Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873, so the country celebrates New Year now, unlike most other Asian countries, which mark the new year according to the lunar calendar
By Julia Moskin
Since Mariko Hashimoto arrived from Kyushu in 1987, she has adapted to daily life in New York. She uses broccoli rabe instead of aka takana (spicy mustard greens), shops in the Caribbean markets of her Washington Heights neighborhood for batatas rather than Japanese satsumaimo (yellow sweet potatoes), and has learned to love the local mofongo, the Dominican version of mashed plantains with lots of garlic. [ FULL STORY ]

Having tapped the local beer market for all it is worth, German brewers have begun making kosher beer for Jews and a halal, alcohol-free version for Muslims in a search for new clients.

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Joel and Ethan Coen have never shied away from death, and their latest film is one of their bloodiest — and best. They tell John Patterson about Texas, torture and a 'fantastic' haircut
By John Patterson

I’m framing up the Coen brothers as if they’re appearing in one of their own movies. From where I’m seated, I can see Joel, the longer, skinnier, more languid of the pair, stretched out almost full-length in the foreground, his legs on a coffee table and his torso resting almost horizontal on a couch. He fills the lower half of my frame, looking vaguely reminiscent of Henry Fonda balancing on his chair outside the barbershop in My Darling Clementine. Brother Ethan meanwhile is more animated, providing a more compact, roving vertical in the middle distance to balance the supine Joel, and tittering where Joel is prone to drawl.

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For gamers 2006 was all about the introduction of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii systems; there weren’t many great games released.

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The 19th-century master Utagawa Hiroshige depicts landscapes with unique techniques that create weird, hyper-stylized images reminiscent of computer game scenery
By Laura Cumming
White as snow? That is exactly what it looks like. In fact, it looks more like snow than almost any other picture. Utagawa Hiroshige's view of Shisaku shows three rocky promontories stretching out into a dark blue sea, each turned a flawless white by the soft petals descending from above, a snowfall that appears both completely still and yet mysteriously quick as it spirals in its measured patterns. [ FULL STORY ]

Kevin Rivoli,a photojournalist in upstate New York, hopes that his work will put scholastic criticisms of illustrator Norman Rockwel to rest once and for all
By Kathryn Shattuck
With his allegiance to dewy-eyed innocence and earnest sentimentality, the illustrator Norman Rockwell has often been mocked for creating an America that never was and never will be.

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