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CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Oct 28, 2000

Coal-crusted, ash-glazed, long-fired

From aspiring lawyer to automatic washing machine salesman to master potter, life has been an interesting but rocky road for Shigaraki ceramist Shiho Kanzaki.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2000

Car-safety promises unfulfilled

Japan's crowded highways, limited parking spaces and high gasoline prices would seem likely to discourage all but the most determined drivers. Yet a glance at any busy urban road makes it clear that Japan is still a nation that considers endurance, if not patience, a leading virtue. It is good to know...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 27, 2000

The highs and lows of izakaya dining

The ethereal, powder-blue fiber-optic lights that illuminate the entrance to Yui-an give a remarkable sense of stepping into another dimension -- a sensation heightened by the high-speed elevator ride to the top of the Sumitomo Building. With your brain suitably befuddled before you even get through...
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2000

The reality gap still looms

The latest economic stimulus package, unveiled last Thursday, reinforces the impression that deficit spending in the name of economic recovery has become an annual routine. In fact, almost every year since the economic bubble burst a decade ago, the government has pumped trillions of yen into the system,...
CULTURE / Art
Oct 22, 2000

Holding art and utility in our hands

Amid the sensationalism of much contemporary art, it is refreshing to sense honest artistry in metal, clay and wood. "Thoughts on Contemporary Vessels" at the Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art is an exhibition centered on the humble cup, bowl or jar. And it reveals crafts that are as...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

11 trillion yen plan gets official nod

The government adopted a comprehensive stimulus package Thursday worth nearly 11 trillion yen in its latest bid to place the long-stagnant economy on a full-fledged recovery track.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

Cops to use paint balls to bag thieves

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefectural Police launched a campaign Thursday to crack down on bag-snatchers by marking them with paint balls.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 19, 2000

Talking head Tanaka wows 'em in Nagano

Yasuo Tanaka, candidate for the governorship of Nagano Prefecture, was supposed to meet voters at 2:30 p.m. at a shopping arcade in downtown Nagano, but it was a long arcade. A campaign worker wearing a bright orange windbreaker was handing out literature in front of Ito Yokado. "I think it's been changed,"...
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2000

Yonezawa's tourist industry rises from the ashes

YONEZAWA, Yamagata Pref. -- When he received a phone call saying that a fire was blazing through the hotel where his grandfather was once a carpenter, local shop owner Masahiro Ohta rushed to help.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 18, 2000

Ghost hunting in York

With Halloween just around the corner this column bravely steps beyond the boundary of nature travel and pops its toes into the chilling twilight realm of "supernature" travel.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 18, 2000

Toronto gets a taste of Japanese culture

TORONTO -- The Japanese and Canadian communities here in Ontario recently kicked off a six-week celebration showcasing Japanese culture and lifestyle.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Oct 15, 2000

Rexroth revolution comes home to Japan

Yokohama-based essayist and poet Morgan Gibson has been and continues to be one of the most prolific contributors to Japan's English literary scene. Of his own work he had poems published in the 1970s in pioneering journals like One Mind and Kyoto Review and later, in the '80s, in publications like Blue...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 13, 2000

Tomorrow today

Predicting the future is always a risky business, but the uncertainties seem to be magnified when it comes to information technologies. Blame it on "tipping points," unstable equilibriums, systems analysis, whatever, but planning ahead has never been a more hazardous exercise.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 4, 2000

Step back in time to Sado Island

There is something about ferries that puts you in a frame of mind to think back in time.
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 3, 2000

Troussier sees progress in Olympic performance

SHIZUOKA -- "I don't think it was a defeat," Japan manager Philippe Troussier said Monday of Japan's performance in the Sydney Olympics, a day after the Summer Games ended.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2000

Koto player has tales to tell

Elizabeth Falconer, a former Japan Times hogaku columnist, lives in Seattle now, but in the many years she spent in Japan she steeped herself in Japanese culture, including winning a koto teacher's certificate from the late Tadao Sawai, one of the greatest koto masters of the 20th century. Since her...
OLYMPICS
Sep 27, 2000

Russian duo take synchro title

SYDNEY -- Japanese water-babes Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda swam for the gold in the synchronized swimming duet final Tuesday, but were beaten by a Russian team whose routine drew on Japanese culture for inspiration.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2000

Aussie singer-songwriter finds an authentic musical voice

"I must admit the music I do is a bit daggy," says Tokyo-based singer-songwriter Donna Burke with a laugh, rejecting any slick, "groovy" image in favor of the old-fashioned, down-to-earth comfort the colloquial Australian term implies.
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2000

Toyota ups forecast after sales kick

Toyota Motor Corp. revised its unconsolidated earnings projections for the first half of fiscal 2000 upward due to brisk sales of its vehicles in domestic and overseas markets, company officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2000

Sabah -- unfinished business between Malaysia and the Philippines

SINGAPORE -- The kidnap-for-ransom hostage crisis triggered by the Abu Sayyaf rebels in a remote corner of the South China Sea has attracted worldwide attention. But of even greater significance, it has further strained ties between the Philippines and Malaysia, as each country blames the other for allowing...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 20, 2000

I want my RTV

While on vacation in the States, I found myself watching the finale of "Survivor," the climax of a summer of reality TV. I could have turned it off. I could have returned to my book. But no. I had been (blissfully) ignorant of all that had gone on before, but that didn't matter. I watched both it and...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 20, 2000

The flawed forests of Cuc Phuong

As many Americans have no doubt already forgotten, and as some will never forget, Vietnam was visited not just by their flag's red, white and blue but also by Agents Orange, White and Blue; toxic herbicides named after the color of their containers. A total of 72 million poisonous liters were dumped...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Sep 17, 2000

Tokyo poets get a night out to Howl

Howl, the bar in Aoyama, was founded just after Allen Ginsberg's death in 1997.
COMMUNITY
Sep 17, 2000

Fusing technology, arts in fabulous future shocks

Omote-sando's cafe-restaurant Las Chicas needs no introduction. But few realize that the two-floor building in which it is situated was once a consulate, designed to wrap around the central courtyard -- one of the nicest places to eat in town. Under the umbrella organization Vision Network, the complex...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Porcelain design echoes Japan

It's not difficult to understand the influence of Japanese ceramics on famed British chinaware producer Royal Crown Derby.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2000

Smiling seen as key to economy

Make people laugh -- that should make the economy better and lead to a bright future for Japan, according to Masao Kimura, board director of the Osaka-based major entertainment firm Yoshimoto Kogyo Co.

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