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CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2009

'Caramel'

Stereotypes about the Middle East are everywhere in the West these days, so it's always a joy when someone decides to give us a fresh perspective. Think of Mideastern women, and the first image we're inclined to think of is a chador or burqa, the female forced to cover her hair, her limbs, perhaps even...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2009

'Caramel'

Stereotypes about the Middle East are everywhere in the West these days, so it's always a joy when someone decides to give us a fresh perspective. Think of Mideastern women, and the first image we're inclined to think of is a chador or burqa, the female forced to cover her hair, her limbs, perhaps even...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2009

A whale of a shortsighted subsidy program

BEPPU, Oita Pref. — After stepping off the train and onto the platform at Ogata station, in the Tosa area of Kochi Prefecture, Shikoku, travelers are greeted by a sign with two whales: "Welcome to Ogata, where the whales also greet you."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Jan 30, 2009

An intoxicating temple in Kyoto

Evil cometh from the north, they say. Maybe it was sunlight streaming from the south that gave ancient theologians such a notion. Or perhaps the Arctic is gushing malevolence (compare and contrast: Australians and Scandinavians). Regardless, it was a fear of southbound evil that prompted the construction...
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Jan 30, 2009

An intoxicating temple in Kyoto

Emperor Go Mizuno reportedly loved fucha ryori, and likely partook of it at Kanga-an Temple in Kyoto as he gazed at the enchanting green and gravel garden.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 25, 2009

A herring fishery shows that the big picture can be elusive

Nearly all the herring roe now used to make the Japanese new-year delicacy kazunoko comes from North America's west coast. The ocean-living herring go there in huge numbers to spawn in March, and are met by ranks of predators, including cormorants, terns and gulls, bald eagles, ospreys, dogfish sharks,...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 23, 2009

Toilets take center stage at exhibition

As if the scandals of the last few years were not enough, Japan's sumo fraternity must now suffer the indignity of having its toilets exhibited in public.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 23, 2009

Snow and sculpting on show in Sapporo

Perhaps it's a sign of how peaceful the last 54 years have been for Japan. Since 1955, many of the giant snow sculptures that have made the Sapporo Snow Festival famous around the world have been constructed by members of the Ground Self-Defense Force, which have several bases in Hokkaido. For this year's...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 23, 2009

Snow and sculpting on show in Sapporo

Perhaps it's a sign of how peaceful the last 54 years have been for Japan. Since 1955, many of the giant snow sculptures that have made the Sapporo Snow Festival famous around the world have been constructed by members of the Ground Self-Defense Force, which have several bases in Hokkaido. For this year's...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 22, 2009

Dekopon

Dear Alice,My husband attended a business dinner late last year at a very fancy traditional Japanese restaurant. At the end of the evening, as he was heading out the door, the kimono-clad proprietress presented him with a gift of a single piece of fruit. It was like a large orange but with a weird pear...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 19, 2009

Aso getting the brushoff

As the approval rate for the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso plummets, bureaucrats have begun to distance themselves from him in favor of establishing closer ties with the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which they apparently think has at least a fair chance of displacing Aso's ruling...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 16, 2009

The rocks of abstraction

In September last year, Anglo- Japanese painter Peter McDonald won the U.K.'s £25,000 John Moores prize for contemporary painting with a work, "Fontana," that depicted in simplistic shapes an artist thrusting a knife into a circular canvas. Or it could be someone attacking a giant eye. Or perhaps an...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 16, 2009

Looking back as Japan advanced

As a young student of realistic nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Kansetsu Hashimoto worked under the eminent teacher Seiho Takeuchi (1864-1942), a painter best known for his depictions of animals. But Hashimoto, distancing himself from the master and his subject material, later said that he "didn't...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 16, 2009

Get your skates on in the Kanto area

If you've been keeping your eye on the sports pages recently, you'll know that Mao Asada won her third straight National Figure Skating Championship last month and is currently preparing to defend her World Champion title in Los Angeles in March. Maybe you're feeling in the mood for a slide yourself....
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2009

School's out

Matilda isn't waltzing. She's sprinting toward me outside Shinsaibashi Station in Osaka with the speed of a Jamaican Olympian chewing cheetah gonads. A meter from me she screams "Simon!" and takes a flying leap, so I instinctively reach out and I'm holding this tiny 18-year-old in my arms like she's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2009

School's out

Matilda isn't waltzing. She's sprinting toward me outside Shinsaibashi Station in Osaka with the speed of a Jamaican Olympian chewing cheetah gonads. A meter from me she screams "Simon!" and takes a flying leap, so I instinctively reach out and I'm holding this tiny 18-year-old in my arms like she's...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jan 13, 2009

Women's Group kicks off with lucky tour

Members of the Tokyo American Club Women's Group participated in the Seven Lucky Gods Tour in Tokyo's old and picturesque district of Yanaka on Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 9, 2009

A mecca for miso out in Kameido

Crates of champagne were popped open, wine was mulled and sake was sipped. But now the feast days are over, we must rein in the appetite (and the spending, too). It's time to focus on simple, wholesome home cooking to see us through the coldest season: hearty stews and nabe hot pots, rib-sticking casseroles...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 9, 2009

In the space

Synesthesia is a condition in which stimulation of one sense triggers sensation in another. While very few people have it, most of us are able to understand it at the level of analogy. Musicians, for example, use "chromatic" scales (derived from the Greek word for color), while visual artists routinely...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 9, 2009

Sano Miso: A mecca for miso out in Kameido

Crates of champagne were popped open, wine was mulled and sake was sipped. But now the feast days are over, we must rein in the appetite (and the spending, too). It's time to focus on simple, wholesome home cooking to see us through the coldest season: hearty stews and nabe hot pots, rib-sticking casseroles...

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