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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 22, 2016

Tokyo serves up some frozen delights

Ice cream and gelato has been the go-to for cooling refreshments for centuries, evolving from the Romans eating fruit-juice flavored snow to the vanilla, chocolate chip and other popular dairy-rich products we see today. But who says we have to stick to the regular flavors? This summer, several limited-edition...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 22, 2016

'Lockheed Incident Document 40th Year Shocking Scoop'; 'Yassan'; Xflag

Thanks mainly to a first-person "biography" written by former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, there is renewed interest in disgraced former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. NHK is presenting a series of special programs, some of which are dramatizations, about the scandal that brought Tanaka down: the Lockheed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 20, 2016

'Ken and Kazu': The yakuza isn't all guns and glamour

Most films about the yakuza depict its members as fully formed and distinctly different from the general run of humanity, somewhat like action figures just out of the box. The reality, as Hiroshi Shoji's "Ken and Kazu" shows us with a gritty directness and power, is more quotidian. For Shoji's title...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / NEW IN TOWN
Jul 15, 2016

Call: Mina Perhonen's new store has it all

Mina Perhonen’s new Call store is a one-stop shop in Omotesando for anyone who loves Nordic-inspired fashion and interiors. Filled with simple, soft-hued ceramics, rolls of irregular geometrically patterned textiles, racks of floaty cotton garments and displays of elegant hand-crafted goods, Call takes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 14, 2016

Teppei Koike and Haruma Miura strut proudly onto the stage in 'Kinky Boots'

For fans of musicals in Japan, the buzz surrounding Teppei Koike and Haruma Miura is reaching a peak thanks to the pair's newest production: the first-ever Japanese version of the award-winning hit "Kinky Boots."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 2, 2016

Emotions run high over Tsukiji fish market's move

In 1590, more than 2½ and a half centuries before Edo was to become Tokyo, the city's first central fish market, named Uogashi, was established on the bank of Nihonbashi River.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 25, 2016

Route 58: a drive through Okinawa's peculiar past

The telegraph poles that once lined Okinawa's Route 58 have long gone, but the great coastal avenue still reminds me a little of the Dire Straits song "Telegraph Road." Like the lyrics of Mark Knopfler's extended anthem, Route 58 is a journey through time, a digest of history.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 21, 2016

Hong Kong leader presses Beijing on case of missing booksellers

Hong Kong's leader said on Tuesday he had asked China whether its handling of the booksellers case violated the "one country, two systems" formula under which the city returned to Chinese rule, the strongest response yet from the former British colony.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 20, 2016

Business ticks on for artisan clockmakers as wind-up timepieces find renewed favor

The number of people looking to repair old wind-up clocks is on the rise nationwide.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OBJECT-ORIENTED
Jun 3, 2016

Sori Yanagi's magnificently 'normal' bowl and strainer

Hidden away in an unlikely courtyard in Tokyo's Yotsuya neighborhood is what may well be the world's first design shop stocked only with products by a single product designer. The Yanagi shop was opened in 1972 by Sori Yanagi, the son of Mingeikan (The Japan Folk Crafts Museum) founder Soetsu Yanagi,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 28, 2016

Thomas Bertrand: 'My passion for food makes me very curious'

French entrepreneur on bento boxes on trains and putting a bit of salt and lemon on rice.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 25, 2016

'Himeanole': The hairline between good and evil

The moral universe of most commercial films is simple: The good guys prevail, the bad guys are punished — and we are seldom in doubt as to who is who. But what if the bad guys deserve sympathy, even the ones who commit horrific crimes? Is that, in a movie world that prefers black and white to gray,...
Japan Times
LIFE / G7 Ise-Shima Summit Special
May 25, 2016

Today's treatment methods easier, less painful

As anyone versed in acupuncture knows, the most effective tools are human hands. Throughout the 1,500 years history of the practice in Japan, the therapist's hands have served as a sentient bridge connecting patient to therapist. Since the post-war era, major advances in treatment techniques have evolved....
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 18, 2016

North Korea's new ad men try out pitches to a growing consumer class

"Pyongyang Spirit: A drink you won't forget after drinking once," reads the text of an ad for a clear, vodka-like North Korean alcohol.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
May 15, 2016

Laid-back baker finds luck and love in Tokyo

Once shunned by his in-laws because of his race, father of four hopes to change minds in Japan, little by little.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
May 9, 2016

Getting on the receiving end of the wide world of 'ukeru'

Ryōshin-no eikyō-o ukete, musuko-mo rokku-ga suki-ni natchatta-mitai. (My son was influenced by his parents and has come to like rock, I guess.)
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
May 7, 2016

Reviving the old and promoting the new

A new hope for traditional menswear
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 23, 2016

Janice Wong: 'To really achieve success, you have to stay focused'

Singaporean chef on the role nostalgia plays in modern desserts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Apr 3, 2016

Retailer bets on generational links to save Japanese craft industry

Entrepreneur Rika Yajima, 27, worries about the decline in the Japanese traditional craft industry.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 22, 2016

Damascus love songs can't drown out the destruction of Syria

At the Damascus opera house, youths in jeans, old gentlemen in suits and ties and women in long-sleeved dresses and headscarves cheer and applaud the two performers of Arabic love songs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 19, 2016

From Cool Britannia to True Britannia

In Japan, Western culture usually means American products: hot dogs, hamburgers, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme donuts, and recent boutique outlets like Blue Bottle Coffee and the Dominique Ansel bakery — not to mention the nearly 50,000 United States military personnel still stationed across the archipelago....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Mar 17, 2016

Seasonal treats to welcome spring; celebrating a prestigious accolade; a global twist on cherry blossoms

Seasonal treats to welcome spring
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Mar 10, 2016

Enjoying luxurious afternoon tea; experiencing 'modern British' cuisine; welcoming spring cherry blossoms

Enjoying luxurious afternoon tea
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 1, 2016

The dyeing art of Japan's traditional everyday kimono

Weaver and dyer Fukumi Shimura's (b.1924) inherited an interest in craft from her mother, Toyo Ono, who made inroads through the early 20th-century mingei (folk crafts) movement led by philosopher Muneyoshi Yanagi. Introduced to the lacquer artistan Tatsuaki Kuroda in 1956, Shimura began to hone her...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Feb 27, 2016

Japan's cult brands get into character

When the topic turns to "Cool Japan" and the various related efforts to capitalize on Japan's indubitable cultural capital internationally, commendation — or more frequently the lack thereof — is easy to come by. The question of how Japan markets its own culture domestically, however, is a largely...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2016

Tokyo sightseeing boats offer unique views, but missing foreign tourist tide

A trip to Tokyo does not necessarily mean elbowing your way through crowds. You can get fine views of the capital from a boat on the bay.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 13, 2016

When life deals a bad hand, be a tough cookie and visit Kyoto

"Some men dream of fortunes, others dream of cookies," goes an old saying from a fortune cookie. As for my good friend Dale, who has had a a mean case of winter malaise since he broke up with his girlfriend, he is still dreaming of finding a wife. Thus, on a January morning we set out for Kyoto and Fushimi...

Longform

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