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Visit Japan Travel Mart and JATA Toursim EXPO Japan 2014

Two huge international travel marts were held at Tokyo Bigsight in Tokyo. One was “Visit Japan Travel Mart 2014″(Sep.24-26)(http://www.vjtm.jp/) and the other was “JATA Toursim EXPO Japan2014″(Sep.25-28)(http://t-expo.jp/en/index.html).  

More than 310 foriegn buyers and about 390 Japanese sellers joined VJTM2014 and had passionate exchanges of information and ideas and hosted busines seccions.  Buyers from Asian countries were especially a lot and about the half of the Japanese sellers were municipalities or relating associations of such local governments.

On the other hand,  a lot of domestic and foreign sellers and buysers joined  JATA Tourism EXPO Japan 2014. Such participants were embassies, tourism bureaus, travel agents, food companies, municipalities, railroads, airlines, hotels. universities, guide associations and so forth.  The main targets were end users of travel services and a lot of  lay Japanese people visited there and the total number was 157,589.  Upon the opening of the event, an ward ceremony  of  good  services and efforts of related promotions was hosted and the Best Tourism Award was given to The Tourism Authority of Thailand and Embassy awards were for  Thailand and Mexico, the best transporatation award was for Japan Railways East, the domestic inbound award was for  the tourism department of Tokyo Metropolis, the publicity award was for a TV show of CXTV, and the chairperson special award was for Okinawa Convention Bureau. (http://t-expo.jp/en/program/cms.html)   I personally visited the two big events and collected a lot of interesting information and exchanged ideas with the participants, some of whom were my friends or those I sometimes work with. I enjoyed the delicious food provided by tourism- related restaurants and local specialities and impressed by the greatly enthusiastic atmosphere of energies of the expos as well.

Hakone enjoys more than 20 million visitors

Hakone, one of the most popular tourists’ destinations and hot spring resort  in Kanagawa Pref. near Mt. Fuji declared  it had been visited by 20,857,000 tourists (increased by 7.3 % compared to the year before) in 2013. (http://www.town.hakone.kanagawa.jp/) The town  visited by more than 20 million tourists for the first time in three years and the first time after the earthquake disaster in 2011 and the number is the highest since 1996.   

The one-day travelers number was 16,140,000 (increased by 9%) and that of those who stayed overnight was 4,717,000 (increased by 1.8 %).  The number of foreign visitors overnight reached 168,000, which the record high and increased by 80.5% compared to the minimum number of 63,000 in 2011 when the disaster occurred. The number of  foreign one-day tourists there is assumed to be about 482,000.  New faclities may be one of the sources that have attracted such high number of  visitors there.  It is said the primary sources of such an increase in the number may be the depreciation of Yen these days and relaxations of  visa conditions to tourists from asean countries. The number of people from US, China, Korea, Taiwan, and southeast Asian countries  visiting Hakone is amazingly increasing. The upcoming Tokyo Olympics may be a source of  such rising popularity of some area in Japan as well.

 

“Morning Musume”‘s special train

One of the top young female idol groups, Morining Musume is going to host a concert at Kawaguchiko  Stellar Theater near Lake Kawaguchi  on the foot of Mt.Fuji on May 31st (http://www.stellartheater.jp/).  This is the final day event of the series of MM’s spring consert tour 2014 and a special train “Morning Musume ’14” featuring MM is going to be operated in commemoration of the events  between Ohtsuki station and Kawaguchiko station of Fujikyuko Railway(http://e.fujikyu-railway.jp/) only on the 31st.

The special train consists of three cars each of which will be decorated with MM’s posters and other items.And at all the 18 stations along the line, in-house announcements will be made by MM’s members, with limited number of memorial train tickets will be sold at the station.

 

Mt. Fuji officially registered as a World Cultural Heritage Site

Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain and a prominent symbol of Japan, was officially registered as World Cultural Heritage Site  at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Cambodia on this 22nd.

A lot of Japanese are quite happy and excited with this big news.  A special committee consisting of  special staff of  Yamanashi prefectural government and that of  Shizuoka prefecture has resolved to start collecting a 1,000 yen admission fee per person for Mt. Fuji on trial basis  from  climbers  9:00am to 6:00pm Jul.25-Aug.3 which is a high summer  period, called “Mt.Fuji Conservation Cooperation Money”. That fee, however, is not compulsory and   those who make that contribution will be given a commemorative tin badge.

 

Hakone Yuryo open for one-day hot spring bathing tours

Hakone Yuryo, a new  hot spring  facility opened in Hakone Yumoto, the basic station area of Hakone resort area on March 27th. (http://www.hakoneyuryo.jp/  or  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.488238681231944.1073741826.442578639131282&type=3)

Hakone Yuryo(/箱根湯寮, a hot spring facility in Hakone) is established for visitors who would like to enjoy hot spring baths and related services of relaxation in one-day tours.

Hakone Yuryo is located in the vicinity of Hakone Yumoto station and free shuttle buses can take you there taking just 3 minutes.  The facility is equipped with big public bath, 19 private open-air baths, some other types of bath items, a restaurant, souvenir shop, a massage parlor ,and stuff.  The basic fee of an adult visitor(13 years or older ) is 1300 yen (≒＄13 )and of a child is 650 yen, and additional services require surcharges respectively.

 

Hakone Owakudani aerial railway station’s new building open

Owakudani aerial railway station’s new building opened after a long term of remodeling construction in Hakone on April 24th.

Hakone as  a whole is a quite famous and popular tourist destination among both Japanese and foreign tourists, and Owakudani is one of the most popular part in the hot spring resort area of Hakone. (http://www.owakudani.com/index-e.html)

Odakyu that owns the facilities there spent 10 billion yen on the construction, as the old building built in 1959 had become very old and also some functions were not good enough.  And now, visitors there are able to see the columns of smoke from the Owakudani valley the prominent eye-catcher of the area, Suruga Bay,  Tokyo SkyTree, and Mt, Fuji from inside the restaurant inf the new building, all of which were not seen from the old one.

“Zetsubou Yousai “, a new attraction at FujiQ Highland

“Zetsubou Yousai”(/絶望要塞,  the fortress of despair), a new labyrinth -type attraction is going to start operation on coming Jul.28th in FujiQ Highland, a popular amusement park in Shizuoka pref. (http://www.fujiq.jp/en/)

A visitor to the attraction plays a role of an inmate who tries to escape from the “fortress” as a huge and tricky prison solving tasks and dodging traps. According to the park, the possibility of a prisoner should be quite close to 0 % and if the visitor is fortunate enough to escape successfully, such a winner will be given special prizes. The admissin fee of per visitor will be 800 yen.

 

Cosplay snowboarding at Yeti ski resort

Yeti is a ski resort near Mt. Fuji and is easily accessible, being a 90 minute highway drive from Tokyo. It is the first ski resort to open for the 2011/12 snow season in Japan.

Opening to a large crowd of keen skiiers/boarders, and with a 50cm base, fun was had all round.

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