Search - u_times

 
 
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 21, 2007

Tasting the good life

Karuizawa is known as a getaway magnet for the rich, and based on a recent trip to the town in Nagano Prefecture, Japan's wealthy take their pleasures very seriously.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 21, 2007

Celebrate Chaplin's life in film

With his little mustache, oversize pants, bowler hat and walking stick, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), known as the Little Tramp, became the greatest comic icon in the early 20th century, and his ingenious mime still captivates audiences today.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2007

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Don't expect any seasonal cheer from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. For almost a decade, the Los Angeles-based three-piece's dark brand of bluesy garage rock has been burning a trail across the music scene. The demons that fuel the band's successes are the same ones that have, in the past, caused them...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 19, 2007

There's no time like snow time!

As much as I enjoy the rich biodiversity of the Tropics — as anyone who read my column here last month on the wildlife of Brazil will know — my favorite season is winter.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2007

Fukuda seeks set law on SDF deployments

Japan needs a permanent law to allow the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces overseas so they can carry out peace activities whenever requested, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / READERS' FUND
Dec 15, 2007

Donations aiding Asian kids in need

Last in a series
Reader Mail
Dec 13, 2007

U.S. faces stronger South America

The Dec. 7 editorial "Hugo Chavez, democrat" -- about the defeat of a Chavez-backed constitutional reform package in Venezuela's recent referendum -- misses the whole point, or maybe The Japan Times just happens to share the U.S. perspective on South American geopolitics.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Dec 12, 2007

Konbini Life

Konbini Life is a blog that describes limited-edition Kit-Kats as potential after-dinner treats for French restaurants and speculates that Mousse Pocky might be "as good as a garnish on a fancy dessert." Blogger Brent Warner has been writing witty, detailed posts on the never-ending parade of snack food...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2007

Oh's record viewed as tarnished

Regarding the Dec. 5 article "Oh honored by FSAJ for lifetime achievement": I was surprised to see that baseball great Sadaharu Oh was bestowed such an award by the Foreign Sportswriters Association of Japan without any apparent dissent. It's ironic -- given the unfairness that his teams perpetrated...
Reader Mail
Dec 9, 2007

Dumb and dumber news items

Is it me, or has NHK's News Watch 9 become extremely lowbrow recently? Take, for example, its Nov. 30 program, which plumbed news depths of banality with a story entirely devoted to the increasing popularity of black things. We were treated to a long list of examples of popular black items, including...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 8, 2007

Yes — I have a cell phone

"Hate" is a powerful word, and one that I would never toss around lightly, not even to such potentially worthy targets as the Tokyo Giants, Fox News and eggplant (blech!). But having said that, let me further say this:
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2007

High tensions in EU's Low Countries

PRAGUE — Belgium and the Netherlands, two founding members of the European Union, are increasingly divided about what that project now means. The EU's Reform Treaty is now the focus of that dispute, but its roots go deeper. At one point, according to press reports, the row became so serious that French...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 5, 2007

Oh honored by FSAJ for lifetime achievement

After the most distinguished career in Japanese baseball history, Sadaharu Oh has gotten a lot of practice in accepting awards.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 5, 2007

Wintertime and the livin' ain't easy

I came to live in Kurohime in Nagano Prefecture in the autumn of 1980. An old friend lived here, the poet and critic Gan Tanigawa, and he found a house for me. It was a big old country house, a couple of hundred years old, at least, with massive wooden pillars and beams and a thatched roof. The house...
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2007

Fingerprinting issue trivialized

The Nov. 27 article by Mark Schreiber, "Prints rejected, scribe accepted," described Schreiber's re-entry to Japan after a trip to Saipan that appears to have been made purely for the opportunity to write the piece. The tone and conclusion made light of what many view as a serious issue, and were touted...
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Dec 2, 2007

Niigata's Webb enjoys beef bowls, team camaraderie on, off court

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league — Japan's first professional basketball circuit — which recently began its third season. Rodney Webb of the Niigata Albirex BB is the subject of this week's profile.
Reader Mail
Dec 2, 2007

Taboo subject takes lower priority

Should I assume that since no letters were published in response to the Nov. 14 Los Angeles Times article "Sumo killing casts spotlight on lack of autopsies" that The Japan Times didn't receive any reactions? It's easier to believe that the subject is taboo. If so, manslaughter may be observed as not...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Dec 1, 2007

Editors to single out buzzword of the year

Amplification of the Japanese language reaches its annual culmination every December when editors of Gendai Yougo no Kisochishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words) crown a word or a phrase as its "ryuko go taisho" — buzzword of the year.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 1, 2007

Hasta la vista, pink bunny!

This column is for all the Nova teachers out there who have lost their teaching jobs. And should you be packing up to go back home, I wish you all the best of luck.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 30, 2007

Nikko: spiritual highs, down-to-earth pleasures

Located about 140 km north of Tokyo, the city of Nikko nestles in the mountains of western Tochigi Prefecture. Its three holy sites — Futarasan Shrine, Nikko Tosho-gu Shrine and Rinno-ji Temple — were collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.
SOCCER / World cup
Nov 28, 2007

Okada poised to coach Japan

Takeshi Okada has confirmed he will once again coach the Japan national soccer team, a source close to the coach told The Japan Times on Tuesday.
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2007

Readers hung out to dry

The Nov. 20 opinion piece "Starting today, 'gaijin' formally known as prints" (on the Community page) and The Japan Times' handling of it are completely unacceptable. In its original published form, a final statement indicating the fictitious nature of the e-mails and quotes cited in the article...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?