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BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 30, 2000

Lotte closer Warren can't get a game in

Perhaps the most frustrated player in Japan pro baseball at present is Chiba Lotte Marines relief ace Brian Warren. With the team off to such a bad start in the 2000 Pacific League pennant race, Warren can't get into many games. As the team's closer, he's been extremely underworked, because Lotte has...
COMMUNITY
Apr 30, 2000

'English Patience' thickens plots

I found Yukichi Arai eating fruit sherbet in the lobby of the Tokyo Station Hotel. It was hot, I agreed, whereupon he ordered another. After four days sitting in a booth at the Tokyo Book Fair at Tokyo Big Site, promoting his book (titled in "katakana" as "English Patience"), he felt the world deserving...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 30, 2000

Japanese chamber orchestras strive for musical excellence

The Berlin Philharmonic, one of the world's great orchestras, operates under an enlightened artistic philosophy. Its large roster and the redundancy of players in every section save one (tuba) allows for rotation among the players between pieces and performances. The free time in their schedules allows...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2000

Subverting reality with waste

Sporting longish brown curly hair and a skittish glance, American Tom Sachs bounded into Tokyo for his first Tokyo exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery, bringing with him a refreshing whiff of New York art culture.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2000

A literary love affair: Graham Greene's brief encounter with Shusaku Endo

LONDON -- For oddly different reasons the names of two not so long dead Catholic novelists from East and West are prominently, simultaneously, in the news. Because of two books dealing with his sexuality and the release of a quirky film based on "The End of the Affair," the ambivalent nature of Graham...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 30, 2000

Creating memories

Recently, in California, I was sitting next to an elderly woman on a bus. We exchanged a few words, and then I asked if she had always lived there. She said yes, but that she had traveled all over the world. She began counting the places and the list seemed endless. Among them was Japan. She paused when...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2000

A century of Japanese-style painting

"Glue painting?" Rather unattractive.
COMMENTARY
Apr 29, 2000

Ever misunderstanding China

The parade of retrospectives marking the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War tells us a lot about how that war was waged and lost. But missing, as ever, is the why of it all -- the psychology of the people who created the war.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 29, 2000

Life springs eternal in oshibana creations

Using one's own garden flowers to create oshibana (pressed-flower arrangements) and thereby eternally preserving the flowers' beauty is a joy many nature lovers would relish.
COMMUNITY
Apr 29, 2000

Children's library renovated in Ueno

On May 5, Children's Day, part of the first national library of children's literature will open in Ueno Park.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2000

Containing authoritarianism in Myanmar

The answer to Myanmar's problems is obvious: The sooner the will of the majority of its people is respected, the better for all concerned in the country, the region and beyond.
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2000

The fight over Elian

It is a very long way from Japan to Miami, both physically and psychologically. For that reason, the brouhaha over little Elian Gonzalez that engulfed the United States this week has been a bit mystifying to people here. And yet perhaps distance lends a useful perspective.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 28, 2000

A powerful show of grace fit for royalty

History was made in the world of ballet in Japan with the gala performance of the two Nederlands Dans Theater companies at Saitama Arts Theater April 23. For the first time ever, the young and veteran companies, NDT II and NDT III, performed together, in this case to commemorate the 400 years of bilateral...
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2000

The real 'evil' in China

One year ago, Falun Gong made an eerie debut on the international stage. On April 25, 10,000 of the group's followers surrounded the Beijing compound where China's leaders live and stood silently to protest a government campaign against them. That show of force -- in particular, the group's ability to...
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2000

Outdated male views hamper care

In early April in a Tokyo suburb, a group of in-home caregivers -- all women -- were absorbed in a conversation about their elderly clients.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Apr 27, 2000

Nigorizake puts the fun back in sake drinking

It is all too easy to get all too serious about sake all too often. Ginjo this and ginjo that, highly polished rice, double-secret yeast, fancy fragrance, full palate, clean finish, yada yada yada. Sake in the end should be fun, and nothing reminds us of this better than nigorizake.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2000

Even after 25 years, U.S. herbicide Agent Orange takes a heavy toll on Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY -- It's time for the afternoon meal at the "peace village" ward in Ho Chi Minh City's Tu Du Hospital, and staff members wheel carts of milk and porridge into the rooms where 58 children -- ranging from newborns to teenagers -- are staying.
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2000

Celebration to wash away tears

A water festival without any water may sound like a contradiction in terms, but in Tokyo that's exactly how the Myanmarese community celebrate the New Year.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 27, 2000

Ohmatsuya: Down on the farm, just off the Ginza

You could call Ohmatsuya rustic -- but only in the most Ginza sense of the word. It sits just one floor above the brand-name bustle of the street, inside a modern multistory building little different from any others occupying that premium patch of real estate. Step inside, however, and you could have...
COMMUNITY
Apr 26, 2000

Celebrating the other Korakuen: Okayama

If I were asked to describe this garden with just one word, I would definitely choose "fantastic."
CULTURE / Art
Apr 26, 2000

The home of Japanese porcelain

Arita is a fine spot for porcelain pots -- and cups, vases, buttons, wall sockets and even denture-holders. Need a cartwheel-sized ashtray (useful at Japanese banquets), or a 1.8-meter-high urn to brighten up a castle somewhere? You'll find them in all shapes, sizes and colors in this peaceful town,...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 26, 2000

Buddhist cave art and mummies on the Silk Road

An overnight stop in Urumqi (there's even a Holiday Inn) gives a chance to see the museum there at leisure. Especially the famous mummies, perfectly preserved by the dry desert air in the tombs of the region, and the variety of grave goods, textiles and designs in the tombs that testify to the mixing...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Apr 26, 2000

Stirring up the dust of a Classic era

This column marks the one-year anniversary of Kissa Kultur. What started as a way to help freelancers find interesting spots to enjoy a coffee between jobs has now become a fascinating historical dig through postwar Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2000

Combating cross-border crime

With international exchanges of people and goods expanding at an accelerated pace, cross-border organized crime is also rising rapidly. In a concerted effort to combat the globalization of crime, the United Nations in 1999 set up a special panel to work out a global anticrime treaty. Now that drafting...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 25, 2000

Marco Polo's fantastic truths

MARCO POLO AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD, by John Larner. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, 250 pp., with plates (14) and maps, unpriced. In 1271, a mere 17 years old, Marco Polo left Venice in company with his uncle and several other merchants. Twenty-four years later, in 1295, he returned,...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 25, 2000

Virtuosos from the fringes of Europe

Perhaps it's still too early to be talking about gigs of the year but the upcoming Altan Festival might prove hard to beat. There will be three outstanding acts. All come from the fringes of Europe, from peoples with a history of persecution, but all have an equally long and proud music tradition that...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2000

Return to Ishiguro's fog-bound world

WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS, by Kazuo Ishiguro. London: Faber & Faber, 313 pp., 16.99 British pounds. Ever since "A Pale View of Hills" (1982), Kazuo Ishiguro has been playing games with his readers' minds. Some people find this infuriating, some fascinating, as the mixed reception accorded his novels...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2000

Kim unscathed in parliamentary vote

SEOUL -- South Korea's 16th general election for the National Assembly held two weeks ago was hardly a mandate for President Kim Dae Jung's ruling Millennium Democratic Party. Although it forced Kim to reach out to the opposition Grand National Party, it has not impaired his ability and authority to...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2000

NPT facing uncertain future

NEW DELHI -- When the complete history of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty gets written, its 1995 permanent extension will prove the beginning of its end. Although all nations of the world except four are today party to it, the NPT is in trouble, its future uncertain. From Japan to New Zealand, and...
SOCCER / World cup
Apr 23, 2000

FIFA 'insults' Japan over use of language

Staff writer

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes