Tag - best-50

 
 

BEST 50

Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 17, 2016
Scientific discoveries inspire amid a turbulent 2016
A number of the notable science stories of the past year are, quite literally, out of this world.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 27, 2016
Sendai forward White named bj-league MVP
Sendai 89ers forward Wendell White joined fellow league legend Lynn Washington, the retired Osaka Evessa icon, as the bj-league's only two-time regular-season MVPs, as the league's 11th and final regular-season awards were announced on Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 4, 2016
Collaborative spirit emerges at Asia's top restaurant awards
Just about everyone loves stars, lists and rankings, when they relate to what and where we eat — and even more so when they're seasoned with a dash of national pride. And nowhere is this more evident than at the announcement ceremony for the annual Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 24, 2015
Otani, nine others named first-time Best Nine winners
Shohei Otani, the slugging ace of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, was among 10 first-time winners of the Best Nine Awards announced by Nippon Professional Baseball on Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 2, 2015
Leading Tokyo restaurants rise in global top-50 ranking
Japan-based restaurants rose in the ranks of the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, which was announced Monday evening in London.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 24, 2015
Japan holds its own among Asia's best
A day before Asia's 50 Best 2015 awards ceremony earlier this month, chef Mitsuharu Tsumura (affectionately known as Micha) was up and about making ceviche, a cured seafood dish, at a Peruvian ceviche master class.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 22, 2015
Guantanamo inmate details torture in first book from Cuba prison
The first book published by a longtime Guantanamo Bay inmate that describes torture, humiliation and despair during 13 years in captivity was selling briskly in the United States on Wednesday and drawing hard-won attention to his case.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 20, 2014
Buffaloes' Kaneko near-unanimous choice for Pacific League's Best IX Awards
Chihiro Kaneko will need more space in a crowded trophy case after the winners of the Central and Pacific Leagues' Best IX Awards were announced Thursday
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2014
English translation of Murakami's latest novel hits U.S. bookstores
The English translation of Haruki Murakami's latest novel has been translated went on sale Tuesday in bookstores across the United States.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 13, 2014
Let's not forget the sake at world food events
On the afternoon of April 28, at an intimate gathering in London's Ametsa restaurant, a cluster of admirers with champagne flutes in hand fluttered around chef Helena Rizzo. The Brazilian Rizzo, who helms the acclaimed restaurant Mani in Sao Paulo, had recently been named the World's Best Female Chef, and the international guests, who had convened in London for the annual World's 50 Best Restaurant award ceremony, had come to congratulate her before the gala that evening. As trays bearing crispy scorpion-fish cakes and chorizo sandwiches floated around the room, a representative from Champagne house Veuve Clicquot, which sponsors the awards, announced the planting of a herb garden in Reims, France, to commemorate the winners. Rizzo will be the first recipient to select herbs that reflect her style of cuisine and her native country, Brazil, for the new garden.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 5, 2014
Does it matter how we choose The World's 50 Best Restaurants?
The World's 50 Best Restaurants is a quirky list and no one claims it is definitive. Avant-garde restaurants tend to place higher than traditional establishments whose gastronomy has stood the test of time.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 26, 2013
Favorite finds from 2013's Food File
As 2013 draws to a well-replete coda, there's just enough time to stop, pause and ponder the culinary highlights of the past 12 months. Tokyo has never been better for eating out, and this year has brought a further glut of excellent restaurants at every point on the budget spectrum. Here are a few, both old and new, that hit the gastronomic sweet spot for me. Expect to see full reviews for many in this column over the coming months.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013
Giovanni Fazio's 2013 Top 10: films to remember into the next lifetime
This year saw me watching a lot more films than usual, which, if anything, made me appreciate the cream even more. As per our age, there's a lot of "content" out there begging for our attention, but precious little of it that feels like it was made with passion. Here are 10 that, love 'em or hate 'em, have some personality.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013
Mark Schilling's 2013 Top 10: Farewell to Ghibli's anime masters
Japanese films did quite well both commercially and critically in 2013, with Hayao Miyazaki's final feature animation, "Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)," thumping the Hollywood competition at the local box office. But the industry's over-reliance on sure-thing manga, TV shows and novels for source material has put a damper on its creativity, while abroad the demand for quirky, violent films from Japan is still strong. Often lost in the cracks are good indie films that try to tell original stories about actual human beings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013
Kaori Shoji's 2013 Top 10: films that aren't backward about coming forward
It has been a year of documentaries made on big ideas and small resources. At the other end of the spectrum, some of the best fiction films had the look and feel of a documentary, attesting to the modern notion that the individual and his/her story are just about the most interesting things around.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2013
Second opinion: Our Top 3 films in cross-review
Regular JT film critics Mark Schilling, Kaori Shoji and Giovanni Fazio got together at the Uplink theater/restaurant in Shibuya to talk about each other's No. 1 films for 2013: "Cloud Atlas" (Fazio), "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (Shoji) and "Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya)" (Schilling). The discussion was heated, but no crockery was thrown.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2013
From Kyary to Yosi: The best Japanese albums of 2013
Overseas it was a year of big rollouts. There was a lot of hype behind releases by Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Miley Cyrus. But will these acts be remembered for paparazzi fights and "twerking" more than their music?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2013
The best Japanese albums of 2013: Melt-Banana, 'Fetch'
Back in June, I picked up on minimalist psychedelic postpunk trio Extruders' "Colors" as the album of the year so far. Six months later, it's still right up among the very best of the year. Its carefully unwinding songs, murmured vocals and understated yet affecting melodies interspersed with delicately poised deployments of feedback and noise are as gently thrilling now as they were then. When considered alongside the band's hypnotic live performances, "Colors" has cemented Extruders' position as one of the indie scene's most talked about bands of the year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2013
The best Japanese albums of 2013: Yosi Horikawa, 'Vapor'
Few albums this year rewarded repeat listens as generously as Yosi Horikawa's "Vapor." The Chiba-based producer makes fecund, wide-eyed electronica constructed from manipulated field recordings, percussion, ethnic chants and slightly new-age keyboards. If that sounds awful on paper, it's intoxicating in practice: each track teems with unexpected sonic details, to the extent that I seemed to find something new in the mix every time I listened to it on a different stereo. Horikawa took his hefty field microphone with him while touring overseas this year — I can't wait to hear what he comes up with next.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2013
The best Japanese albums of 2013: Sapphire Slows, 'Allegoria'
If there's one thing I've taken out of 2013, it's that the kids are alright. Perhaps as a result of growing up Internet savvy, with easy access to decades of music and countless genres at their fingertips, Japan's young artists have spent the year pasting together aural collages that gleefully defy categorization.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces