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Boasting dozens of restaurants and shops and the highest household consumption rate of "gyoza," Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi Prefecture, has long been regarded as the capital of the Chinese dumpling as well. News photo Pot stickers: "Gyoza" dumplings are arranged for a photo Wednesday at a restaurant in Minato Ward, Tokyo. YOSHIAKI MIURA But no longer. For the first time in 16 years, the city lost its No. 1 ranking in gyoza consumption, beaten out by Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, according to a recent survey of household spending released Tuesday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Last year, Utsunomiya households spent on average just ¥3,737 on the dumplings, down 40 percent from a record high ¥6,133 in 2010. Meanwhile, households in Hamamatsu spent ¥4,313, down 10 percent from ¥4,754 in 2010. (Japan Times)

The Japanese government decided Wednesday to recommend that Mt. Fuji and the ancient capital Kamakura be added to the list of cultural World Heritage sites, aiming to see them registered by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2013. The government will file its recommendations with the Paris-based UNESCO World Heritage Center by Feb. 1. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will decide whether to formally register the sites in the middle of 2013. Mt. Fuji as a cultural World Heritage candidate covers a 70,000-hectare area in Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, including five major lakes, the Shiraito Falls and the Miho-no-Matsubara pine grove. (Mainichi)

Wild and remote, cold and barely inhabited, Hokkaido is unlike any other place in jam-packed Japan. Most of the country's northernmost island consists of wilderness, hot springs, forests and national parks, all contributing to a palette of striking mountain and coastal scenery. The island's capital, Sapporo, began in the 19th century as an administrative centre designed to discourage foreign incursions, but American and European advisers helped chart its future economy. Possessing few ancient historic relics like Nara, Hiraizumi and Kyoto do Sapporo instead has wide streets, mostly modern architecture and lots of parks, gardens and scattered green belts. But it's mid-winter, when the greens shed their colour and up to 6m of snow tumbles down, that Sapporo really shines, attracting two million visitors to the glittering Sapporo Snow Festival. (adelaidenow.com.au)

The cherry blossom viewing season is likely to start at around the same time as usual in many parts of the nation this year because temperatures are expected to rise around late February, Weather Map Co. said Friday. According to a forecast by the private Tokyo-based firm, the year's first cherry blossoms will appear on March 23 in Shizuoka Prefecture, followed by Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Kochi prefectures a day later. Elsewhere, the "someiyoshino" species of cherry tree is expected to bloom on March 25 in Tokyo, March 27 in Nagoya and March 28 in Osaka. (Japan Times)

She was on a train from Tokyo to Atami in the summer of 1959 when the English travel writer Ethel Mannin "saw what I had read about and been told about but felt unable to accept until I had seen it for myself." What the mortified Ms. Mannin beheld was the passenger in the seat opposite her stand up, remove his trousers and shirt, and then settle down for the rest of the journey in short underpants and a singlet. Though the days of blithely peeling off layers of clothing on trains may have gone, shedding garments is what Atami is all about. And, given the countless opportunities it offers to soak in its scalding waters, a stay at this major hot-spring resort in Shizuoka Prefecture presupposes a degree of exposure. (Japan Times)

The Japan Tourism Agency said Monday it has added three areas in disaster-hit northeastern Japan, including a town in Iwate Prefecture with historic assets that was recently listed as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural site, as designated regional tourism spots where it expects foreign visitors to increase. The designation of Hiraizumi in Iwate Prefecture, Sendai and Matsushima in Miyagi Prefecture, and Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture comes after the agency chose 11 locations in other regions of Japan in April, when it postponed selection in the Tohoku region to assess the outlook for reconstruction following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. (Kyodo)

The Buddhist temples and landscape in the ancient town of Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture, in northeastern Japan, have won approval as a World Heritage cultural site at an ongoing UNESCO meeting in Paris, Japanese government officials said Saturday. Hiraizumi becomes Japan's 12th World Heritage cultural site, according to the decision by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee, and follows endorsement of the Ogasawara island chain in the Pacific south of Tokyo as the country's fourth natural heritage site. (Kyodo)