TRAVEL

Japan lifted a state of emergency Tuesday in a southern region known for its prized and pampered cattle, after a three-month foot-and-mouth outbreak forced the slaughter of almost 300,000 farm animals. The highly contagious virus, which rarely affects humans but sickens cloven-hoofed animals, had forced the suspension of meat sales from Miyazaki prefecture. "Wagyu" cattle -- from both Miyazaki on Kyushu island and Kobe on Honshu island -- are famed for being pampered, fed beer and massaged daily, sometimes with sake, and some are even played classical music for relaxation. (AFP)

Skymark Airlines will resume scheduled flights between Ibaraki Airport, northeast of Tokyo, and Kobe city on Oct. 1 after terminating them in August, Skymark President Shinichi Nishikubo said Tuesday. Skymark will also launch flights to Sapporo and Nagoya from Ibaraki Airport by March 2011, he told a press conference. The airport in Omitama city is located 80 kilometers northeast of Tokyo. It just opened in March. (AP)

In the years following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when Japan ended nearly 2 1/2 centuries of isolation, Tokyo, Yokohama and Kobe in particular saw a large influx of Western men in uniform, merchants, teachers and clerics. One of the first things many did upon arriving in Japan was make contact with fellow expatriates at social clubs modeled after those in Europe and the United States. Members could find food and drinks like those at home, catch up on news from outside Japan and take in a host of activities ranging from dancing to billiards to tennis and squash. The most prominent social clubs founded by Western expatriates include the Tokyo American Club and the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club, the Kobe Club, and the Kobe Regatta and Athletic Club. (Japan Times)

Vietnam has been getting a lot of attention from Japanese companies thanks to its rising middle class and plans for large-scale development projects, such as nuclear power plants and railway systems. More and more Japanese companies are interested in hiring Vietnamese employees to do businesses in the country. For such firms, there are potential employees already living in Japan, as an increasing number of students from Vietnam are studying here, helping to create a bridge between the two countries. Last month, Tran Minh Hue, a postgraduate student at Kobe University, traveled all the way to Tokyo to attend a job event aimed exclusively at Vietnamese wanting to work for Japanese companies after completing their education this academic year. (Yomiuri)

Two Japanese students have won gold medals at an annual international mathematics competition for high school students, which was held earlier this month in Kazakhstan with 517 participants from 96 nations and areas, the education ministry said Monday. Shutaro Inoue, 17, senior at Nada Senior High School in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, and Akio Kishikawa, 18, senior at Kurume University High School in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, were awarded the medals as they finished in the top 9 percent of the contestants in the 51st International Mathematical Olympiad, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. (AP)

Japanese researchers have for the first time in the nation successfully used stem cells to treat heart disease, opening up the possibility of replacing the need to resort to artificial hearts or transplants. Prof. Hiroaki Matsubara and his team from Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine harvested the stem cells from the patient's heart, used them to grow new heart muscle cells, and replanted them. The patient--Shigeki Yamaguchi from Nagata Ward, Kobe--had been ill with acute heart disease and had suffered a heart attack in February. (Yomiuri)

As a keen observer of perversions, fetishes and assorted erotica, evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai (June 29) believes it has uncovered Japan's first club that combines soapland and SM services. Kobe R&B opened in Hyogo Prefecture in May. Individual rooms are outfitted in red and black furnishings and offer the prospect of limb shackling to the ceiling or bed. Various vibrators and electric stimulation devices are provided for the S and M courses. (Tokyo Reporter)

Nine artworks using material from fake Louis Vitton products have been removed from an exhibition at a Kobe museum after the fashion company protested, it was learned Sunday. The 40-cm-long pieces by Mitsuhiro Okamoto of Kyoto are shaped like locusts and titled "Batta-mon" ("Locust Stuff"). In the Kansai dialect, batta-mon is slang for knockoff. (Japan Times)

Skymark Airlines said Thursday it will stop operating flights between Ibaraki and Kobe at the end of August, only four months after the carrier started offering services on the route. Skymark is currently the sole domestic airline providing daily round- trip flights at Ibaraki Airport, which opened in March as the third airport in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The carrier said it had made the decision due to the difficulty of increasing flights and operating profitably at the airport, which is also used by the Air Self-Defense Force. (AP)

It is a calamity for this quiet cattle community. A prized black calf born last fall will soon be killed, part of the mass destruction of livestock in Japan's battle against its worst foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in at least a century. The epidemic threatens to ravage the country's trade in prime marbled beef, considered a delicacy in this country. Miyazaki, on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, is one of Japan's top beef producers and sends calves to other cattle-producing regions across the country, including the area that produces the famed Kobe brand. (New York Times)

Japan Airline Corp. terminated all of its flights Monday at Kobe Airport as part of its restructuring. JAL ended flights between Kobe and Shin-Chitose Airport in Hokkaido and Naha and Ishigaki airports in Okinawa. JAL's withdrawal is a blow to the money-losing Kobe Airport, which is expected to suffer operating losses for both fiscal 2009 and 2010. The airport will lose much of the its landing fees, a pillar of its operations. In 2009, JAL flights accounted about 35 percent of its landing fees of ¥690 million. (Japan Times)

At least 28 types of the new-influenza virus on the genetic level entered Japan from the outbreak last spring to late September, researchers at the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center said Wednesday. The virus type that spread across Kobe and Osaka during the initial phase of the outbreak in the country in May last year is believed to have been eradicated due mainly to speedy implementation of measures including a widespread closure of schools, according to the results of analysis. (AP)

Torrential rain hit the Kinki region and Shikoku on Monday, causing a mudslide in Kobe and disrupting railway services across wide areas, but no injuries were reported. The Meteorological Agency said the low-pressure system that caused the heavy rain in large parts of the country Sunday developed further, and rainfall of 367 mm was recorded in Kochi Prefecture and 188.5 mm in Hyogo Prefecture for the 24 hours to 10:40 a.m. Monday. (Japan Times)

Four Vietnamese have been arrested on suspicion of growing a large amount of marijuana at three houses in Hyogo Prefecture, in one of the largest marijuana seizures by a narcotics control department. A total of 1,443 plants were seized at three houses, which had been renovated to produce marijuana with a street value of over 100 million yen, the Kobe branch of the Narcotics Control Department at the Kinki Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare announced Monday. (Yomiuri)

The port of Tokyo, with 13 percent of the annual container volume of Singapore, is competing with other Japanese cities for government funds as the administration strives to create a harbor able to challenge the world's busiest. Tokyo, Japan's biggest container port, is teaming with Kawasaki and Yokohama for its presentation to the committee that will pick as many as two groups to develop. Bids are also being made by Nagoya-Yokkaichi, Osaka-Kobe and ports in northern Kyushu. (Japan Times)

The surging popularity of a women's professional baseball league launched last month has prompted organizers to hastily rearrange game venues and schedules, it has been learned. League officials are desperately looking for alternative stadiums with a larger capacity, after it emerged that a 600-seat stadium at Kobe Sports Park was too small to accommodate would-be spectators for the upcoming nine Girls Professional Baseball League (GPBL) games. (Mainichi)

After exploring the finest eateries of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, the Michelin Guide has set its sights on three more Japanese cities, publishers of the French food guide said Thursday. Yokohama and Kamakura, both south of the capital, will be added to the 2011 edition of the Michelin Guide Tokyo to be released in November, while Kobe will be added to the Kyoto-Osaka guide. Michelin last year anointed Tokyo as the world capital of three-star restaurants, scoring 11 such prizes in the 2010 edition, against 10 in Paris. (AFP)

The fate of Skymark Airlines' discount rates on its route from Ibaraki Airport to Kobe set to start Friday remains up in the air as the company's cost-cutting plan for the flights has yet to receive government approval. Skymark plans to keep costs down on the route by bringing ground staff, mechanics and even parts into Ibaraki on each flight instead of basing staff at the airport. After checking in customers and performing necessary aircraft maintenance, the Skymark staff would head back to Kobe on the return flight -- a plan that has allowed the discount carrier to offer reservations for one-way tickets at only 5,800 yen if booked three weeks in advance or more. (Mainichi)

Peculiar weather patterns this spring have kept cherry blossoms in bloom longer than usual across the country, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Thursday. While high temperatures from early to mid-March helped cherry blossoms come out early, the subsequent period for the flowers to reach full blossom -- normally one week -- has been drawn out due to cold weather in late March, the agency said said. Cherry blossoms took as long as 19 days from blooming to reach peak blossoms in Matsuyama, the longest ever observed in the city, followed by 16 days in Miyazaki, 15 days in Kobe and Takamatsu, and 14 days in Osaka -- all record lengths. In Nagoya, the period was a record-tying 15 days. (AP)

Travelers to Japan may never stray from the urban comfort of Tokyo and Kyoto, deeming the back roads too mysterious and awkward. But I wondered how an American would fare off the beaten path, where road signs are in Japanese characters and driving is done on the left. The answer came with the exploration of the Tango Peninsula in the Sea of Japan due north of Kobe, when I was offered a chance to ride with three Australians. They planned to sleep in two remote fishing villages, including one night on a Japanese houseboat. As an extra treat, we might visit the seaside village of Obama. (Chicago Tribune)

National policy minister Yoshito Sengoku said Sunday that he was willing to let top-flight foreign doctors practice medicine here without a Japanese medical license. "Foreign doctors are required to take the examination in Japan for medical practitioners, but it is disrespectful for worldwide-level doctors," he told reporters in Kobe. "I want to remove such a system." (Japan Times)

Ibaraki Airport opened Thursday as the third airport in the Tokyo metropolitan area, with a daily flight to and from Seoul by South Korea's Asiana Airlines serving as the only regular flight at the initial stage. Although domestic budget carrier Skymark Airlines is scheduled to start a daily roundtrip flight between Ibaraki and Kobe from April 16, the need for the 22-billion-yen airport has been called into question as it serves only 600 people a day for the time being, even if both the Asiana and Skymark flights are operated at full capacity. (AP)

Undeterred by the ongoing economic gloom and increasing competition in Japan's clothing sector, two foreign-owned chains are expanding their presence here by opening their first stores in western Japan this weekend. Barneys New York is opening its first Japan flagship store outside Tokyo in the port city of Kobe Friday, with a special fashion collection designed in collaboration with British supermodel Agyness Deyn. Companies such as Barneys New York and H&M are taking advantage of the newfound popularity of reasonably priced clothing lines in a country that not long ago prided itself on the amount of famous brand-name goods snapped up by consumers. Today, cheaper is chic. (independent.co.uk)

The Ibaraki prefectural government and cities located around Ibaraki Airport are desperate to attract tourists from South Korea, with the airport set to begin operations on March 11 despite services between the airport and Seoul being the only regular flight to and from the new facility. The airport will mark its opening with no domestic flights. Skymark Airlines has agreed to begin flights from Kobe Airport in April, but the prospects for the airport remain bleak as Japan Airlines plans to slash the number of its domestic flights after filing for bankruptcy protection. (Yomiuri)

A 43-year-old Japanese man was found dead Friday near his guitar workshop in the suburbs of Santa Rosa, California, according to an online report by the local Press Democrat newspaper. The man, identified in the report as Taku Sakashta, a guitar maker whose instruments earned him international acclaim and $30,000 apiece, is believed to be Taku Sakashita from Kobe, but no further details were immediately available. (AP)