TRAVEL

The Bank of Japan cut its economic assessment of seven of the country's nine regions as a global slowdown and the yen's gain threaten the nation's recovery from the March earthquake. Conditions in Hokkaido, Hokuriku, Kanto, Tokai, Kinki, Chugoku and the Kyushu-Okinawa area have deteriorated from October, the central bank said today in its quarterly Sakura Report on regional economies. It left its evaluation of Shikoku and the eartahquake-stricken region of Tohoku unchanged, citing reconstruction demand in the disaster area. (Bloomberg)

The year of the dragon, (tatsu, ryu or ryo in Japanese) is upon us - and now just hours before the New Year, I can see the dragon peeking out of his lair, counting down the seconds until he is allowed to take over the world for a year. As midnight approaches, he waits . . . 10, 9, 8, 7, ready to pounce . . . 6, 5, 4, breathing fire 3, 2, 1. . . . Happy New Year! We are engulfed in flames. Japanese dragons are said to be benevolent but don't be fooled. They can still be very wrathful. Take the legend of Burning Mountain, for example. Burning Mountain is in Shikoku, between temples 11 and 12 on the Shikoku 88-Temple Pilgrimage. The name Burning Mountain comes from a legend that Kobo Daishi (774-835), the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan, subdued a fiery dragon who lived there. (Japan Times)

Okunoshima, a small island floating in the Inland Sea between Hiroshima and Shikoku, used to be a top-secret military site manufacturing poison gas. Not exactly the kind of place you'd think to spend an idyllic afternoon. Of course, that was before the rabbits took over. In 1971, a group of schoolchildren released eight rabbits on the island. The rabbits did what rabbits do best and now the 700-square-meter island is home to more than 300 of their floppy-eared descendants, earning it the nickname Usagi Shima, or Rabbit Island. While the Okunoshima museum chronicling Japan's use of poison gas has been drawing school groups for decades, the island has more recently joined the ranks of cat cafes and dog-rental shops as a destination for Japan's pet-less cravers of cute. (CNN)

Radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have reached as far as Hokkaido, Shikoku and the Chugoku region in the west, according to a recent simulation by an international research team. Large areas of eastern and northeastern Japan were likely contaminated by the plant, with concentrations of cesium-137 exceeding 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil in some places, says the study, which was posted Monday on the website of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers for the U.S.-based organization said the study, which was based on partial data readings, is the first to estimate potential cesium contamination across the country. But they also played down the incident's impact on the three distant regions. (Japan Times)

Armed with a pilgrim's peaked straw hat, white shirt and walking stick, the former leader was spotted visiting Enmeiji temple, the 54th spot on the pilgrimage route, according to reports. It is not the first time Mr Kan has swapped politics for pilgrimages: he followed the same path in July 2004, when he was forced to step down as leader of the Democratic Party of Japan over a scandal relating to unpaid pensions premiums. On that occasion, he shaved his hair, donned his pilgrim's outfit and dutifully embarked on the same temple route in Shikoku, an ancient 1,200km loop which is among the most famous of Japan's pilgrimages. (telegraph.co.uk)

Southern Awaji Island is technically in Hyogo Prefecture. But its location - within sight of Shikoku just across the Inland Sea - bright sunshine, and strong gusting winds give it the feel of a subtropical island. The breezes are especially important, because the city of Minamiawaji, the main population center, is home to a wind farm that sits on a hilly area between 118 and 225 meters above sea level. Fifteen turbines of 2,500 kw each provide 37,500 kw. They generate enough power for 12,000 households - two-thirds of Minamiawaji's total. (Japan Times)