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COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2000

No tolls on the e-commerce highway

The electronic superhighway is becoming an ever more important forum for commerce, and states want a piece of the action. But just as American colonists resisted British attempts to tax paper and tea, American citizens should bar states from taxing online transactions.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 29, 2000

Samurai, silk and soba in a classic castle town

Like many castle towns, the identity of Ueda, in Nagano Prefecture, is closely intertwined with its castle.
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2000

Here comes the cashless society

The experts may be right that e-commerce and online shopping represent the unstoppable wave of the future. But with all the media attention being lavished on cybermarketing, perhaps not enough attention is being paid to other new ways in which determined merchants are trying to get reluctant consumers...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2000

Installation launches attack on grandma

There are those who get a warm fuzzy feeling when they are reminded of the trappings of their middle-class childhood: the lace curtains over the sitting room window that wafted in the afternoon breeze; the old wooden wardrobe that sat in a corner of a bedroom; the bowl of peppermints at Grandma's.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2000

Antique restorer teaches old furniture new tricks

Western antique furniture has an ambivalent reputation. Some people are so enchanted with it that they become collectors, while others simply think of it as old, dirty -- and often unreasonably expensive.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2000

Passengers describe the sudden impact

Police, firefighters and subway workers shouted instructions to each other Wednesday as they attempted to rescue injured commuters and get them to hospitals in the immediate aftermath of a subway collision that ruptured Tokyo's morning rush hour.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 9, 2000

Adventures in global dining with Tokyo's restaurant king

From stand-and-slurp ramen shops to authentic French cuisine, Tokyo is a diner's paradise. Certainly, finding places that appeal to your palate isn't a problem; hoping they'll be there the next time around is. Tokyo restaurants go out of business faster than Shibuya girls change their nail colors.
COMMUNITY
Feb 18, 2000

Angels and jazz brighten up Tokyo's 'combat zone'

"Once upon a time, there was a star called the 'Angel Star.' Far away from earth, it was a place where angels lived in peace and could often be found playing with fish by the seaside. One day, the Prince of the Angel Star returned from a long journey. He had traveled to a lovely star named 'Chikyu' [Earth]...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2000

Apes smuggled into Osaka flown back to Indonesia

OSAKA -- Four orangutans that had been kept at a Kobe zoo left Kansai International Airport on Wednesday bound for Indonesia, to be returned to their original habitat. The orangutans had been kept at the Kobe Municipal Zoo for about eight months since it was discovered they had been kept illegally by...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 9, 1999

Rise and fall of a Japanese matador

SEVILLE, Spain -- Atsuhiro Shimoyama never planned on becoming a bullfighter. Growing up in the greater Tokyo region in the late 1980s, he opted out of going to college, and instead bummed around searching for something meaningful to do during Japan's wildly inflating bubble years.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 1999

Incense maker going strong 12 generations into business

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 17, 1999

Nail salons ringing up cell phone profits

Staff writer
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Sep 15, 1999

Scarecrows are sprouting in Shitamachi

Over one hundred jauntily clad figures line the street where the Koto Ward Office once stood.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 1999

Cloned beef goes on sale with labels

Experimental sales of beef clearly marked as coming from a cloned cow began Thursday at five selected retailers in Tokyo and the cities of Niigata and Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 9, 1999

Sipping sake's diversity, one cup at a time

Accessibility is key when it comes to learning about sake. You can read about it until you're blue in the face, but if you can't access it and sample various types, there's not much point.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 1999

Knife-wielding man kills two in Ikebukuro

A knife- and hammer-wielding man went on a rampage in a shopping district in Tokyo's Toshima Ward Wednesday, killing two women and injuring six others, police said.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jul 17, 1999

Chilling out with the ghosts of summer

The summer months have traditionally been a time when Tokyoites tried to avoid the urban heat either by escaping to the mountains, beaches or, if that was not possible, venturing out during the evening to sit on the riverbank, drink cool, refreshing beverages and listen to ghost stories.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 4, 1999

Slurp noodles right with the lip-o-suction method

Japanese people can eat a bowl of noodles in just five minutes. That's because they don't chew. Real noodle connoisseurs know that the taste of the noodle is felt in the throat, not the tongue, so to appreciate the true flavor of noodles, you must swallow them whole. I wonder how the stomach feels about...
COMMUNITY
Jun 19, 1999

Making the case for quality

They say, "The clothes make the man," but a briefcase is just as important for a salaryman. It is not only a symbol of his profession but also an indispensable part of his accouterments, something he can't leave home without.
COMMUNITY
Jun 12, 1999

Don't throw in the towel on tenugui yet

Tenugui, rectangular cotton hand towels, are sometimes distributed by shops or firms as gifts for their openings or other occasions, mainly because they are inexpensive, lightweight and easy to carry. Those who receive them, however, are not usually thrilled to get towels printed with simple patterns...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
May 27, 1999

Old and new blended perfectly at Otani

A pebble's throw away from the Akasaka Mitsuke subway station, the Hotel New Otani (which happens to be in the midst of celebrating 35 years as one of Tokyo's premier hotels) might just offer the solution to savvy travelers' "been there, done that" blues.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 19, 1999

Once more, Chiang Mai

I had a mission in Chiang Mai. Many years ago I bought a reclining black lacquer Burmese Buddha there. It had been gilded but much of the gold had been worn off, probably by the hands of the faithful seeking some special blessing. It has a remarkable face. It changes expression as the viewer moves even...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 13, 1999

Here and there

Some time ago I wrote about visiting Boeing's Everett factory near Seattle. Now a reader, planning to make his first trip to Seattle, wants to see where the plane he will be flying on was made and asks how he can see the factory.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 24, 1999

Kathmandu's bazaar of dreams

Some "old hands" are lamenting what they see as the passing of Asan Tole, that magical path through old Kathmandu where it seems Kipling's "the wildest dreams of Kew" really do come true.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Mar 10, 1999

The seductive stench of Yurakucho

"Shall We Meet in Yurakucho (Yurakucho de Aimasho)" was the title of a 1958 megahit number, sung by the king of Japanese blues, Frank Nagai. As Frank described it, Yurakucho was always misty with fog and the collective sighs of hundreds of lovers, the streets were damp with just-fallen rain and lined...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 3, 1999

Wareware cyberjin

One of the great mysteries of Internet life is Japan. This country should be Net-crazy. It produces some of the world's best hardware, is quick to exploit new technologies in most walks of life and has an unquenchable passion for gadgets and trends. That should add up to a country that makes cyborgs...
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 20, 1999

Tamasaburo romances rough guys

The Kabukiza Theater in Ginza this month is featuring Tamasaburo Bando, one of Japan's foremost onnagata (women's role) actors, in three numbers: first with hislongtime partner Nizaemon Kataoka, then with Kankuro Nakamura. Other great names on the playbill are Danjuro Ichikawa, Kichiemon Nakamura, Tomijuro...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 1999

Gaming fans snatch up latest Final Fantasy

Hundreds of electronic game lovers mobbed stores in Tokyo's Akihabara Thursday to snap up the latest version of Final Fantasy, a popular PlayStation computer game that went on sale in the morning.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 1999

Sandwich makers sue Subway, Suntory

Eight former franchisees of Subway Japan, a fast-food sandwich chain, filed a 457 million yen damages suit Thursday with the Tokyo District Court against its headquarters and Suntory Ltd., alleging that unfair contracts between the owners and the headquarters resulted in the failure of their shops.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1998

Thieves hit store for 25 million yen in cosmetics

More than 3,000 cosmetic items worth about 25 million yen were stolen early Sunday from a store in Tokyo's Koto Ward, police said Monday.

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