Search - travel

 
 
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 15, 2007

A great naturalist, and a pretty good shot

BORNEO, CELEBES, ARU, by Alfred Russel Wallace. London: Penguin Books, 2007, 112 pp., with maps, £4.99 (paper) The great naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) traveled widely in what was then called the East Indies and which we now know as Malaysia and Indonesia. Between 1854 and 1862 he wandered...
BASEBALL / MLB'S EFFECT ON JAPAN
Apr 11, 2007

Is the MLB destroying Japan's national pastime?

Best-selling author Robert Whiting, who has penned such classics as "You Gotta Have Wa," "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat" and "The Meaning of Ichiro," has written an exclusive four-part series for The Japan Times on the effect Major League Baseball is having on the Japanese pro game, and how the poor...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2007

Ruing the death of Russian womanhood

SOUTH BEND, Indiana -- Valentina Tereshkova, the first female Soviet cosmonaut -- indeed, the first woman to go into space -- recently celebrated her 70th birthday. In an interview, she stated her only wish: to fly to Mars, even with a one-way ticket. It was an implicit wish for a spectacular form of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 7, 2007

Pamela Bodle

The Yokohama International Women's Club is holding its 52nd Azalea Tea from 10:30 a.m. on April 19 at the Hotel New Grand Yokohama.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2007

Saudi Arabia hosts a theater of reform

PRAGUE -- Having raised expectations for real political reform in Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah has announced that the time for change has not yet arrived. After reshuffling the Cabinet, everything remains the same.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 6, 2007

Multicultural psychosis

Eugene Hutz is a difficult man to pin down. He is rarely in the same country, let alone the same city, for more than a few weeks at a time, touring with his band Gogol Bordello across time-zones and cultures on four different continents for most of the year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2007

Urban Kyoto tries on an old look

KYOTO -- First-time visitors to the ancient capital of Kyoto usually arrive expecting to see quiet temples and rock gardens or an abundance of old wooden buildings set against the backdrop of the surrounding mountains.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 30, 2007

Up, up and away

For the length of the Occupation of Japan, from defeat in 1945 to the return of sovereignty in 1952, the skies belonged to the Allies.
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2007

U.N. steps up pressure on Iran

The United Nations Security Council agreed last weekend to sanction Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment program. The unanimous vote is designed to encourage Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and eliminate suspicions about its nuclear intentions. The...
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2007

A Japanese sense of humor?

Japanese and Germans are thought by some "Anglo-Saxons" to have many similar qualities, including a lack of a sense of humor and a tendency to take themselves too seriously. I don't think the former is fair; the latter is closer to the mark.
SOCCER
Mar 24, 2007

Naka gets behind coach Osim

Shunsuke Nakamura has sprung to the defense of Ivica Osim and his selection methods ahead of Japan's first national team game of the year against Peru on Saturday evening.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 21, 2007

Viewing nature in the best possible way

Ibegan writing natural history notes back in 1968; the immature handwriting in my first dogeared notebook is a reminder that then I was just a lad of 13. I was growing up in semi-rural Worcestershire in central England, and that was the year when, asked by my parents what I would like for my birthday,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 20, 2007

Tragedy swirls around Tamiflu

On Feb. 4, 2004, on a cold, snowy day in Gero, Gifu Prefecture, Haruhiko Nokiba's 17-year-old son fell sick. The fevered teen visited a local doctor, tested negative for a flu virus but was prescribed an antiviral drug called Symmetrel. He took a capsule that evening and another the following morning,...
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2007

Horie handed 2 1/2 years

The Tokyo District Court sentenced Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie to 2 1/2 years in prison Friday for falsifying financial statements and violating the Securities and Exchange Law in a harsh ruling sure to raise questions about double standards in the justice system.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 13, 2007

Japan is obliged to accept refugees, so why so few?

In 1981, Japan signed the U.N. 1951 Conventions Relating to the Status of Refugees and in 1982, it inked the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and enacted the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. Signatories are obliged to give refugees due recognition and protect their basic...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2007

Horie didn't like his job, he was just good at it

to try to increase its value, just like any shareholder would," he said between frequent glances at his cell phone. Livedoor shares were trading at around 700 yen shortly after a stock split and before the firm was raided in January 2006 for alleged accounting fraud. By the time Livedoor was delisted...
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2007

Japan's ambivalent English

The recent story about problems at an English school in Tokyo reveals perhaps more about Japanese attitudes to studying a foreign language than about the business practices of language schools. In Japan, signing up with enthusiasm too often leads to giving up in frustration. For many, learning to chat...
BUSINESS
Mar 13, 2007

Current account surplus up near 50%

Japan's current account surplus in January expanded a preliminary 49.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.19 trillion yen as the income surplus expanded and the deficit in goods and services trade narrowed, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Mar 8, 2007

The Germans come to play

In most all of the world's larger cities, traditionally the grandest buildings have been religious in orientation. As places of congregation, they were necessarily characterized by large open spaces. As conduits to the spiritual, their design included surging spires, pagodas or minarets. The current...
BASKETBALL
Mar 7, 2007

Hoop dreams: Nakayama aims to inspire compatriots

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on Asumi Nakayama and the Utah Valley State women's basketball team, which wrapped up its 2006-07 season on Saturday. Part II tomorrow explores the relationship assistant coach Chris Boettcher, who has lived and coached in Japan, has developed with...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2007

Negroponte cool to U.S. call for sex slave apology

Issues pertaining to Japan's wartime sexual slavery should be dealt between Tokyo and the affected parties, not a third country, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2007

Kansai Time Out: 30 years without a breather

KOBE -- On the cover of the December 1979 issue of Kansai Time Out magazine, an Osaka-based foreign aikido instructor, sporting an Afro, is seen executing a throw that puts his Japanese opponent on the floor.
JAPAN / WHEN A CITY GOES BUST
Mar 2, 2007

Once Tokyo's spa playground, Atami fading fast

ATAMI, Shizuoka Pref. -- Tamae "Meme" Ono remembers fondly the late 1980s when the hot spring resort of Atami was a glamorous place to be.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2007

McCoy Tyner looks back on Coltrane and a lifetime in jazz

McCoy Tyner ranks as one of the most important piano stylists in post-war jazz. His recordings with the John Coltrane Quartet, such as 1964's "A Love Supreme," remain high points of musical improvisation and spirituality. The mid-'60s music created by Coltrane, Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer...
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2007

Media must strive for accuracy

The blow-back continues from an incident involving the broadcast of falsified information on a variety show aired by Kansai Telecasting Corp. (known popularly as Kansai TV). The communications ministry plans to include a measure targeting the broadcast media in a bill to revise the Radio Law. Under the...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji