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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.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 6, 2009

Hashidaya and Kushiwakamaru: One bird in the pot is worth two on the stick

It's awfully damp and chilly in winter alongside Meguro-gawa, the deep, concrete-lined creek that runs through Naka-Meguro. In summer, the cherry trees that line each bank provide blissful dappled shade, but at this time of year their boughs are bare.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 20, 2009

Japan meets Jamaica: ital soba in Tokyo

What is it about handmade noodles, young chefs, minuscule restaurants and hard-to-find locations? Here's another highly idiosyncratic craft-noodle shop that opened recently, which is every bit as hard to find as Nemuri-an.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 20, 2009

Asahi: Japan meets Jamaica: ital soba in Tokyo

What is it about handmade noodles, young chefs, minuscule restaurants and hard-to-find locations? Here's another highly idiosyncratic craft-noodle shop that opened recently, which is every bit as hard to find as Nemuri-an.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / STYLE WISE
Feb 12, 2009

Fashion inspired by imaginary destinations, the 1950s and naughty Polaroids

Your visa to Fugahum "Fugahum is our imaginary country. Yes, it's also our brand, but I always wanted to create a nation and write its history," says Akiyoshi Mishima, the philosophical half of the fashion unit Fugahum that the designer has formed with partner Asuka Yamamoto. "Isn't that what a fashion...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2009

Shoe shiner buffs his trade into fine art

The chic, antique-filled interior of his store, the soft jazz playing in the background and Yuya Hasegawa's fancy suit are all there to serve a single purpose: to boost the esteem of his job.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 24, 2009

The language game — here's what not to do

Life is full of stupid moves.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 18, 2009

Finding the fabled Snow Country

"The special delights of the hot spring are for the unaccompanied gentleman," states the introduction to Yasunari Kawabata's "Snow Country," instantly seizing the attention.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 28, 2008

The swift strokes of 'no-brush' calligraphy

KEN-ZEN-SHO: Zen Calligraphy and Painting of Yamaoka Tesshu, with a foreword by Rupert Faulkner, introductions by Sarah Moate and Alex Bennett, an essay by Terayama Tanchu and an afterword by Takemura Eiji. Bunkashi International (Kendo World Publications), 2008, 200 pp., 33 color plates, 67 b/w pictures,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Dec 25, 2008

People Tree products pioneering fair trade in Japan

The hand-knit sweaters and scarves and hand-woven bags with an ethnic look are nothing like the products sold to the masses of consumers in most big shopping malls.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 16, 2008

In an ideal world, who would you like to see running Japan?

Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 25, 2008

¥100 shops — consumers' common denominator

With the economy in recession, it should be no surprise that ¥100 stores are thriving, wowing shoppers both local and from far afield with their variety of goods all set at one price, plus the ¥5 consumption tax.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 17, 2008

In the realm of fall's senses

With autumn nipping at the air, deciduous trees are primed to put on a color display known in Japanese as koyo. Though usually written with Japanese characters for "crimson" and "leaves," koyo can also be written with the characters for "yellow" and "leaves" when describing varieties of trees such as...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 3, 2008

Nice to nestle at Japan's hometown

One could be fooled into thinking Onomichi was an island, where the ocean air whisps about the often deserted streets and the locals thrive from eclectic arts and hospitality industries. That would all be true, except the island part.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Sep 21, 2008

Low and slow — Nagoya's slice of Southern California

Second of two parts
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 9, 2008

Hilfiger denim, baseball glove bags and more

Tommy's Red, White and Blue The Tommy Hilfiger brand isn't exactly a stranger to Japan. It has stores up and down the country that run the whole gamut of Hilfiger collections. Famed for preppy nautical clothing, the brand encapsulates, alongside Ralph Lauren, the classic patrician look.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes