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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 28, 2004

Japanese poetry loses a gentleman-scholar

NEW YORK -- Princeton professor Earl Miner, who died in April at age 77, was the one gentleman-scholar I had the honor of knowing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 23, 2004

Secrets lodged underneath the skin

The Human Stain Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Japanese title: Shiroi Karasu Director: Robert Benton Running time: 108 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] When David Howard, a white aide to the black mayor of Washington, D.C., spoke of a "niggardly"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 28, 2004

Ancient port of quiet delights

By the time footsore travelers on the old Tokaido Highway made it to Otsu, the town must have been no unwelcome sight. Many of them would just have trudged some 500 km from Edo (present-day Tokyo), and Otsu was the last of the 53 official way-stations strung out along the great thoroughfare. Just 10...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
May 27, 2004

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time," "Fergus Crane"

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time," Mark Haddon, Random House; 2003; 272 pp. You know from the first paragraph that this is no ordinary book.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 16, 2004

Spring, summer, fall and winter haiku

HAIKU: A POET'S GUIDE by Lee Gurga, Illinois: Modern Haiku Press, 2003, 170 pp., $20 (paper). HAIKU: The Poetic Key to Japan, selected & introduced by Mutsuo Takahashi, photographs by Hakudo Inoue, design by Kazuya Takaoka, translated by Emiko Miyashita & Lee Gurga. Tokyo: P.I.E., 2003, 400 pp....
Features
May 16, 2004

A guide by any other name

We don't know when she was born, or when she died -- was it April 9, 1812, at age 25, or perhaps Dec. 20, 1884, aged nearly 100? We don't even know her real name, but the Shoshone woman who accompanied Lewis, Clark and the Corps of Discovery has a fair claim to being the most celebrated woman of color...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 9, 2004

Translating a Heian court lady into an Edwardian

ORIENTING ARTHUR WALEY: Japonism, Orientalism, and the Creation of Japanese Literature in English, by John Walter de Gruchy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003, 210 pp., $34.00 (cloth). Arthur Waley's translations from Chinese and Japanese "should be read as contributions to English literature."...
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2004

Remembering Saint-Exupery

Which is better: a mystery or a clue? Absence or a relic? Proponents of both sides had plenty to say this month after French researchers discovered part of the answer to a puzzle that's endured nearly 60 years: Whatever happened to Antoine de Saint-Exupery?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004

Welcome to the phonyverse

When interviewing the codirectors of "Party Monster" -- Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, along with James St. James, author of the book on which the movie's based -- the hardest thing was to get them to hype their own film. After fielding questions on kosu-purei ("costume play") and bars in Shinjuku's...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 21, 2004

Tara French

Irish people appreciate the value of laughter and gaiety. They know that music, songs and dance can benefit serious causes, carrying them along further than they might otherwise go. The Ireland Fund of Japan is a serious venture that aims to promote cultural and communication links with Japan. It supports...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 7, 2004

Kazuko Asakura

"Bar pianists are like public bathhouses, or shoeshine boys in the street. There are no jobs any more. Situations have changed, and it is shocking how much has disappeared," said Kazuko Asakura.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 18, 2004

Cop on the steppes, cults in the subways

THE MONGOLIA CONNECTION, by Scott Christiansen. Hong Kong: Asia 2000 Ltd., 2003, 406 pp., $18 (paper). THE SONG OF SARIN, by Stew Magnuson. Xlibris Corp., 2003, 430 pp., $24.99 (paper). One of the tried-and-true techniques used in police procedural mysteries -- but even more often in so-called "buddy...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jan 8, 2004

"The Legend of Spud Murphy," "Lily Quench and the Dragon of Ashby"

"The Legend of Spud Murphy," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; March 2004; 90 pp. If you have no clue why your older siblings rave about author Eoin Colfer, you're probably too young to have read about the wild escapades of Colfer's hero, Artemis Fowl. But his latest book, "The Legend of Spud Murphy," is your...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2003

Mysteries along the Mekong

BANGKOK 8, by John Burdett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, 318 pp., $24.00 (cloth). WAITING FOR THE LADY, by Christopher G. Moore. Bangkok: Heaven Lake Press, 2003, 342 pp., $24.95 (cloth). Can a Western author convincingly put himself inside the mind of a Thai cop? Writing in the first person in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Dec 4, 2003

"Lionboy," "The English Roses"

"Lionboy," Zizou Corder, Puffin Books; 2003; 352 pp. How old do you have to be to write your first book? Thirty years old? Twenty? How about 10? If you're Isabel Adomakoh Young, 10 is as good an age as any.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 30, 2003

A couch potato's guide from the experts' side

THE DORAMA ENCYCLOPEDIA: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953, by Jonathan Clements and Motoko Tamamuro. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2003, 442 pp., 100+ photos and illustrations, $24.95, (paper). THE COUCH POTATO'S GUIDE TO JAPAN: Inside the World of Japanese TV, by Wilhelmina Penn. Sapporo: Forest...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 30, 2003

Power and glory of temple ruins

ANGKOR: Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire, text by Ian Mabbett, Eleanor Mannikka, Jon Ortner, John Sanday and James Goodman; photos by Jon Ortner. New York: Abbeville Press, 2003, 289 pages, $95 (cloth).
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 24, 2003

Navigating the deep Internet

MOSCOW -- There could hardly be a tougher opponent for a struggling college professor than the Internet. You ask your students to write an essay about Moscow, and you end up with the papers based on sources like www.moscow-taxi.ripoff.com and www.moscow-hotels.dump.ru. When, fuming with rage, you inform...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 9, 2003

Tradition stays afloat with the tub boats of Sado Island

THE TUB BOATS OF SADO ISLAND: A Japanese Craftsman's Methods, by Douglas Brooks, with a historical essay by Toshio Sato. Sado: Kodo Cultural Foundation, 2003, 176 pp., 2,500 yen (paper). As the tides of time erode history, the centuries-deep culture of traditional Japan slowly seeps away. Without anyone...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Nov 6, 2003

"The Goose Girl," "The Tiger Bone Thief"

"The Goose Girl," Shannon Hale, Bloomsbury; 2003; 383 pp. Once upon a time, two German brothers published a collection of children's stories inspired by popular European folk tales. The stories of the Brothers Grimm became fairytale classics, and many of them -- Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

The gangsters that just keep coming back

THE YAKUZA MOVIE BOOK: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films, by Mark Schilling. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2003, 336 pp., $19.95 (paper). When Mark Schilling was interviewing veteran filmmaker Seijun Suzuki for this book, the director suddenly asked the author: "Why are you interested in yakuza movies?"...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2003

A ruse so clever it destroyed its creator

HONOLULU -- U.S. Sen. John Rockefeller came out of a hearing in Washington on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, to ask an intriguing, if rhetorical, question: "Did we misread it, or did they mislead us?"
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 7, 2003

Searching individuality

JAPANESE WRITERS AND THE WEST, by Sumie Okada. Hampshire: Palmgrave Macmillan, 2003, 216 pp., £45, (cloth). Though not nearly as inclusive as the title suggests, Professor Sumie Okada's small but earnest book does contain an amount of interpretation not elsewhere found.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 17, 2003

Monastic comparisons and the rightness of left

MONASTIC DISCIPLINE: Vinaya and Orthodox Monasticism, an Attempt at Comparison, by George Sioris. Chiang Mai: The Knowledge Center, 375 pp., 495 baht (paper). LEFT VERSUS RIGHT, by George Sioris. Chiang Mai: The Knowledge Center, 150 pp., 195 baht (paper). George Sioris, a Greek scholar on Asia and a...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Aug 3, 2003

Activist draws on his talents to expose U.S. militarism

American sociologist and antiwar activist Joel Andreas, 46, is the author of "Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 20, 2003

Excesses of the exotic: Siam in the eyes of the West

SIAM & THE WEST: 1500-1700, by Dirk Van der Cruysse, translated from the French by Michael Smithies. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2002, 564 pp., $32.50 (paper). Relations between Siam (now Thailand) and the rapacious West were distinguished by Siam's never having been colonized. The European powers --...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 22, 2003

Mapping out Japan

MAPPING EARLY MODERN JAPAN: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868), by Marcia Yonemoto. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, 234 pp., 86 illustrations, $49.95, (cloth). It was at the beginning of the 17th century that Japanese scholars first began to articulate the notion...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
May 29, 2003

"Power and Stone," "Rome"

"Power and Stone," Alice Leader, Puffin Books; May 2003; 249 pp. There's so much more to history than memorizing dates.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 28, 2003

Enjoy your complicite in a world of dizzying multiplicity

It was a difficult delivery. The fruit of the union between actor/director Simon McBurney, founder of London-based Complicite (formerly Thea^tre de Complicite), and a Japanese cast in Tokyo had been long-awaited, but even so it kept everyone guessing past the expected arrival time.

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