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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 4, 2014

As Hong Kong protests turn violent, rival camps square off in gritty Mong Kok neighborhood

More than a thousand rival protesters, some wearing helmets, faced off in a densely populated, gritty district of Hong Kong on Saturday, fueling concerns that the city's worst unrest in decades could take a more violent turn.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2014

tofubeats calls on pals for his 'First Album'

Yusuke Kawai tries to start a para para dance halfway through his Sept. 5 DJ set, but the inside of an Apple Store isn't an ideal space for this endeavor. Kawai, who records under the name tofubeats, is performing a special show at the recently opened Omotesando store. Half of the floor eagerly watches...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2014

Ghostly footprints of the 'modern girl' along Kamakura's coastline

There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside villa, she is sashaying...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 18, 2014

Ska innovator gets new acts on Spacetrain

Ray Charles was the innovator of soul. Rei Mastrogiovanni wants to innovate ska; he says it's in his blood.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 28, 2014

Ten years on, Hyperdub finds that it pays to be weird

Most journalists hope to get a few decent quotes from an interview. Steve Goodman ended up getting a record label.
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
Dec 20, 2013

Odds on Ando making Olympic team for Sochi very long

"Do you believe in miracles?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 3, 2013

Nori represents Japan at BC One breakdancing competition

This past weekend's Red Bull BC One breakdancing event in Seoul was something of a battle of titans.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 30, 2013

No bridge too far in the home of the Heike clan

The road has thankfully just widened — and by that I mean it's more than 2 meters across — when we meet our first oncoming car.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 28, 2013

Getting published is easy; getting noticed is trickier

How can writers make themselves heard in the age of blog and self-publishing saturation? Japan-based authors offer a diverse range of views
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2013

Bill Murray relishes FDR's 'human' side

Biographical movies can be a daunting task. Their subjects often have larger-than-life stories that are focal points for controversy. Actor Bill Murray says that what attracted him to the role of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in "Hyde Park on Hudson," was less of the former element and a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZ NOTES
Sep 11, 2013

Tony Bennett, New Cool Collective, Ai Kuwabara Trio Project impress crowds at Tokyo Jazz Festival

On seeing the lineup ahead of this year's Tokyo Jazz Festival, my initial feeling was the organizers had maybe cast their net a bit too wide with the acts booked, but those fears were completely unfounded.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2013

Five myths about the U.S. millennial generation

The millennial generation is not as developmentally stunted as older generations make them out to be.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 30, 2013

Organizer of annual writers' workshop helps others find artistic way

John Gribble gives a part of every day to creating. Whether it's pinpointing the perfect word for a poem or plucking out a ditty on a guitar, his life and livelihood in some way proves creative. As a poet and teacher, Gribble has spent the last 20 years in Japan organizing others to find their artistic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 23, 2013

Pop star or avant-garde artist? Lady Gaga now wants to be the next Warhol

The message is crystal clear: do not buy Lady Gaga's latest album or download tracks because she is "over" and "no longer relevant." Many will be happy to obey, but it's not quite that simple.
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
Aug 13, 2013

Otakon celebrates 20 years of anime fandom in the U.S.

The American anime convention, Otakon ("Otaku Convention"), begins with a costume parade before it officially opens. Last week I had a bird's-eye view of the spectacle from my 14th-floor hotel room in Baltimore, Maryland. An endless army of imaginary characters trudged across the elevated concourse and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 15, 2013

Actor Ethan Hawke: still playing all the angles

Ethan Hawke is out and about in New York, the city he's lived in for 30 years, a place where famous faces slide past every day. He's wearing a baseball cap, a hoodie and a pair of cords. It's an outfit you might think he chose especially to look nondescript, but in reality it's because he likes corduroy...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 13, 2013

Indie game developers go global at BitSummit

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Japanese independent-game scene is alive and well. Over the past weekend in Kyoto, nearly 180 game developers packed into an event hall to show off their latest self-made creations at the first BitSummit.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2012

DJ Kentaro set to scratch a new itch

Only a handful of artists can say they've reached the top of their trade, but Kentaro Okamoto is one of them. As DJ Kentaro, his record-scratching skills got him noticed by beat heads worldwide back in 2002, when he won the DMC World DJ Final in London. But, now this DJ wants an image change.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 24, 2012

Wi-Fi, Facebook and all that jazz

Fumito Fukuchi, owner and proprietor of Kissa Sakaiki jazz cafe in Tokyo's central Yotsuya neighborhood, grins as he puts the finishing touches to an online schedule.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 11, 2012

Upstart B-Corsairs open playoff series with victory

The Yokohama B-Corsairs burst onto the scene as a brand new franchise with an unusual — but hip — name and no identity when the 2011-12 bj-league season tipped off in October.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 22, 2012

Matsumoto in May means 'crafts '

England gave the world the Windsor chair, but it was the city of Matsumoto in central Nagano Prefecture that reinvented it for Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 5, 2012

Pictureplane inserts punk's attitude into a hard drive

Last September, music magazine Spin wrote that America was experiencing an "electronica revolution." Spearheaded by speaker-destroying producers such as Skrillex and Deadmau5, Spin wrote that a "new rave generation" has helped make electronic dance music an inescapable presence on the nation's music...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 26, 2012

Nakase says goal is to coach in NBA

Isn't it funny how likes and dislikes can shape one's future when you least expect it?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 18, 2011

Chili Peppers dominate Summer Sonic

It was clear on the second day of Summer Sonic that this year's event belonged to the evening's headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers. A casual stroll around Chiba's Makuhari Messe complex revealed a noticeable uptick from the day before in the number of shirtless dudes sporting tribal-band tattoos.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2011

'Due Date'

Radio stations tend to broadcast live material with a seven- second delay on their signal, so they can have a brief window to censor people dropping "F"-bombs and the like. Comedian Zach Galifianakis isn't really worried about being offensive — see "The Hangover" — but it often feels like there's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2011

Dommune live-streams DJ sets to a growing fan base

The crowd bristles with excitement as the first DJ of the night winds down his set. An air of anticipation sets in around the room. As the next DJ enters the booth with his CD booklet in hand, the throng begins to swarm the tiny floor, no larger than your grandmother's basement. Four Tet is about to...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2010

'Spring Fever'

Director Lou Ye continues to prove he's one of the more daring directors working in China today with his latest, "Spring Fever." Or perhaps I should say, one of the more daring directors not working in China today, for Lou was placed on the government censors' blacklist in 2006 after his last film, "Summer...
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Oct 3, 2010

Shoji makes a splash in international debut

With world junior champion Kanako Murakami moving up to the senior ranks this season, there may have been some trepidation in Japanese skating circles about who would represent the next wave of young talent among the ladies.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past