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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 25, 2008

Kyoto's geisha: Behind the sliding door

A waitress took our drink orders and we waited, my anticipation building by the moment. Suddenly the door slid open and there knelt Ms. Ichimame, our maiko entertainer for the evening. She bowed deeply and introduced herself, smiling slightly.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 25, 2008

Bungaku-za to stage 'Tom's Midnight Garden'

School holidays are here, and as part of the International Family Festival that it has staged annually since 1993, the Nissay Theatre in Hibiya, Tokyo, this year includes in its program a rare production of "Tom's Midnight Garden" by the long-established Bungaku-za theater company.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2008

Jables steals the show

You could tell Jack Black was itching to act up. Sitting on the dais with four colleagues to promote their new animated film, "Kung Fu Panda," at a hotel in Shinjuku, the roly-poly actor looked — as he himself put it — like "the cat that ate the canary": face frozen in a self-satisfied grin except...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Jul 25, 2008

Cooling it down with Tokyo's best

"Go around the beaches and let's have a list of the best seaside bars," said my editor. In this heat? Not a chance. But here's something better: five refreshing cocktail recipes from a quintet of great bartenders. Each of these invigorating drinks was designed to zap your summer indolence and clear the...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2008

Various "Post Flag"

It's a shame that the era of homemade mixtapes is already behind us. "Post Flag" would have gone down well with the budding compilers of this world, sweating over their cassette decks as they searched for a choice oddity to slot between The Beatles and Lee "Scratch" Perry. They'd find plenty on this,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2008

Alternatives to Iranian oil

SINGAPORE — Talks to defuse the brewing crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions ended inconclusively last weekend. The discussions in Geneva involving China, Russia, the United States and leading European powers were followed by a warning to Tehran that it had a fortnight to respond positively or face...
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2008

Exports fall for first time since '03 as U.S. slump spreads out

Exports fell for the first time in more than four years as demand for cars and electronics cooled, signaling the U.S. slowdown is spreading to the emerging markets that helped sustain growth.
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2008

No need now for rate hike: BOJ's Mizuno

Atsushi Mizuno, a member of the Bank of Japan's Policy Board, said Thursday the central bank's decision to keep interest rates on hold for now has a "positive meaning," indicating he sees no need for higher borrowing costs anytime soon.
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2008

Barack Obama's overseas tour

Barack Obama wants three things out of his tour of the Mideast and Europe. He wants people everywhere to think that he has the answers for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He wants U.S. Jews to believe that he is Israel's unquestioning supporter. And he wants Americans to notice that Europeans would vote...
Reader Mail
Jul 24, 2008

Visitor got off easy in Hokkaido

Regarding D.B.'s July 17 letter, "Three days in the Hakodate jail": Japanese law is quite clear -- a visitor must carry his passport with him at all times. I cannot believe that this gentleman chose to deliberately break the law by traveling to Hokkaido at a time of heightened security without his passport....
Reader Mail
Jul 24, 2008

Sports no match for good books

I applaud The Japan Times for publishing Grant Piper's July 21 letter, "Social competition or pathology?" I agree with his views that competitive sports are immoral and inappropriate, but I disagree that noncompetitive, friendly and recreational sports are qualitatively any different from organized sports....
OLYMPICS
Jul 24, 2008

Yoshida, Hoketsu provide compelling story lines

In less than two weeks, the bright lights in Beijing will shine on thousands of athletes.
Reader Mail
Jul 24, 2008

Same treatment likely in Germany

While I sympathize with Dierk Brockschmidt's unfortunate stay in a Hakodate prison, in my experience Japanese authorities make it quite clear that the only valid identification for foreigners in Japan is a passport or a foreigner registration card. If I were pulled over by police here in Germany without...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2008

Bettye LaVette brings her triumphant soul battle to Fuji

Few artists could have struggled through a career as thoroughly frustrating as that of American soul singer Bettye LaVette and still continue to display the strength and good humor that she does.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 24, 2008

Julian Opie: Great rooms, blank faces

Julian Opie's work is about signals. In his portraits, a pair of dots signals the eyes, a single line signals the mouth — his imagery is a distillation of reality that presents you only with the essential elements needed for your brain to fill in the rest.
Reader Mail
Jul 24, 2008

More questions than answers

Regarding the July 20 article "Teenager held in dad's stabbing": How bizarre we can get? A 15-year-old girl "admitted stabbing her father in the chest several times with a knife." She "didn't like to be told to study" by her parents. The police got a call "from the teen's family" saying "the daughter...
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2008

Top 12 banks struggling to profit from core operations: BOJ review

The fiscal 2007 earnings reports for Japan's 12 major banks show they are having little success at boosting their core businesses, according to a Bank of Japan review released Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2008

Happy birthday, Mr. Mandela

Mr. Nelson Mandela turned 90 last week. The former political prisoner turned world leader is a hero and an icon — one of the few people who truly deserves those labels in an age of hyperbole and superficiality. Mr. Mandela has "retired from retirement," settling down to a quiet life with his wife and...

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped