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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 25, 2014

A new and unexpected twist to life in Japan: tornadoes

Japan, which so loves its seasons, now has another time of year to highlight: tornado season.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 20, 2014

Foreign domestics seen as aiding working mothers

Noriko Hitotsumatsu, a bilingual research pharmacologist with a master's from Cambridge University, considers herself lucky to have a part-time job in a Tokyo pharmacy after shelving her career to raise two daughters in one of the world's most work-oriented countries.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 10, 2014

Osamu Hayashi teaches memory aids; painter Balthus's love life explored; CM of the week: Aflac

Osamu Hayashi is the most famous juku (cram school) teacher in Japan thanks to his frequent TV appearances and trademark phrase "Ima desho" ("Why not now?"). His main claim to fame as a teacher, however, is his ability to retain huge amounts of information.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 8, 2014

Roses to inspire life in the pink

Don't panic if you almost forgot that it's Mother's Day on Sunday. The International Roses and Gardening Show could be just the ticket to stay in Mom's good graces. Why not give her a gift of flowers and then take her to an event showcasing nearly a million different roses, arranged by breeders and flower...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 1, 2014

A-bomb survivors tell stories

Documentary filmmaker Shizu Azuma wants to send a message through her latest film, "Utsukushii Hito": Just as we should never forget those who lost their lives in the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we should not forget those who survived, either.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 25, 2014

Life less fun in the sun for north Europe migrants, study finds

Sun seekers who depart north Europe for warmer climes are marginally less happy than those left behind, a study has found.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2014

Skin divers turn to tourism to stem the tide

At the Sea People restaurant in Shima, a coastal hamlet in Mie Prefecture, sea diver Machiyo Yamashita wants a piece of a tourism industry dominated by the cities that sapped her town's vitality by luring away its youth.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Apr 17, 2014

Tranquil garden wedding; enjoying the good life in Ginza; exclusive dining at The Shangri-La

Tranquil garden wedding
Reader Mail
Apr 9, 2014

Kidnapping parent deserves life

In Tomohiro Osaki's April 5 article, "Child abduction agreement too late for many parents," Miho Watanabe, divorced from an allegedly abusive American husband, is portrayed as the kind of Japanese woman whom the government has always protected in these international child custody situations: A victim...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Apr 5, 2014

Noh goddess illuminates life and art

'Seiobo There Below,' a not-quite novel by Hungary's star postmodern author Lu00e1szlu00f3 Krasznahorkai, is a delight, a puzzle, a frustration and a joy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2014

'Sanbun no Ichi (One Third)'

Caper movies have their conventions, one being that the crook anti-heroes may get to run their fingers through their loot, but they hardly ever get to keep it. The prototype is Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956), in which elaborate planning and clockwork execution pay off in a blackly comic reversal...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 30, 2014

The sounds of everyday Japanese life

Living in Japan can be quite a noisy experience. Even in my quiet little neighborhood, rarely a day passes without a great variety of sounds being heard. Four days a week the garbage truck fills the air with its most peculiar orugōru (オルゴール, music box) sound. At least once a week, a second-hand...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 29, 2014

'Anne of Green Gables' translator's life dramatized; celeb sports feats; CM of the Week: Hotto Motto

L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" is the most popular young-adult novel in Japan, at least among girls. The original was published in Canada in 1908, and was translated into Japanese by Hanako Muraoka. NHK's new morning drama, "Hanako and Anne" (NHK-G, M-F, 8 a.m.; NHK Premium, M-F, 7:30 a.m.)...
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
Mar 17, 2014

Techie ways to document life and have a little fun

Japanese video-equipment manufacturer Elmo has released QBiC MS-1, a tiny super-wide-angle video camera that can be easily connected to your smartphone over Wi-Fi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2014

'The Motel Life'

Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff play brothers Frank and Jerry Lee, who live on the margins in low-rent, dead-end Nevada carrying the weight of childhood trauma well into dysfunctional middle age. So far, so typically U.S.-indie. Their mother died when they were still kids, then Jerry Lee lost a leg in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 11, 2014

NYC fans of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu share 'zest for life'

Two hours before the doors even opened, the line outside New York's Best Buy Theater snaked around several streets in the middle of Times Square. Fans lined up early for pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's second-ever New York concert, the finale to her recent North American tour.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2014

Life indoors exacts toll on Koriyama children

Some of the smallest children in Koriyama, a short drive from the ruined Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, barely know what it's like to play outside — fear of radiation has kept them indoors for much of their short lives.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2014

The nadir of composer Mamoru Samuragochi's life? 'Now'

[View the story "The nadir of Mamoru Samuragochi's life? "Now."" on Storify]
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 1, 2014

Mechademia 8. Tezuka Osamu: Manga Life

"Mechademia" is an annual journal that gathers academic writing on manga, anime and games as well as on a broad range of activities related to popular culture in Japan, such as cosplay. In the eighth and most recent volume, however, the essays zero in on the so-called godfather of manga, Osamu Tezuka....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Feb 19, 2014

Nasty, brutish and short?: The brief life and times of 'Happy Bob'

March 1984: Ronald Reagan was U.S. president, Yasuhiro Nakasone Japan's prime minister. Afghan rebels were struggling to rid their country of foreign invaders (deja vu!). Break-dancing was a global craze. Tokyo Disneyland was so new it hadn't even been visited by Michael Jackson yet. Pay telephones were...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 6, 2014

Happy 30th to a California apple that changed life to the core

Almost exactly 30 years ago (on Jan. 24, 1984), a quirky little computer company launched a new product and in the process changed lives and maybe the world. The company was called Apple and the product was named after a type of Californian apple — the Macintosh.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2014

'Kagi Dorobo no Method (Key of Life)'

Director: Kenji Uchida
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 1, 2014

The most viewed life stories of 2013

From burgers to ballerinas, LINE sending to gender bending, kawaii cute to Nadeshiko adorable, here are the life section stories that caught online readers' eyes in 2013. As a gyaru might say, “Yababa!”
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2013

Dear Dennis Rodman: consider a few facts of life

An escaped political prisoner from North Korea asks retired American basketball player Dennis Rodman to use his friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to help Kim understand that he has the power to rebuild the country's economy so that everyone can afford to eat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2013

Josef Koudelka: the theatrics of life

Wild white hair and beard, but dressed in a drab, olive shirt and combat jacket, Josef Koudelka is like a guerrilla Father Christmas. Wearing scuffed shoes, and with a roughly unceremonious joviality, the Czech photographer appears uncomfortable being stalked around his exhibition by dozens of press...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 23, 2013

Drama celebrates real-life hospital saving abandoned babies; an Olympic thriller; CM of the week: au

It's been six years since a hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture installed its "baby hatch," a compartment where women could anonymously abandon babies with no questions asked. So far 92 infants have been placed in the compartment, which continues to be controversial.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 16, 2013

Writer-farmer seeks hope in country life's future

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration have recently been mulling major changes to the country's farm policy. The move comes against the backdrop of high production costs and average farm size not having grown much since 1965.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami