Search - life

 
 
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 31, 2008

A time and a place for heroes

Marco Polo, the famous 13th-century Venetian explorer, wrote in his book "Il Milione (The Million)" that Japan was rich in gold, even though his travels only took him as far as China. It was the first time Japan was introduced to the Western world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 30, 2008

Digging deep to find the sparkle in Japanese Eyes

Japan's film industry releases more than 400 films a year, but only 10 screened in the Japanese Eyes section of this year's Tokyo International Film Festival, which ran from Oct. 18 to 26.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2008

Obama, McCain all but ignore poverty issue

PRINCETON — Barack Obama worked for three years as a community organizer on Chicago's blighted South Side, so he knows all about the real poverty that exists in America. He knows that in one of the world's richest nations, 37 million people live in poverty, a far higher proportion than in Europe's...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2008

Dolphin activist keeps up fight against slaughter

OSAKA — Renowned American dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry has dedicated his life to freeing captured dolphins worldwide. In a new documentary, he hopes to educate both Japanese and international audiences about the slaughter of the mammals in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, and the hazards of eating dolphin...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 29, 2008

Bandai robot keeps eye on your home

I, robot: Bandai's robot designers must be fans of the iconic sci-fi movie "Forbidden Planet." While Sony has forsaken its line of Aibo robot dogs, it solidified the spirit that Japanese robots should have a high cuteness factor.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Oct 28, 2008

Paul and Neeta Daswani

Paul (61) and Neeta (60) Daswani are the owners of Sati's, a legendary clothing store in Okinawa City in the center of Okinawa Island. Since 1978, Sati's has been a one-stop shopping haven for hot tailor-made suits with cool matching accessories. Here beach bums turn into jazz cats thanks to the Daswanis'...
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2008

Mobile phones take over

Japan has become a nation of mobile-phone talkers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication reported this month. More people now talk on mobile phones in Japan than on fixed-line phones; total talk time on mobile phones reached an astonishing 1.9 billion hours in 2007. That's a lot of metal...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 26, 2008

Motel of Lost Companions

It was a foolish argument . . . the worst kind of argument too, over food. And not even food exactly, but over salad dressing.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 26, 2008

TV tributes to an artificial heart innovator, Picasso and Sadaharu Oh

The subject of this week's edition of "Professional: Shigoto no Ryugi" ("The Professionals") (NHK-G, Tuesday, 10 p.m.) is 56-year-old Chisato Nojiri, the leader of a special-project team that recently developed a new type of artificial heart.
Japan Times
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 25, 2008

Move to Milan may be end of Beckham's stay in L.A.

LONDON — From the worst team in Major League Soccer to a side crammed with superstars, World Cup and Champions League winners — who writes David Beckham's scripts?
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2008

Woman jailed for 'killing' virtual hubby on his log-on

A 43-year-old player in a virtual game world became so angry about her sudden divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona, police said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2008

Craftsmanship and nationalism

'Utility" is conventionally held up as what separates crafts from art. But what practical purpose is served by the stained-glass panel by Christopher Whall, "Saint Agnes" (1901-10) in "Life and Art: Arts and Crafts from Morris to Mingei" at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto? In truth, the Arts...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 21, 2008

Access all areas: camping trip offers no-holds-barred insight into disability

It is the early hours of the morning and I'm sat out in the open air. My eyes are closed and my hand is clutched tightly around a car of lukewarm beer. Frankly, I'm feeling a little disorientated.
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2008

Now for the consequences

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been enjoying a much-needed boost to his status and popularity as he watches country after country adopt the same pattern as Britain in propping up their struggling banking sectors.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2008

Moving from Christian to Muslim democracy

BUDAPEST — This past summer, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) narrowly escaped being banned by the country's constitutional court. State prosecutors alleged that the party was trying to "Islamicize" the country and ultimately introduce theocracy. After the decision, not only did...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2008

'Makiguri no Ana'

Japanese horror once struck a lot of fans in the West as fresh because it was less about fantastical creatures — say, flesh-eating zombies — than everyday dread. Instead of popping up out of nowhere, fear crept up like sinister fog from apparently mundane places and things — a moldy apartment,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 16, 2008

A selection of cultural others

We are our own most keenest observers, whether it be in the bathroom mirror or in the department store window. But while the face is humankind's most distinctive feature, we are also remarkably poor at getting ourselves in perspective. When asked what size their face appears on the mirror surface, the...
Reader Mail
Oct 12, 2008

Abortion makes rape sadder

Greg Hutchinson argues in his Oct. 5 letter, "Out of Gloria Steinem's league" (which was a response to my Sept. 25 letter, "Right to life has priority"), that rape should be the exception for allowing an abortion (besides the health of the mother). I question whether it makes sense to take that innocent...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 12, 2008

TV "champions" return, and Kamiji the clown takes on a drama

Yusuke Kamiji, the chief representative of the currently hot baka tarento (dumb TV personality) trend, lands his first starring role in a comedy series as one of the title characters of "Serebu to Binbo Taro" (The Celebrity and Poor Taro; Fuji, Tues., 9 p.m.).
Japan Times
Features
Oct 12, 2008

1,000 years of 'Genji'

"Genji Monogatari," known as "The Tale of Genji" in English, is believed by many scholars to be the first full-length novel in world literature. Marking the 1,000th anniversary since its creation, today's Timeout introduces this masterpiece that draws readers into a beautiful world gone by full of passion,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 8, 2008

Tuna's just too cheap

A prime slice of fatty, creamy otoro — belly-meat of Bluefin tuna — isn't cheap. These days in Tokyo, you can expect to pay at least ¥10,000 ($100) for a goodly portion of the stuff.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2008

'American Teen'

With a simplistic name that disguises the depth of its topic, "American Teen" is a fantastically straightforward documentary that follows one year in the lives of a bunch of high-school seniors in Warsaw, Indiana. Director Nanette Burstein ("The Kid Stays In The Picture") spent 10 months shooting during...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 2, 2008

Explosive new anime packed with surprises

'I was looking to do something different, but at the same time if it was too unique, it could fail," says Masayuki Miyaji, director of PlayStation Network's new anime series "Xam'd: Lost Memories." "But then if it fails, that might even be more fun."
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 29, 2008

'Good old days' dispensed with body counts

NEW YORK — Driving back from Sunset Beach, North Carolina, where we spend two weeks every summer, we hugged the coastline. After crossing the 40-kilometer Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, we stopped for the first time at the Visitors Center for the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 28, 2008

Ups and downs on Japan's property ladder

Foreigners and the Japanese property market — the two sound like unlikely bedfellows, but in recent years their "liaisons" have been the focus of much media attention — and not all of it positive.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 28, 2008

A step-by-step guide to owning a home in Japan

So you are ready to be king of your own castle in Japan. Adios to the days when you, a mere rent-paying tenant of a grotty apartment, worried about landlords taking you to the cleaners for spilling tea on the carpet or making minuscule holes in the walls to pin up framed pics.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 24, 2008

Micro Four Thirds standard breaks mirror

Capture the moment: In the world of photography, the unveiling of the Micro Four Thirds lens-mount system last month was a truly historic event. This new standard for next-generation digital SLR cameras, though easily overlooked by the average consumer, is being hailed as the most significant camera-market...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo