TRAVEL

The Japanese clearly value tradition, yet for one reason or another - fire, natural disaster, the second world war, an enthusiasm for progress - there aren't many towns left that truly encapsulate the way things were. Kyoto has its temples, but in between them is a thoroughly modern city. Takayama is different - an old castle town in the mountains of central Japan. You can still see the ruins of the 17th-century castle in the town's Shiroyama Park, but Takayama is much better known for its townscape of narrow lanes and low wooden buildings stained the colour of espresso. With its steep hills the town couldn't produce much rice, so it produced artisans instead. Many were carpenters, who would go on to work on the palaces and temples in Kyoto, then return to construct their signature lattice-front buildings for local merchants. (guardian.co.uk)

After being scared off by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, Chinese tourists are visiting Japan in record numbers again, generating much-needed business and optimism for the nation's struggling retail and tourism sectors. During the Lunar New Year holiday that sent millions of people traveling across Asia and beyond, tourists from mainland China thronged popular destinations in Japan, from ski slopes in the northern island of Hokkaido, to electronics stores in Tokyo, to ancient temples in Kyoto. That's quite a change from last spring, when tourism in Japan ground to a virtual halt amid radiation fears following the March 11 nuclear accident. In December, the number of Chinese visitors rose 32% from a year earlier to a record 80,000, following a similar increase in November. Anecdotal evidence suggests another surge in January. (Wall Street Journal)

Ryokans are Japanese-styled inns from centuries ago and are more than just a place to stay. They offer the visitor a chance to experience traditional Japanese lifestyle; from tatami (rice mats) covered floors and futon beds to Japanese styled baths and local cuisine presented in an authentic manner. They are a window into life in Japan in the old days. Ryokans originated sometime in the 17th century, and their primary purpose was to serve those travelling along Japanese highways such as the famed Tokaido road between Tokyo and Kyoto. They are typically stationed in a quiet, idyllic setting, often next to natural hot springs. While there are quite a few city ryokans in urban areas, seek out the ones next to the hot springs, known as onsen ryokan, for a tranquil Japanese holiday. The key to having a great time at a ryokan is to understand Japanese traditions beforehand. A quintessential ryokan experience would start when hosts greet their visitors at the street door. After the customary bowing, your shoes are replaced with slippers. According to Japanese tradition, it is considered impolite to ask for your shoes before the stay is over. Tea is served in a large entrance hall, where people can sit and talk, after which guests are shown to their rooms. (totaltele.com)

"If one was to be poisoned by radiation, if he or she did so out of their own will and conviction I believe it to be perfectly fine. But you can't force that onto the children. The children, you must distance them from the poisoned areas." So says Koide Hiroaki, Associate Professor at Kyoto University's Nuclear Test Facility and a prominent anti-nuclear campaigner, in the documentary Friends After 3.11, which will have its international premiere at next month's Berlin International Film Festival. Also being unveiled at the festival are two other Japanese films dealing with the March 11, 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power station and ensuing tsunami. Funahashi Atsushi's Nuclear Nation: The Fukushima Refugees Story, will have its world premiere in Berlin. Produced by Documentary Japan, it's described as a portrait of a mayor without a town who tries desperately to keep together a community scattered across various emergency shelters in the Tokyo suburbs. In the process, he questions old certainties. (sbs.com.au)

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)

An often misunderstood perception about the Japanese language is that it's long-winded and excessively polite. True, there's an entire lexicon devoted to politeness, called keigo (敬語, the language of reverence) and in Kyoto, there's such a thing as kyūtei kotoba (宮廷言葉, palatial language) - spoken almost exclusively among established families of imperial blood, and most of it indecipherable to the lower classes. But that's only one aspect of a diverse and ever-morphing language equipped with infinite shades of nuances and tiny, detailed quirks. And one of those details is seen (and heard) in the use of pronouns. Pronouns are a surefire indication of when a person is about to switch conversational lanes from polite to casual, formal to intimate. Men especially, will make the changeover from boku (僕) to ore (俺) in referring to themselves. (Japan Times)

NHK has a regular travel series called "Quiz de Go," which sends TV personalities to far-flung corners of Japan and then asks them questions about the area's local qualities. Several weeks ago, three celebrities were exploring Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture, and were turned on to a local delicacy called Curry-yaki. They sampled the treat in front of an 80-year-old woman who has been selling it for decades. She asked their opinion, and they answered excitedly with various takes on the word oishī (delicious). "Of course, I knew you were going to say that," the old lady remarked. Except for sugoi (wow!), does any Japanese word have less meaning from overuse than oishī? Every nuance has been exhausted due to the ubiquity of travel and food shows, and unless the morsel in question was prepared by some comedian or idol ripe for ridicule, reactions to food are invariably and effusively positive. (Japan Times)

Japanese cuisine is undergoing a renaissance with sophisticated food preparation and delicate handling of foodstuffs attracting increasing attention from non-Japanese. Locally produced foodstuffs also have been "rediscovered" by Japanese and this has helped people regain the confidence they lost in the face of the devastation caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. However, many non-Japanese are knocking on Japan's door to learn the skills of local chefs. Derek Wilcox, a 35-year-old American, is one of 20 chefs at Kikunoi Honten, a Kyoto restaurant founded in 1912 that serves such seasonal delicacies as sashimi made from tilefish and crab meat. He has worked at the restaurant for five years. (Yomiuri)

To start the year, here's an appreciation of a site in Japan that would have left even the Zen-imbued architects of Kyoto's sublime Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion) open-mouthed with awe. Not only that, but it's a site where basic questions about the nature of reality are being probed - questions that go beyond even the most mind-bending conundrums posed by Zen masters at the Enkaku-ji Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. (And I know they are mind-bending because I went on a Zen course there once, and we had to wake at 4 a.m. every day to meditate upon them.) The site I speak of is the Super-Kamiokande detector located under Mount Kamioka in the Japanese Alps near Hida City, Gifu Prefecture. (Japan Times)

Move over azuki and sweet sticky rice. While Japanese pastry chefs may have started using cocoa a few centuries after the West, this once foreign flavor has captivated Japan's confectionery world. Japanese chocolate makers and pastry chefs were the star guests at the 17th Salon du Chocolat held in Paris this week. One of them, Susumu Koyama, 47, was even named "Best Foreign Chocolatier" - winning out over top masters from celebrated chocolate-making nations like Belgium and Switzerland. And while "Japanese chocolate" may still strike some as incongruous, cocoa is definitely the rising star in the Land of the Rising Sun, said Susumu. Fermented tofu with chocolate cream filling was among the creations displayed at the 2011 Salon by Susumu, who was born into a family of Kyoto pastry chefs and said he relies on "instinct" and "nature" to ply his trade. (thedailynewsegypt.com)

South Korea's visiting president pressed his Japanese counterpart Sunday to resolve a long-standing grievance regarding Korean women forced to serve as sexual slaves during World War II, calling it a "stumbling block" in their relations. Japan maintains that the matter was settled by a bilateral treaty in 1965 that normalized relations, and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he reiterated that stance during their meeting in the ancient capital of Kyoto. Victims say they want compensation and the prosecution of wrongdoers. President Lee Myung-bak said only 63 women who have identified themselves publicly as former wartime sex slaves are still alive, average age 86. He said 16 such women died this year. (AP)

Japan's Supreme Court upheld a death sentence handed down on a member of the doomsday cult that staged gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995, a court spokesman said on Tuesday, ending the trials of cult followers charged in a series of assaults. Seiichi Endo, 51, was the 13th member of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult to have his death sentence confirmed in a ruling issued on Monday. First sentenced in 2002, Endo had joined the cult in 1987, when he was studying virology at the University of Kyoto. Local media said none of those found guilty had been executed. Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka last month said he would make no comment on the cases but would "cautiously decide" on whether to apply the death penalty. (Reuters)

A team of researchers from Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo has worked out a method using artificially created stem cells to produce a large volume of cells from which blood platelets can be derived outside the human body. The method using so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells may prove to be a boon for those who need repeated blood transfusions such as patients with blood cancers as well as aplastic anemia who suffer from declining bone marrow function. (Japan Times)

The Japanese and South Korean governments are making arrangements aimed at resuming stalled negotiations for a free trade agreement in the first half of next year, sources close to bilateral relations said Saturday. The two sides are hoping that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak will agree to resume the talks during the time frame when they meet for a bilateral summit on Dec. 17 in Kyoto, the sources said. (Japan Times)

The March 2011 megaquake off the coast of Japan opened up fissures as wide as 6 feet (3 meters) in the seafloor, a new study finds. The fissures now scar the seafloor where peaceful clam beds once lay, according to Takeshi Tsuji, a researcher at Kyoto University in Japan. Along with seismic studies, the fissures, revealed by manned submersible vehicles that investigated the seafloor after the quake, show how the crust around the quake's epicenter expanded and cracked. Tsuji and his colleagues had a unique opportunity to see how the seafloor changed after the magnitude-9.0 quake struck on March 11. Before the quake, the researchers had taken video and photographs of the seafloor on the continental side of the Japan Trench, near where the crust would later rupture, generating an enormous tsunami that killed about 20,000 people. (MSN)

The Kyoto District Court on Wednesday sentenced a 38-year-old assistant nurse to three years in prison for tearing off the big toenails of four patients at a hospital in Kyoto in August. Akemi Sato "repeated the vicious, relentless act for the selfish purpose of relieving work stress while she was in a position of taking care of patients," presiding Judge Akiyoshi Sasano said. The prosecution had sought a six-year prison term for Sato, noting she could repeat the offense. The same court gave her a 44-month prison term in 2006 for removing the nails of six patients at another Kyoto hospital in 2004. (Japan Times)

Environment Minister Goshi Hosono told environmentalists Tuesday that Japan won't reverse its refusal to accept fresh binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, officials of nongovernmental organizations said. Hosono reportedly said during a closed, informal meeting with the environmentalists from Japan and other countries that he is aware of the importance of the climate framework but reiterated that Japan will not accept a new commitment period. (Japan Times)

Sales of Nintendo Co Ltd's 3DS games device will hit 3 million units in the Japanese market within days, but consumers in the U.S. and Europe seem to be delaying their holiday season shopping due to poor economic conditions, the company said. Nintendo slashed the price of the 3DS by about 40 percent in August and announced a flood of new software, including titles in the much loved Mario series, in a bid to prop up sales of the gadget, which had slumped soon after its February launch. As a result, the Kyoto-based firm expects to sell 4 million of the machines in Japan within the first year, compared with a worldwide target of 16 million units by March 2012. (Reuters)

Japan loves top threes. Since the Edo Period (1603-1867), when it's said Confucian scholar Hayashi Shunsai traveled and wrote his great work "Nihon Sankei" ("Three Views of Japan"), magazines, tourist associations and local governments have captured the public imagination with their own interpretations of gold, silver and bronze. On this week's agenda, is the trio of celebrated "float-based" festivals; the Chichibu Shrine Night Festival, in mountainous western Saitama, earning it's berth alongside Kyoto's Gion Matsuri and the Takayama Matsuri in Gifu Prefecture.　With drum beats and flutes to the fore, six huge floats will display their gilded wood carvings, tapestries, and of course - it takes place in the evening after all - lanterns. They will weave through the crowds and toward City Hall, where a 2.5-hour firework display will celebrate their arrival in style. (Japan Times)

Japan will refuse to accept fresh binding targets for reducing developed countries' greenhouse gas emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the world's only legally binding framework for reining in heat-trapping gases, government officials said Tuesday. Japan will continue to seek a new framework that would require not only developed countries but all major gas-emitting nations to reduce emissions, the officials said. The administration of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda took the decision at a ministerial meeting Tuesday on climate change after nearly 200 countries across the globe started talks in Durban, South Africa, on Monday to discuss the fight against global warming. (Japan Times)

WITH international tourism numbers declining in light of its nuclear disaster, why not divert to Japan's southern islands for a slice of the country you will not find in any tourist brochure? Turquoise water and stunning coastal scenery will show you there is far more to Japan than the tourist-heavy mainland. When you think of Japan, people usually conjure up romantic images of picture-perfect gardens, geishas walking neatly through Kyoto or vast swathes of neon lights illuminating the Tokyo skyline. Well, there is a different Japan. A Japan where the intense heat is tempered by cool winds and sand so soft, and water so turquoise, that you question your preconceived images of the country. (Irish Times)

As the "bubble economy" of the '80s started to inflate, the nation's sex industry rose to the occasion as well, so to speak, reports Shukan Asahi Geino (Nov. 24). Dubbed the "fuzoku bubble," the period largely began with the establishment of Monroe Walk in Kyoto in June, 1980. It was the first no-pan kissa, or coffee shop in which women do not wear under garments. Other similar establishments opened in Osaka and Tokyo later that same year. The shops featured topless waitresses in mini-skirts and stockings parading across a reflective flooring with fans to serve coffee for between 1,500 and 2,000 yen. (Tokyo Reporter)

Toei Studios Kyoto announced on Monday that it was committed to breaking ties to organized crime, reports the Sakei Shimbun (Nov. 22). Once known for its of yakuza films from the 1970s, the studio, located in Ukyo Ward, said it was taking a bold step. "Films and reality are different," the studio said. Such a stance follows the enactment in October of nationwide legislation that prohibits ordinary citizens from having business dealings with criminal organizations. (Tokyo Reporter)

Enryakuji Temple, one of Japan's most prestigious temples near the ancient capital Kyoto, has refused to allow members of Japan's biggest organized crime syndicate to pay their respects there, an official said on Saturday. The temple's refusal follows a request from police, who are cracking down on yakuza gangsters nationwide. News of the temple's refusal was reported widely by Japanese media amid speculation that organized crime was somehow involved in an accounting scandal at Japan's disgraced Olympus. Members of Yamaguchi gumi group have made annual visits to the temple each August. In June, the temple in the Shiga prefecture of eastern Japan told the group they would not be welcome this year, said an official from the temple. (Reuters)

Evening was falling in the old Japanese capital of Kyoto, and I was tucking myself into a container slightly larger than a refrigerator. I pulled down the shade and, after a bit of contorting, lay down, the wall a few inches from my feet. It was a dainty little space, about 3 ¼ feet wide and 6 ½ feet long, charmingly traditional with rice-paper latticework and two woven-reed mats. I felt like an origami crane as I folded my 6-foot-2-inch frame into this "tatami capsule." The eight units at Capsule Ryokan (204 Tsuchihashicho, Shimogyo-ku; capsule-ryokan-kyoto.com) go for 3,500 yen a night, about $46 at 76 yen to the dollar. You don't get a lot of real estate for your yen, though the box had plenty of modern conveniences: a small LCD TV, high-speed Wi-Fi, dimmable lighting and a wall-mounted alarm clock. (New York Times)