destination for postwar U.S. fleets arriving to establish their presence in Japan. And, as with any port town, many bars and restaurants sprang up to cater to the ebb and...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 27, 2002

Moon jellyfish

* Japanese name: Mizukurage * Scientific name: Aurelia aurita * Description: Moon jellyfish are soft-bodied, transparent animals that swim by gently undulating their bell-shaped bodies. They range in size from 5 cm to 40 cm in diameter. Unlike what you may have expected, size is not an indication of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Sep 25, 2002

Henri Salvador

This year's Festival Halou, Tokyo's annual offering of French pops, features Henri Salvador, who, at 85, certainly has some stories to tell. Born in French Guiana in 1917, Salvador moved to Paris as a young man, where he played guitar with Django Reinhardt and developed his own vocal style. In the '50s,...
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2002

Madrid conference brings together key mortgage industry players

MADRID -- Changes in Japan's mortgage industry are likely to cause a spurt in mortgage lending and a great deal of price competition, ultimately leading to a shakeup in the the country's mortgage industry, according to Michael Lea, president of Countrywide International Consulting Services.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Sep 22, 2002

Wheelchair designer hopes to get more users on the streets

Etsumi Okigawa hopes to design as many wheelchairs as possible so their users can become everyday fixtures at schools, offices and street corners.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 22, 2002

Suffer the little children; endure the fitness freaks

TV personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi recently made her 20th journey overseas as a special ambassador for UNICEF. This time she went to Somalia and, as always, a TV Asahi crew followed her as she looked into the plight of children in the war-torn country. An account of her trip will be broadcast Sunday at...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Sep 22, 2002

The building blocks of a good scene

As the torpor of summer dissipates into autumn's more tolerable temperatures, the music scene moves from the beaches of Shonan and the foothills of Fuji back into its dark and dank urban recesses.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2002

Tokyo Game Show 2002 exhibits latest software

Japan's biggest video-game software show kicked off Friday at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, with 85 domestic and overseas software companies exhibiting 500 new products.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Kawaguchi apologizes over abductee information fiasco

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi apologized Friday for the ministry's failure to disclose information it received from North Korea regarding the dates of the deaths of eight abducted Japanese nationals.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 20, 2002

Japanese oakblue

* Japanese name: Murasaki shijimi * Scientific name: Narathura japonica * Description: If you catch sight of a butterfly flitting through the trees, it is likely to be an oakblue. The oakblue is a small (14-22 mm long) butterfly. Its black-bordered wings have beautiful, iridescent blue patches. It...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2002

Association helps end the health insurance limbo

Pressed by an ever-increasing number of people working as temps, both the government and temp agencies are trying to increase measures to make life more secure for the workers in this category.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2002

Honda launches Mobilio Spike wagon

Honda Motor Co. launched its new Mobilio Spike multipurpose wagon on Wednesday, hoping to maintain brisk car sales amid weak domestic demand.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Sep 19, 2002

Watching the river's flow

In the best-selling 19th-century guidebook, "Edo Meisho Zue (Famous Places of Edo)," there are many prints showing the picturesque scenery and ancient shrines in the vicinity of Oji in present-day Kita Ward. Robert Fortune, the Scottish botanist who was in Japan in 1860 and 1861, enjoyed his visit there,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 18, 2002

Yuki Ogura: The other side of modern

Visitors to the current exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo might be excused for thinking they'd been misled. Instead of encountering a display of works expressing the essence of 20th-century Japanese art, perchance, or the challenge of assimilating Western artistic techniques, this...
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2002

Electric toothbrush sales increase as prices decay

Sales of electric toothbrushes are booming in Japan following a significant decline in product prices.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2002

Make way for manga

A merican popular culture: We hear that phrase and immediately think of a juggernaut, a one-way tide rolling round the globe bearing its fatally attractive, tradition-squelching icons. It used to be John Wayne and jazz and Audrey Hepburn and Mickey Mouse. Then came McDonald's and Snoopy. More recently...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2002

A river of ill repute

THE MEKONG: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future, by Milton Osborn. Allen & Unwin, 2001, 295 pp., b/w & color photos, $25 (cloth) The waters of the Mekong, the world's 12th-longest and Southeast Asia's foremost river, do not, like the Thames, run sweetly. Nor have they inspired poets to dream on the river's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002

A ride on the darker side of Tokyo's history

Temples, shrines, gardens, the Imperial Palace . . . Why, tourist guidebooks are full of places that echo the form and spirit of the Old Edo that once was. But they're only telling you a part of the story.
COMMUNITY
Sep 15, 2002

Did Plato's Republic find a spiritual home in Japan?

Four hundred and two years ago this week, a battle was fought near the village of Sekigahara, 40 km northwest of Nagoya. Though short -- it was over soon after lunchtime -- the battle was decisive, ushering in . . . Plato's Republic?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 13, 2002

Giant hornet

* Japanese name: Oo-suzumebachi * Scientific name: Vespa mandarinia japonica * Description: This monster is the largest social wasp in the world. Workers grow to between 25 and 35 mm long, drones (males) up to 45 mm long, and queens a startling 55 mm in length. Giant hornets have wide, orange heads...
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2002

Public responds to mayors' U.S. barbs

Criticism leveled last month by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba at the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has provoked a major reaction both at home and abroad.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Sep 12, 2002

Super Monkey's on my back

You'll have to excuse me if this week's column is a bit short. Sega has just released "Super Monkey Ball 2" (SMB2) and I am having a hard time tearing myself away from the television.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 12, 2002

Words on Apple, more on pets and culture vultures

Last Apple bite As promised last time, Apple-man Anthony Walter of Caliburn responds to queries about Macintosh computers in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Sep 11, 2002

Take the plunge into 'Vegas' art

I'm just back from hot and dry Las Vegas, where the world's high rollers, faced with lavish entertainment options such as performance-art ensemble Blue Man Group and magicians Siegfried & Roy, have made the Cirque du Soleil's "O" the hottest ticket in town. The central attraction of "O" is not its troupe...
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2002

Taisho and Toyama conclude tieup accord

Taisho Pharmaceutical Co. and Toyama Chemical Co. said Monday they have concluded a tieup agreement that features the establishment of a joint sales company and the acquisition by Taisho of a major equity stake in Toyama.

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