2008 July | The Tokyo Reporter

Yamada screens final samurai flick at Tokyo festival

By CJ • July 18, 2008

TOKYO – Director Yoji Yamada saw the culmination of his samurai trilogy with a special screening of “Bushi no Ichibun” (Love and Honor) on …

The Alotau Canoe Festival

By CJ • July 18, 2008

ALOTAU – As John Kaniku tells it, the appropriate beginning to canoe construction is simple enough: you have to choose a tree of quality …

Caretaker James Kuk says that there is usually one reason why people visit Bomana, a nineteen-kilometer drive outside of Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby. “Most tourists,” says the groundskeeper, “want to come here before going to the Kokoda Trail. Travelers will be asked by relatives in Australia to get a photo of a certain friend or family member’s grave.”

The canals of Edo

By CJ • July 18, 2008

Japan’s construction industry is renowned for its proclivity for paving over anything that does not stand still. But in terms of magnitude, today’s concrete pourers were certainly rivaled by the work of their predecessors, who cut and filled what is now Ginza into a network of canals and bridges before transforming the area into the asphalt slab it is today.

Couples clamor to mount where Mona was moanin’

By Mieko Shimizu • July 18, 2008

The scandal over the extramarital dalliance between TV news anchor Mona Yamamoto, 32, and Yomiuri Giants player Tomohiro Nioka, also 32, has proved a …

21st Tokyo International Film Festival to go green

By CJ • July 17, 2008

TOKYO – The 21st Tokyo International Film Festival will have an environmental theme, organizers for the event announced today.
With a festival logo that …

John Swope: A letter from Japan

By CJ • July 17, 2008

With his Rolleiflex 75mm, Swope walked through rubble and burned-out structures and befriended Japanese both young and old alike during his three-week tour at the end of August 1945.