Search - shop

 
 
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 4, 2011

'Wasao'

Japan is now a country with more dogs and cats (23 million in 2009) than children under 16 (17 million, same year). As both a parent and a dog owner here, I understand why: Kids are enormously expensive to raise in Japan and, given the current grim employment situation, often live off Mommy and Daddy's...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2011

Geisha cuts into kimono market

Wearing a kimono can be a daunting task, where one must follow numerous steps and protocols steeped in tradition to prevent making a fool of oneself.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 29, 2011

New Yorker finds success within himself in Kyoto

American restaurateur Charles Roche, 62, credits his love of feting others to having grown up in the warm and noisy embrace of an extended Italian-American family in the Bronx. As part of a food-loving clan he jokingly refers to as "the Sopranos without the crime," he remembers splitting chestnuts and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2010

The man who popularized the Edo pleasure district

The Yoshiwara pleasure district of Edo (old Tokyo) has often been immortalized in word and image for the exquisite carnal pleasures it offered.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2010

Big Issue finds home; homeless in charge

The Big Issue Japan Ltd., a publisher that hires homeless people to sell its magazine on the streets, opened on Friday Japan's first shop managed by homeless people in a former convenience store in Nishi-Umeda subway station.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2010

Women of quiet strength

Female artists play a significant role in Japan's art world today, but a century ago, only a few women made a mark in the then male-dominated field. Shoen Uemura stands out as one of the most successful, a status she earned through the relentless study and perfection of her chosen theme of bijin-ga —...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 12, 2010

Travel through time on a trip to Otaru

The Hokkaido port of Otaru is less than an hour by train from downtown Sapporo. Same neighborhood, different world.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 21, 2010

Pen mightier than samurai sword

You've probably heard that Japanese people are shy to speak English because they are afraid of making mistakes. Every night before I go to bed, I pray that this English language phobia will spill over into English writing. As one visitor to Japan said to me, "You could spend your life correcting all...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 25, 2010

Brilliant facets of Nishi-Ojima

Setting off to explore Nishi-Ojima (West Large Island) and Kita Suna (North Sand) in Tokyo's downtown Koto Ward, I know better than to expect a seaside resort.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 27, 2010

Where's the spirit of Japan's troublemaking coffee-house Hobbits?

There was a time, in the 1960s and early '70s, when the people of Japan were not apathetic about what was being done on their soil. The opposition here to the U.S. invasion of Vietnam and Japan's support of it was large scale and vocal. Mass demonstrations were frequently held across the nation, participated...
JAPAN / PROMOTING TOURISM FROM CHINA
Jun 17, 2010

Tapping a golden market

The Chinese tourists had just one hour to shop — not a lot of time when you consider they were at the glitzy VenusFort mall in Tokyo's fashionable Odaiba waterfront district.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Jun 10, 2010

Fashion that's global, customized, arty and everything

Rebecca Taylor's new look
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 13, 2010

Antique dealer Kunihiro Iida

Antique dealer Kunihiro Iida, 66, specializes in tea ceremony utensils. His tiny corner shop, Iidakojitsudo, is just 500 meters from Tokyo Station's Yaesu side, in the historical district of Kyobashi. Built in 1971 by the famed carpenter Kisaburo Fujii — who studied under Ogi Rodo, the grandmaster...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 11, 2010

Japan zines: Never mind the bloggers

Koenji is a nice, quiet place in the suburbs, but venturing along its Kitanaka Street one weekend last March, you could not have missed the commotion coming out of Shirouto no Ran No. 12. Crammed inside this small rental space, dozens of people were poring over, discussing and exchanging piles upon piles...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Apr 8, 2010

Return of Yohji, AMBUSH bling, LIMI feu bargains and Tokyo Girls

Coming back in style
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 28, 2010

Bulking up in Bush Warbler Valley

I'd like to improve my grip on sumo wrestling, so when a friend invites me to watch the big boys tussle through a morning practice, I jump at the chance. I get off at Uguisudani (Bush Warbler Valley) Station on the Yamanote Line, where the station-identity jingle is of this warbler's mellifluous chortle...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 26, 2010

'Ningen Shikkaku'/'Saru Lock the Movie'

Based on Osamu Dazai's most famous novel, Genjiro Arato's "Ningen Shikkaku" ("The Fallen Angel") is a characteristic gamble for the veteran producer/ director, known for rushing in where others fear to tread.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 14, 2010

Ice cream man Tokuya Hirose

Tokuya Hirose, 82, is the second-generation owner of Ze-roku, a tiny ice-cream shop in Osaka city's Hommachi area. Established in 1913, Ze-roku served traditional Japanese sweets till 1952, when Tokuya's father and this three sons came up with a brilliant combination that melted everyone's hearts: the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 29, 2009

Kichijoji captivations

Kichijoji has shopping covered, literally and figuratively. The roofed malls at this popular stop on the Chuo Line 15 minutes west of Shinjuku sport prices markedly lower than those of central Tokyo, and the lure of its bargains is easily as strong as its famed live jazz and blues scene.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 27, 2009

A revolution off the record

As the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31, 1999, hundreds of thousands worldwide were reveling in clubs and arenas to the sounds of records played by their favorite DJs. Little were they to know that in the space of 10 years the record was to become an endangered species.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 20, 2009

'Tsumuji Kaze Shokudo no Yoru'

Take a quaint European-looking restaurant in a quiet Hokkaido town in the dead of winter. Add quirky regulars who are treated to nightly disquisitions, philosophical and otherwise, by the avuncular owner of a local hat shop. Toss in scrumptious- looking "set menus" of steaks, croquettes and other Western-...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 8, 2009

Annals of cheap: Takeya

The discount behemoth Takeya, located near Okachimachi Station, gets by on volume and an almost neurotic obsession with using space effectively.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 17, 2009

Dealing with the disposable

Awn in Higashi Nippori is a 'recycle shop' whose purpose had less to do with recycling or making money than with creating jobs.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jul 15, 2009

Fish-shaped 'taiyaki' is always evolving

"Taiyaki," a fish-shaped pancake of sorts made of flour and filled with "azuki" sweet bean paste, has been around for a century.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 13, 2009

A passion for food, cars and aikido

You probably don't know where Ushigome is. Like many areas within Tokyo's Yamanote Line, it is somewhat anonymous — the kind of place where you expect to find nothing of interest and where the local people, as if oblivious to the size of the metropolis around them, shop in tiny old stores. It's the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 18, 2009

A little Mc-wrath with coffee

This is a chilly winter's tale, one now warmed both by passing time and the gentle breezes of spring.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan