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LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Dec 5, 2012

Share a secret, win Virgin tickets; SAS winter sale; Singapore and Virgin Australia code share

Secret ticket giveaway Virgin Atlantic Airways will give away a pair of round-trip economy-class tickets between Tokyo and London to the person who submits the "best secret spot in the U.K." as a contribution to the company's "Secret U.K. Guide."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 30, 2012

Where Tokyo's top chefs wine and dine

Chef Shinobu Namae rarely eats at the same restaurant twice. Like a lot of chefs, he spends most of his time in his own kitchen, overseeing lunch and dinner service at L'Effervescence, his Michelin-starred French restaurant in Tokyo's Aoyama. When he does venture out, he chooses his destinations carefully....
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2012

What role will 'walking NGO' Clinton choose next?

On a recent Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walked with her husband onto a stage at the New York Sheraton to cheers and whoops and a standing ovation that only got louder as she tried to quiet things down.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 25, 2012

The Fish Tree

Once upon a time there was a child who, being a child, simply didn't know what to make of himself. "Look," said his mother. "I brought the sun out for you. Go out and play."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2012

Scholar tries to ease Okinawa's U.S. pains

Three years ago, Robert Eldridge gave up his associate professorship at Osaka University to work on behalf of the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa. He said he thought he could make bigger contributions to U.S.-Japan relations in the prefecture than by teaching about the U.S.-Japan alliance to students at...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 23, 2012

Student jazz event shows importance of culture

Tokyo's Aoyama district will ratchet up its hip quotient this weekend when it hosts the Aoyama Jazz Initiative, a student-run celebration of jazz.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 28, 2012

Seeking out what's in store for Kuramae

Back when Tokyo was Edo and Tokugawa shoguns ruled the land (1603-1867), the burgeoning city's most vital staple, rice, was protected in kura (storage houses) along the right bank of the Sumida River. Then, by the simple expedient of adding mae (in front of) to "kura," the area facing the white-washed,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 20, 2012

American artist takes personal approach to traditional painting

Finding places in Tokyo can be complicated. All too often a simple address is not enough. That's why many people here look like treasure hunters roaming the streets armed with a map or its modern equivalent, the smartphone.
Reader Mail
Oct 18, 2012

Syria needs negotiations for peace

I was astonished by the belligerent tone of the Oct. 8 opinion piece by Aryeh Neier, "Ground the killers in Syria with a no-fly zone." The author seems totally unaware that the rebels have killed thousands of citizens, too — usually for some kind of link with the Assad government. Syria is not the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Oct 16, 2012

Well-traveled Brit wins woman with 'cheeky smile'

Dave Greatbanks of England met his future wife, Mimari, in 2000 when he was teaching English at a language school in Niigata that she attended once a week after work.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 16, 2012

Tokyo: What's the most overrated place in Japan?

Sho Hara
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

KKE starts consultations for evacuation planning

One lesson learned from the tragic Great East Japan Earthquake disaster on March 11, 2011, is that hardware alone does not suffice to save the lives of so many people in affected areas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 11, 2012

Magical Mistakes goes all natural on new album, 'Everything Uncertain'

Shiga Prefecture-based musician Erik Luebs, who works under the moniker Magical Mistakes, wanted to record the majority of sounds on his new album, "Everything Uncertain," by himself. Save for a few vocal snippets and 808 bass drums, his newest full-length leans heavily on natural sounds from the world...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 6, 2012

Video journalist's work takes him to centers of the world's conflicts

Takeharu Watai has spent all of his two-decade career in video journalism as an independent. But he is conscious that public distrust of the mass media, particularly over its coverage of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the nation's nuclear energy policy, has grown so strong that, by default, it extends...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 29, 2012

Canadian musician pens piece for 'Tsunami violin' performances

Four months ago, Miguel Sosa, a composer, concert pianist, conductor and teacher was asked by Taizo Oba, organizer of the Bond Made of 1,000 Tones project, to write an original composition for one of the two "tsunami-debris" violins.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 16, 2012

Living the botanical high life

Japan, though it has a very different image, is on the same latitude as southern Europe and North Africa, while my nearest city, Sapporo, is oddly enough on the same east-west parallel as France's boisterously cosmopolitan second city of Marseille on the Mediterranean.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 13, 2012

The woman who could bring Beppu back to life

In Japan's performing arts scene, it's widely believed that 32-year-old Akane Nakamura is one of the country's most famous globally known theater producers. As executive director of the theater production company Precog and the performing arts nonprofit Drifters International — which she founded in...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 9, 2012

Roadside view of a tasty, tasty world

THE WORLD'S BEST STREET FOOD: Where to Find It & How to Make it, Lonely Planet, 2012, 224 pp., $19.99 (paperback)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 30, 2012

'Our Planet' director focuses on Japan's locals

Just three years ago, in 2009, Yukio Shiba burst to stardom at age 27 with his masterful first play, "Waga Hoshi" ("Our Planet"), which premiered in Tokyo and the following year scooped Japanese contemporary theater's prestigious Kishida Kunio Award.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2012

New foreigner IDs now bear minister's signature

Immigration offices nationwide Sunday began issuing "zairyu" residence cards to foreign residents with the electronic signature of the justice minister, a Justice Ministry spokeswoman said Friday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 27, 2012

Shaved ice: the traditional antidote to summer swelter

COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2012

Place names defy tradition, distressing the Russian spirit

In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a countrywide campaign of toponymic change brought back many historic names — first of all in Moscow and in Leningrad (which in due course was returned to its proper name St. Petersburg). Soon after, however, these spontaneous activities abruptly...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2012

Property mogul Mori bets $202 million on China

Billionaire Akira Mori, the owner of Japan's most profitable closely held developer, said he has formed a company to invest in China and advise Japanese companies on expanding there.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2012

Two Peace Prize laureates fail to communicate

"The lead interrogator at the Division Interrogation Facility had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 1, 2012

Feline fine in Iriomote's unspoilt wilderness

For the jaded traveler, arrival in one place in Japan can often seem suspiciously like arrival in any other. After quitting a station building, you can find yourself viewing thoroughfares lined with familiar-looking stores, with it all appearing instantly similar to other places beheld elsewhere the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 21, 2012

"Shu Kubo: Paper Cutout Exhibition"

Paper-cutting artist Shu Kubo uses handmade washi (traditional Japanese paper) and combines it with various materials, including ordinary paper, fabric and even sand. His works are dynamic and realistic and his multi-media approach offers a wide range of colors and textures.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2012

The fax of life: Japan refuses to part with aging device

In Japan's businesses and bureaucracies, in home offices and hulking companies, the fax machine is thriving.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2012

Japan's great outdoors becomes Oregonian's office-cum-playground

Gliding through powder across Mount Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture or scanning the surfers at Shonan Beach in Kanagawa Prefecture, Gardner Robinson's life and work merge so completely that on the clock and on the slopes are one and the same.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear