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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 26, 2010

Suntory Hall closes opera series with racy tale from Mozart

"Cosi fan tutte" ("Women are like that"), composed in 1790, was regarded as an immoral tale of fiancee swapping during the 19th century. While it offended sensibilities then, today the work is considered one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most sophisticated operas, and it will be staged at Suntory Hall...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 26, 2010

Merpeoples bewitch; The Party's . . . party

Four cute young women clad in ghostly white robes prance around in a forest holding twigs: No, it's not an outtake from the classic 1973 pagan spookfest "The Wicker Man." Yes, it is the excellent video for the Merpeoples' spankingly sublime song "Sherman."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 29, 2010

'The Lovely Bones'

Director Peter Jackson's latest, "The Lovely Bones," has been out in the United States for a while now, and the critics have been pretty merciless. It relies too much on special effects, it lacks key elements of the novel it's based on (Alice Sebold's best seller), some of the performances fail to connect...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 28, 2010

Fruit vendor Takahiko Takahashi

Come rain or shine, Takahiko Takahashi, 69, is outdoors joking with customers and packing delicious peaches, mikan (mandarins), nashi (Japanese pears), apples and melons into their shopping baskets. Though he's a Tokyo fruit vendor, he knows and loves his vegetables, too. He even grows his own spinach,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Jan 15, 2010

Reinventing the classics

"In Italy I already had a job and family. If I had come to Japan and everything finished, I could have easily gone back to Italy because I had a place there. Coming here was a bit like a game and it still is for me," says TV celebrity Girolamo Panzetta.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 5, 2010

Florist sees seeds of change in Japan

Hans Damen came to Japan from his native Holland 16 years ago, attracted by the traditional aspects of Japanese culture, like "taiko" drumming and ikebana flower arrangement. After teaching flower design at a school in Tokyo for a year, he landed a job with the major flower retailer U.Goto Florist and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 20, 2009

Alexandria's library: A phoenix amid the tea fields of Uji

Recalling the glorious Heian Period in Japan's history from 794 to 1185 at once conjures up images of a world of courtiers, 12-layered kimono, elegant poetry competitions beside winding streams — and secret trysts in scented chambers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Dec 8, 2009

Vietnamese physicist thrives in Japan

Nguyen Dinh Dang didn't choose Japan so much as Japan chose him. The Soviet-trained Vietnamese nuclear physicist and painter first came to live here in 1995 at the invitation of Riken, a semigovernmental science and technology research institute.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 28, 2009

Five is a beehive in this country

"Two's company, three's a crowd and four is a party."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 14, 2009

List twist: unheralded Japanese foods

Man cannot live by bread alone. No, he must also have lists.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 9, 2009

Coach Rowsom faces tough task in rebuilding HeatDevils

From humble beginnings growing up in a town of 900 people in North Carolina, Brian Rowsom defied the odds by making it to the NBA.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 4, 2009

Mamoru Mohri: A spaceman speaks

When future historians document the story of Japanese space exploration, 2009 will likely figure as the year when the nation put two high-profile rocket launch failures, in 1999 and 2003, firmly behind it and, quite literally, took off.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Sep 29, 2009

The man who delivered pizza to Japan

Earnest Higa's life is all about being bicultural in Japan and the United States. He has used this aspect of his character in his career, spending the past 24 years making sure U.S.-based Domino Pizza fits in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 11, 2009

'The Burning Plain'

Charlize Theron is a rare Hollywood actress who has carved out a reputation for fearlessness and sheer guts. A former ballet dancer from South Africa, she has avoided roles that solely bank on her chiseled, amazingly statuesque beauty and instead gone far, far out on limbs where very few blonde bombshell...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 11, 2009

The eyes have it in this light show

When you have a venue that provides such ample exhibition space as the National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT), it can be quite a challenge to find a single contemporary artist worthy to fill it. Earlier this year, Hitoshi Nomura, with a long, varied career and many large installations to his name, just about...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2009

In Hatoyama's 'fraternity,' people the end, not means

An opinion piece by Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama that was originally published in the September edition of the Japanese monthly journal Voice has triggered controversy in the United States for appearing to have an antiglobalization bent.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 6, 2009

Kawasaki's Nihon Minkaen: Traditional folklore in a natural setting

In an article last May 10 introducing the many attractions of Tokyo's neighbor Kawasaki, this writer made a brief reference to the Nihon Minkaen (The Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum) in Tama Ward.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 6, 2009

Kawasaki's Nihon Minkaen: Traditional folklore in a natural setting

In an article last May 10 introducing the many attractions of Tokyo's neighbor Kawasaki, this writer made a brief reference to the Nihon Minkaen (The Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum) in Tama Ward.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Aug 27, 2009

Publisher Yumiko Tsukuda

Yumiko Tsukuda, 45, is the founder of Anika Co. Ltd., a publishing house in Tokyo, that prints books about the town and residents of Tsukuda on Tsukishima Island. Originally from Chiba, Yumiko moved to Tsukuda in 1998, partly because the town shares her last name but also because she fell in love with...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 21, 2009

Be a fool and dance Bon-odori

If you spend your life stuck in one of Japan's concrete jungles, you may have never seen a Bon-odori (Bon-dance) performed at the summer Bon festivals held all over the country in towns and villages, where people dance in a circle or in line, making the same moves together to traditional Japanese music....
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 16, 2009

Frontale's Chong draws strength from pride in North Korean heritage

KURIHIRA, Kanagawa Pref. — Kawasaki Frontale's North Korean striker Chong Tese has a busy year ahead of him.
Reader Mail
Jul 26, 2009

Words of wisdom for the long haul

I was pleased to see Mariko Kato's interview with Thomas Dillon in the July 14 Who's Who article, "Wit, humor help longtime columnist come to grips with life in Japan." Having always enjoyed Dillon's gentle style of wit in his regular column, it was interesting to read more about him.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 10, 2009

Rebranding the Aussie image

What with wildfires, drought, the economic downturn and competition from overseas, Australian winemakers are now facing a crisis that's taken on Biblical proportions. What have they done to incur such divine wrath?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 5, 2009

The Shanxi trilogy: films that never made it back home

Sometimes called the most significant of the current generation of Chinese film directors, Jia Zhangke (b. 1970) enjoys the distinction of never having had some of his finest work commercially shown in his own country.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jun 7, 2009

It's so cool to play an oily toad

Actors who direct and star in their own films may be motivated by something other than vanity, but they usually manage to make themselves look cool — or at least cooler than they would have if someone else had been in the director's chair.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 30, 2009

Women's university in Bangladesh makes appeal for corporate support

As members of the Asian community, more Japanese corporations should help support fledgling Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, one of the keys to the continent's continued growth, according to a board member of the university's support foundation.
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 8, 2009

Sweet wines starting to trickle out of Romania

Since ancient times, wave upon wave of foreign conquests have washed over Romania, changing — sometimes obliterating — parts of the region's cultural identity.

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