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fruits picking being so popular among foreign visitors

According to Nikkei’s article on May 27th,  picking-your-own farm shops of fruits are becoming more and more popular among foreign visitors especially those who come from Southeast Asian countries.

The article says, you can enjoy picking fruites at those shops withen a  certain limited period of time such as 30 minutes or 60 minutes or so during which you can enjoy all- you-can- eat service and after the time you can buy those fruites to go, though service styles vary depending on each shop.  The fruites may be strawberries, cherries, blueberries, peaches, grapes, pears,  apples,  mandrin oranges and so forth. Those fruites are so rare and usually difficult to see in  natural or fresh states except for processed or cooked  in Southeast Asia, which is the primary reason why those services increasingly attract people from those countries.  Those farms shops might be a new eyecatcher for inbound tourism in Japan.

Golden Week 2016

The well-known  continual  public holidays from the end of April to the beginning of May in Japan, the”Golden Week” is the most popular leisure week on a year.  This year 2016,  the total number of  foreign tourists to Japan in April was about  2,081,800, which is an increase by 18 % compared to the number in the same mounth 2015., according to the official report of JNTO released on May 18th. (https://www.jnto.go.jp/jpn/)

In the GW, not only foreigners but also Japanese people take longer holidays and  tend to take travels as well.  before the week,  the total number of travelers furing the period was estimated to reach about 23860,000. Actually, the number of traveller to or in Kyushu, the northwestern part reduced compared to the number last year due to the Kumamoto Earthquakes on April 14,16 and others, still lthe total number keeps so high.

 

Hakone Ropeways partially resuming the service in Owakudani

Hakone Ropeways resumed its service partillay from Togendai station (the ground) to Owakudani station (middle of the mountain)  on April 23rd. (http://www.hakoneropeway.co.jp/foreign/en/index.cgi)

The air ropeway service between Togendai-Ubako-Owakudani-Sounzan was partially suspended due to the smoking erupations of the Hakone Mountain in Owakudani area since May 6th 2015 (Togendai-Ubako has been in operation though). However, the erupting situations there now became kind of placated and the line Togendai-Owakudani has been resumed. Still, passengers can’t get on the cargo from Ubako but only from Togendai ,and they are not allowed to get out of the station building at Owakudani. Although there bus services substituting the ropeways are in operation, the buses don’t stop at Owakudani.

   

And the famous and popular sourvenir of Owakudani, the Black Eggs have now been resumed to be sold since April 29th, as the producing sites of the eggs have become safer. Still, ordinary visitors have not been allowed to get out of the station building there, the black eggs are soled only at the station and places  other than  the area. The black eggs are believed to be very good to health and if you eat one, your longevity is said to be extended for three years.

 

resurrection of classic trains in Kinugawa

Tobu Railway announced  its project of  adopting classic trains in Kinugawa hot spring resort in Tochigi pref. in next summer 2017(http://www.tobu.co.jp/foreign/en/).

 

The types of planned trains are SL(steam locomotive) and DL(diesel locomotive). Those old types “retired” from service about 50years ago, but a lot of people still love those good oldies with nostalgic passions. Tobu decided to carry out this reinstatement in order to attract tourists to draw them in Kinugawa overcoming a bad image of the area caused by overflow of the river there last year ue to storms. the trains will run between Shimoimaichi station and Kinugaw-aonsen station (about 12.4km)on KinugawaLine. Each train will have capacity of about 400 passengers and 140 round travels a year at maximum.

 

The Tokyo Olympics’ emblem selected

The new official emblem design of theupcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020 have been chosen and released on April 25th.

The design is based on Kumi-ichimatsu-mon, a traditional Japanese art design of  checkered pattern which became popular and prevalent im the Edo period about 300 hundred years ago. The adopted design was created by an designer Asao Tokoro.

The design consists of  various shaped tetragons each of which represents a deffirent culture, nation, people and the total shape represents the diversity and unity of those defferent things and beings. The color is deep blue and the design is thought to be usable for various items and goods such as posters and shirts.

 

 

JR Kyushu resuming its bullet train services

  JR Kyushu resumed all of its railroad services including the bullet trains by the April 27th for the first time in 13 days after the series of  the huge Kumamoto Earthquakes began on 14th.

Central, northern,and eastern parts of Kyushu, such as Kumamoto, Ohita, and Fukuoka were hit by series of earthquakes mainly of the one of M6.5 on April 14th and the one of M7.3 on 16th. Some parts have been  seriously damaged and temporarily more than 110,000 people evacuated(now the number is about 36,000). Toshihiko Aoyagi, president of JR Kyushu made a remark upon seeing off  the first bullet train to  complete the total resumption in which he said, “We have now successfully regained our daily landscape  again for the first time in two weeks. We hope this resumption of our railroad services  will be so helpful for rebuilding Kumamoto.”

Hokkaido Shinkansen(Bullet Train) launched

JR Hokakido and East Japan launched the Hokkaido Shinkansen(/Hokkaido Bullet Trains) services on this Mar.26. And with this, Alll the four main lands of Japan are now directly connected by the Bullet Train services.  (http://hokkaido-shinkansen.com/)(http://www2.jrhokkaido.co.jp/global/index.html)

The bullet train services between Tokyo and Shin-aomori(/new Aomorri, in Aomori prefecture in Tohoku region in the mainland) launced in 2010, and now the new services between Shin-aomori and Shin-hakodatehokuto started, which finally connected the mainland and Hokkaido island.  With this completeion,  Tokyo to Shin-hakodatehokuto takes now 4 hours and 2 minutes at fastest (used to take about 5 hours and 30 minutes), and Shin-aomori to Shin-hakodatehokuto one hour and one minute at fastest(used to take about one hour and 50 minutes) . 10 round travels are provided  between Tokyo and Shin-hakodatehokuto  and  one round travel between Sendai and Shin-hakodatehokuto by “Hayabusa”( a nickname of a type of the new trains) a day and one round travel between Morioka and Shin-hakodatehokuto, and one round travel between Shin-aomori and Shin-hakodatehokuto by “Hayate” a day as well.

Grand opening of “NEWoMan”, department store complex in Shinjuku

A major department store chain “Lumine” opened its new commercial facility complex called “NEWoman” at the south exit of Shinjuku station Tokyo on this Mar.25. (http://www.newoman.jp/)

This new facility showed up in one of the busiest areas in Japan consists of 5600㎥of 6 floors and  2000㎥ of three floors just above the station areas connected to a part of the station facilities. NEWoMan provides about 100 shops and expected to make 20- billion- yen revenue in its first year. Foods , cosmetics, fashion shops, cafe, a daycare,  clinics, an event hall ,and so forth are there and mainly targetting working generations  of females in thier 30-40s.

The fifth anniversary events of The East Japan huge disaster

On this March 11th,  a lot of  ceremonial events of the East Japan Huge Earthquake Disaster were held nationwide, some of which were hosted by municipalities, some were by  private businesses, some were by religious organizations, and so forth. And The Japanese Government hosted the offcial fifth Anniversary ceremony at the National Theater in Tokyo. (http://www8.cao.go.jp/tsuitou/tsuitou.html) (http://www.reconstruction.go.jp/english/)

At the official event, emperor, empress, pm Abe and other governmental representatives participated , and some representatives of bereaved families o the disaster and damaged Tohoku region’s prefectures were invited and shared the occasion.  The Emperor and Abe gave remarks of condolences to the victims and the families, and sufferers, and  wished a shiny future with good recovery from the tragedy.

“Hyakudan Hina-matsuri” at Meguro-gajoen

Lots of events related to Hina-matsui (Girls’ Day’s festivals) were held nationwide in Japan on the March 3rd, the Girls’ Day.  One of the popular events was  the “Hyakudan Hina-matsuri”(/ hina doll decoration event on one hundred stairs ) at Meguro-gajoen in Tokyo (Jan.22-Mar.6).(http://www.megurogajoen.co.jp/event/hinamaturi/)

This year, for the first time  traditional Hinadolls from three prefectures in Tohoku region, namely,Iwate,Miyagi,and Fukushima were decorated and exhibited.

 

Tokyo Marathon 2016 and Friendship Run

Tokyo Marathon 2016 was held on Feb.28th. (http://www.marathon.tokyo/en/) This time the marathon was the tenth and more than 36,000 people joined the big event. The start point of  the square in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Office Buildings in Shinjuku, Tokyo was covered with the runners and specutators.

And  the forerunner event “Tokyo Marathon Frienship Run 2016” was also held on Feb.27th. (http://www.marathon.tokyo/news-media/news/news_000056.html)

In the Friendship Run, 919 foreign runners and 530 Japanese runners joined.  The public speeches at the opening ceremony were made in both Japanese and English and the international friendship atmosphere was around.  In addition, three other forerunner events of  press conferences of Men’s elite Athletes, Women’s elite Athletes, and Wheelchair Athletes were held on the same day of 27th.

popular chocolates for the Valentine’s Day 2016

St.Valentine’s Day on Feb.14th is a popular  practice among young people.   Some websites  carry out  rankings of  top popular chocolates.

 

Most of  top popular chocolates are deluxe foreign ones such as Bvlgari’s   “Saint Valentino 2016 Lui e Lei” (http://gourmet.bulgari.com/shop/default.aspx), Jean-Paul Hevin’s  、“LES PIEDS SUR TERRE, LA TÊTE DANS LES ÉTOILES (http://www.jph-japon.co.jp) ,and other European brands.

a new hotel open near Ueno station

A new hotel “Life Tree” opened near Ueno station, which is one of the oldest and hub stations in central area in Tokyo on this Feb.2nd.(http://www.lifehotels.jp/ueno/)

It takes about 5 minutes to Ueno station from the new hotel. The station area is home to a lot of  popular tourists’ destinations such as traditional Japanese-western restaurants,  Ueno park, the most popular cherry- blossom veiwing spot in Tokyo,  Ueno Zoo, art museums, national museums, Kaneiji temple, Ame-yoko old shopping street,and so forth.   And  ueno is close to other popular areas, such as  Asakusa, Ginza, Yanaka and others.

Setsubun, soybean-scattering festival at temples

Setsubun, a winter-closing day’s festival when people scatter roasted soybeans to dipel evil and becon good fortune is popular and that scattering -bean festivals were held on  Feb.3rd nationwide.

For example, the festival hosted at Ikegamihonmonji temple in Tokyp on that day was viewed by a lot of visitors  of over 10,000 there.

“Hotoriya”,a new cafe-and-sourveir shop in Hakone

A new facility for tourists opened at Hakone-machi port on the lakeside of Lake Ashi  in Hakone, Kanagawa pref. on this Jan.23rd. The name of this new establishment is “Hotoriya”(means; a shop on a lakeside ) and is a commercial complex of “wa-cafe”(/traditional Japanese style cafe) and sourvenir shops.

Hotoriya’s nickname is “Chaya-honjin”(means;cafe-style main local guest house ) because  the building has a  figure of  an old  main local guest house of hundreds of years ago where  high-class samurai warriors stayed when Hakone was an important check point of travelers to monitor and control people by the Tokugawa Shogunate.  Eating facilities and sourvenir shop to provide a variety of  local food, beer,and other sorts of  sourvenirs are in the establishement.  Some of those shops are directly run by the operarion company of  this facility,  Hakone Sightseeing Cruise Co.,ltd.(http://www.hakone-kankosen.co.jp/foreign/en/index.html)  and some are branch shops of renowned  old  major  shops from Hakone and other neighboring areas. And from the cafes, you may enjoy  magestic and panoramic views of Mt.Fuji and Lake Ashi.

The open hours of  souvenir shops on the 1st floor is daily 9:30-17:00 and cafes on the 2nd floor is daily 10:00-16:00.