Dokkyo Medical University and the World Heritage-listed Nikko Toshogu shrine are teaming up to help the nation's tourism agencies and hospitals cash in on the growth of medical tourism.
The university in Mibu, Tochigi Prefecture, and the shrine in Nikko in the prefecture will jointly establish the International Society of Tourism Medicine (ISTM) to look into ways of attracting people to visit Japan for medical checkups. Every year, about 60,000 foreigners visit Nikko, which counts the shrine and the Kinugawa onsen resort among its top tourist attractions. Hotels in the resort offer medical service packages, which include a hotel stay and a complete medical checkup. (Yomiuri)
In a city where some traditional inns are more than 400 years old, the Westin Miyako Kyoto, which celebrates its 120th anniversary this year, is a relative newcomer to the world of Kyoto lodgings. But since the Meiji Era, the hotel now known as the Westin Miyako has greeted a long line of visiting royalty, heads of state, Hollywood stars, artists and musicians, and all manner of Japanese dignitaries.
In the lobby are photos of past guests ranging from Charlie Chaplin and Helen Keller to Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. President George H.W. Bush.
Located in eastern Kyoto, at the edge of the Higashiyama mountain range and not far from Heian Shrine, the Westin Miyako was, from the time it opened, an unofficial state guesthouse for visiting foreign dignitaries at a time when Japan had just opened itself up to the West after centuries of isolation. (Japan Times)
More than 250,000 people--a record high--have climbed Mt. Fuji by the trail on the mountain's Yamanashi Prefecture side this season, according to the Mt. Fuji safety guidance center.
Last year, 247,066 people--the previous record--climbed the nation's highest mountain from the Yamanashi Prefecture side. The figure is likely to reach 260,000 by Tuesday, the last day of the climbing season, which started July 1.
According to the center at the 6th stage of Mt. Fuji, the season's 250,000th climber set out on the Yoshidaguchi trail at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday. (Yomiuri)
Sunshine International Aquarium, located atop the Sunshine City building in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, will close for a year beginning Wednesday for large-scale renovations to compete better with other aquariums in the Kanto region.
When it opened in 1978, the aquarium was touted as the first in Japan to be build on top of a high-rise. In recent years, the aquarium has suffered a decline in visitors as rival venues opened. (Japan Times)
Long a favorite of lovers and honeymooners, a Japanese beach town with fading sparkle has found a new tourism niche in the wired age by drawing young men and their virtual girlfriends.
One recent sweltering summer's day, a tour bus from Tokyo pulled up at a sun-kissed beach at Atami, a Pacific coast resort southwest of the metropolis, and disgorged more than a dozen excited, iPhone-clutching young men.
The determined youngsters, paying scant attention to the bikini-clad girls frolicking on the sand, instead headed straight for a bronze statue that depicts Kanichi and Omiya, a couple from an old love story set in Atami. (inquirer.net)
Nintendo, Sony, Sega, Canon, Nikon, Toshiba, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan -- these are just some of the brands that helped build Japan's reputation as a leader in cutting-edge technology. But this ancient country is also home to centuries-old traditions, which endure despite the hi-tech revolution that has taken place around them. The contrast between old and new is what makes Japan a truly fascinating country to visit. (Toronto Sun)
Japan's tightly regulated skies have been seeing some changes in recent years, with a wave of low-cost carriers from Asia entering the market and domestic budget airlines rising to intensify the competition.
Observers are looking carefully at the impact on the Japanese airline industry, especially what it means for All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Corp.
When JAL filed for protection from its creditors in January, transport minister Seiji Maehara said he would take a close look at whether Japan will need two megacarriers in the future, when competition will only grow more intense. (Japan Times)
One of the most fascinating things about Tokyo is the way it combines both the ancient and the modern. Or rather, the way it doesn't combine them at all, so the new and the old are side by side everywhere you turn.
Take the metro to the Chiyoda Ward in central Tokyo and you'll find yourself surrounded by a tangle of glass and steel skyscrapers - until out of nowhere appears a moat, a pavilion of neatly trimmed grass and the hulking stone walls of the imperial palace. There's hardly a guard in sight and entrance to the surrounding gardens is free and open to the public. (Fox News)
Powerful drum beats, cheerful songs and passionate dancing from Brazil will fill Tokyo's Asakusa district, the capital's traditional downtown, during the 30th Asakusa Samba Carnival.
The annual event was launched in 1981 by an association of local stores in an effort to revitalize the area. The group modeled the event after Rio de Janeiro's famed Carnival. The festival attracted some 500,000 audiences last year, according to the organizers.
The event, which runs from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Aug. 28, will take the form of a contest. (Japan Times)Chinese discount carrier Spring Airlines will offer a 4,000 yen one-way ticket between Shanghai and Ibaraki Airport, about 80 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, from September 15 to 29 on a total of 14 flights, it said Wednesday. The discount fare will apply to around 10 percent of the total 180 seats per flight, while fares for other seats are set at between 8,000 yen and 26,000 yen.
Spring Airlines launched chartered flights between the two destinations in July, and has recently received approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to offer the 4,000 yen ticket. (AP)
A ninja takes you through a dark narrow path, serves you food and drink and performs magic in a restaurant in Tokyo's Akasaka district where the likes of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and famed film director Steven Spielberg have dined. The Ninja Akasaka theme restaurant, opened in 2001, has been attracting around 3,000 to 5,000 customers a month, according to Will Planning Inc., its managing company. (Japan Times)
A slew of luxury hotels are nearing completion in a number of Japanese cities, with operators delighted at the state of the inbound tourism industry despite the strength of the yen against other currencies.
Figures released by the Japan National Tourism Organisation show that some 4.2 million foreign tourists visited Japan in the first six months of the calendar year, up a remarkable 35.8 percent from a year earlier and the second-highest figure ever recorded for the period.
To meet the surging demand for top-notch accommodation in Japan's second city, the first St. Regis hotel in the country will open in the heart of Osaka's bustling commercial and entertainment district on October 1. (independent.co.uk)
We step off the bus at Magome and look in disbelief at the steep cobbled slope winding up the hill in front of us. In the past there would have been scrawny porters elbowing each other out of the way, vying to cart our bags. Had we been great lords we would have been carried up by palanquin, with thousands of retainers and guards barking at the peasants to get down on their knees. But in 21st-century Japan there's nothing for it but to walk.
We sigh, pick up our bags and set off up the hill. Behind us Mount Ena rises spectacularly. A huge waterwheel slowly turns, creaking and splashing, and a narrow stream trickles noisily alongside the road. There are no electric wires overhead and no cars and every now and then we catch a whiff of wood smoke. (FT.com)
Scrambling across hillsides may not be everyone's cup of tea, but we naturalists are determined folk and take such activities in our stride when exploring our environment. Take the average hillside or mountainside in Japan; what does it consist of? Usually, forested slopes on dark soils, with bare rock exposed here and there. Yet occasionally, an observant and well-traveled hiker may notice loose rocks - not ones recently shattered by winter's freeze-thaw processes, or formed by crashing rock falls - but rounded rocks, weathered and worn, though not as smooth as if they have spent millennia in running water. (Japan Times)
Ramada Osaka offers an accommodation plan that encourages guests to see historic sites in Osaka and Kyoto and visit trendy, faddish "power spots." Going to so-called power spots - places believed to give visitors some special energy, healing or refreshing, spiritual feeling - has been a popular activity among some Japanese of late. The places are usually religious, historic or natural.
The accommodation plan at the Ramada Osaka for guests wishing to join this fad comes with a one-day tourist ticket, which allows unlimited use of local subways, city buses and some trains, as well as free entrance to 26 tourist spots and facilities, such as Osaka Castle. (Japan Times)
Matching wine with Japanese food can be fraught with difficulty. A refined, oak-aged Bordeaux paired with a cool plate of sashimi, for example, can come across as brash and overbearing, completely drowning out the subtle spectrum of seafood flavors. But that's not to say great matches are impossible. They do exist; but like all forms of cross-cultural communication, it helps if you're flexible - both with your choice of wines and your seasoning. Wines that are designed to suit Japanese cuisine are almost nonexistent, but there is one winemaker who has made an effort to adapt his product for such dishes. (Japan Times)
High in the Northern Alps of Japan there are snowfields in August. Up above the tree line, wherever the bare geology dips into cirques, thick blankets of dirty white stretch out between the peaks and jagged ridges like caught clouds. In summer, these mountains are a patchwork of green, white, and exposed tawny rock. In winter, they are meters deep in snow, smoothly fondant-frosted. But in between, in October, crimsoned foliage brocades the slopes and the snowfields have receded to leave only the unmelted slivers of winters past - some centuries old, perhaps - in the shadowed clefts and recesses where erosion and glaciation have incised and ground away the rock. (Japan Times)
The Miyanoharu Line that connected Oita and Kumamoto prefectures in Kyushu was a scenic wonder when it opened along its entire route in 1954, winding for 27 km through mountains and valleys and across no fewer than seven bridges in the town of Oguni in Kumamoto alone. But back when construction of the railroad started in 1935, Japan was gearing up to wage war in China and those beautiful, arched bridges are believed to have been made of concrete reinforced with bamboo instead of steel bars, according to Keisuke Imao, a freelance writer who specializes in railways and maps. (Japan Times)
Some hotels
around the world try to lure you in with perks such as free Internet, free continental breakfast or free night stays for repeat customers. One hotel in Japan though, tries to appeal to unique customers by offering something you won't find in most hotel rooms anywhere. That is a model train.
The Washington Hotel, located in Akihabara, Tokyo has a room just made for the model train lovers and offers a suite featuring a detailed model train diorama that matches the surrounding neighborhood. Guests are welcome to either bring their own model trains to use on the model set or they can rent some trains from the front desk. (Asia Sentinel)
Al fresco tables are at a premium at this time of year, especially if the view you want is one of leafy nature rather than city traffic or nearby buildings. Add quality food into that equation and the choices narrow even further. However, one place that fits the bill perfectly is Park Side Cafe, down in the Yokohama suburb of Nakamachidai.
We first discovered it some seven years ago, when it was still very new, but it has changed little since then. The elegant building - designed by architect Ken Yokogawa, whose offices are on the second floor - nestles among trees and bamboo. (Japan Times)
Japan's Seto Inland Sea, known for its breathtaking vistas and art-filled island of Naoshima, is the site for the inaugural Setouchi International Art Festival until October 31. Also titled as a "100-Day Art and Sea Adventure," about 78 Japanese and internationally recognized artists and art groups are showing a cornucopia of contemporary artworks on seven islands - Naoshima, Teshima, Megijima, Ogijima, Shodoshima, Oshima, Inujima - and the port areas of Takamatsu (on Shikoku Island) and Uno (on Honshu, near Okayama). For Asia, it's a unique, ambitious undertaking, spearheaded by Soichiro Fukutake, an avid art patron and head of Okayama-based Benesse Inc. The Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation is also involved, with additional backing from local and prefectural governments. (Japan Times)
Tokyo's Haneda airport unveiled a new passenger terminal Monday that will handle international flights once its fourth runway becomes operational Oct. 21. The new five-story terminal will open the same day. The terminal, with floor space of 154,000 sq. meters, is just across a runway from Terminal No. 1. A station will be built near the new facility so it can be accessed by bus, train and monorail, with travel times from central Tokyo of 15 to 20 minutes. (Japan Times)
Rice farming has sustained the people of northern Japan's Inakadate village for two thousand years. Today, the ancient rice fields are the source of food and art.
Up close, the stalks of rice look like any other found in a rice paddy. CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton reports there are several varieties planted here, each with different colored leaves. Combine them together and an enormous 15,000 square foot image is revealed.
Every year, a local art teacher produces a computerized sketch. It's transferred onto a grid, and mapped with thousands of dots. It's then painstakingly recreated - point by point onto the rice field.
Then, it's a family affair as villagers of all generations join in to hand-plant each rice shoot. Three months later, the rice field of dreams comes alive in sweeping images. (CBS)