Haruki Murakami has lost his magic. After two consecutive novels written in the third person (2009's "1Q84" and 2013's "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage"), Murakami has returned to first-person narration with his latest novel, "Kishidancho Goroshi" ("Killing Commendatore"), published in Japan and ...
Cities are intrinsically inviting subjects for a writer. Part human, part natural; arena of history and mantelpiece of memory — cities provide the setting for the archetypal encounter of the individual with the masses. Tokyo: A Biography, by Stephen Mansfield. 208 pages TUTTLE, Nonfiction. With its conjunction of ...
General Motors issued six more recalls on Wednesday, bringing its annual total to 60 recalls covering almost 30 million vehicles. The latest recalls cover nearly 823,000 cars, trucks and SUVs mostly in North America but including a small number of exports. The largest is for ...
Odds are, Japan Times reader, that you do not like Kis-My-Ft2. Maybe you've been unable to escape the bleating "Wanna Beeee!!!" while out strolling in Shibuya, or maybe they lost you at, "From the people who brought you SMAP and Arashi!" So this review ...
The first song I ever made — and I'm willing to wager many who graduated high school in the mid 2000s share this experience — was using Apple's GarageBand, a software application that lets people make music on their computers. "I made a killer ...
Fledgling online-only label Ano(t)raks takes a somewhat needless risk with their second compilation album, "Upwards and Onwards." Founded late last year, Ano(t)raks highlighted bedroom-made indie-pop, a style defined by simple guitar playing and equally basic lyrics about love. Indie-pop has been going strong since ...
To describe "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" as a foodie film is akin to picking an English rose and calling it a flower. This documentary by New York-based David Gelb is at once a celebration of one of the world's most popular and coveted meals, ...
My Japan Times colleague Ian Martin nailed the state of Japanese pop music when he wrote that it was "clinging on to the hoary old remains of the past." The Oricon Chart's top albums of 2012 list was dominated by "Best Of" compilations, with ...
Creating music meant to purposely evoke the past can be tricky. Recreate the sounds of a specific decade too closely and the music becomes too nostalgic, pining for a time the artist never even knew existed. On the other hand, approach bygone times too ...
Internationally acclaimed for their formal style and power, Nagisa Oshima's films have always dealt with controversial issues which Japan's Establishment would rather see swept under the carpet. Based upon a famous Laurens van der Post novel (The Seed and the Sower), Oshima's "Senjo no ...
