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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...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 25, 2007

Saucy Plate dishes out some choice morsels

Confessions of an American Media Man: What They Don't Tell You at Journalism School by Tom Plate. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2007, $16.50 (paper) One day, media maven cum academic Tom Plate — a frequent contributor to The Japan Times opinion page — arrived for an appointment at the office of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 23, 2007

Tequila to be sipped, not slammed

I won ¥1 million last week, betting on the botanical classification of the blue agave — the key ingredient of tequila. Early on Thursday morning in a Roppongi bar, an overconfident drinker called the plant a cactus; my money said lily.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 22, 2007

Asian collectors overtake Japanese market

China casts a long shadow over the Japanese art market. However lively, large and long-suffering the art world in Japan may be, it has not garnered the kind of excited interest that the relatively young Chinese scene has in the last five years.
Reader Mail
Nov 18, 2007

Tired of getting stopped

I just want to say I understand the reasoning behind the gaijin card checks, but think the number of times that some of us are stopped is unfair and just a way to embarrass and harass us.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Nov 17, 2007

No holds barred in fight for dolphins

Within minutes of meeting Allison Lance, one might start to wonder if she was a dolphin in a past life. Her enthusiasm and passion in her drive to protect her animal friends is so strong that it touches just about every area of her life.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2007

Aussies eye painless change

SYDNEY — A conservative coalition that has governed Australia for over a decade under Prime Minister John Howard faces a severe test ahead of next week's national election.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 16, 2007

Japan's top sommelier has plenty of bottle

At midnight Wednesday, Prince Hotel sommeliers marked the release of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau wine with celebrations underwater at the Epson Shinagawa Aqua Stadium at its Shinagawa branch, and on the snow at its Karuizawa ski-resort hotel.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 14, 2007

Isiah shows confidence in Curry

NEW YORK — The more I'm around Eddy Curry, the more I like his honesty and off-court jesting. He smiles easily, good humoredly messes with teammates and is quick to poke fun at himself.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2007

Should we study race-intelligence links?

PRINCETON, New Jersey — The intersection of genetics and intelligence is an intellectual minefield. Harvard's former President Larry Summers touched off one explosion in 2005 when he tentatively suggested a genetic explanation for the difficulty his university had in recruiting female professors in...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 10, 2007

Buddy Hackett, Bob Newhart and why I came to Japan

The man on my right is not comedian Buddy Hackett. But perhaps — if you're a little drunk and have an imagination — you might think he is.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Nov 6, 2007

Game over for Kaio and Chiyotaikai?

As the Kyushu Basho, running Nov. 11-25, rumbles around once again, so does the regular talk of ozeki retirement.
COMMENTARY
Nov 5, 2007

Health obstacles to African development

NEW YORK — According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2010 sub-Saharan Africa will have suffered 71 million deaths from AIDS. By comparison, the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages killed some 30 million people. These are staggering figures, particularly if one considers that deaths from AIDS are only one...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 4, 2007

Seeing World Series at Fenway Park an amazing experience

I have been to a major league All-Star Game (Seattle Kingdome, 1979) and seen big league action at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium in New York and Wrigley Field in Chicago. But, until two weeks ago, there were still three ambitions to fulfill for me as a baseball fan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2007

Activists comfort dying dolphins

Opponents of Japan's annual dolphin slaughter have taken their campaign to a new level of confrontation by paddling into the bloody waters off a western killing cove to comfort animals moments before their deaths.
Reader Mail
Nov 1, 2007

Silly references in editorial

I'm neither a rightwinger nor a racist, but the Oct. 29 editorial, "China and Japan," disgusted me. It says at one point that "Many other Chinese leaders . . . also spent time in Japan . . . a fact that is ignored on both sides of Sea of Japan, or the East Sea, depending on your point of view."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Nov 1, 2007

Retiree starts anew with Kidzania career theme park

It was in May 2004 that retired restaurant manager Einosuke Sumitani first visited a career theme park called Kidzania in Mexico and saw children cheerfully engaged in jobs there.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2007

Moriya lists Yamada freebies

Former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya testified in the Diet on Monday that politicians, including an ex-Defense Agency chief, were wined and dined by a former executive of defense equipment trader Yamada Corp.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 28, 2007

Lost in an Aegean dream

Herodotus, the so-called Father of History, made a few rather extravagant claims in his time (his time being the 5th century B.C., which is when he wrote the world's first history books).
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 28, 2007

And the government says: Let them eat rice

When I tuned in to NHK's "Nihon Kore Kara (Japan From Now)" on Oct. 20 to watch a live citizens' debate about Japan's food-security crisis, I felt the issue was a no-brainer. Who could argue against the importance of food security, meaning the self-sufficiency of a country to feed itself? And given the...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2007

Nova students give poor grades to management

Though forewarned of their language school's financial woes, students Friday reacted to the news of Nova Corp.'s bankruptcy with shock and disappointment.
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2007

A ceiling on extended power

The Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly has enacted a bylaw limiting a governor to three consecutive terms in office, or 12 years. It will not take effect, though, until the central government places a limit on the number of times a person can be elected as governor or mayor, by revising the Local Autonomy...

Longform

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