TRAVEL

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)

A theme park featuring popular "anime" series "Mobile Suit Gundam" will open on April 19 in Tokyo's Odaiba district. According to Bandai Co., the new theme park, named Gundam Front Tokyo, will have a huge dome-shaped screen showing images of Gundam, the venerated fighting robot in the popular series, and rare documents related to the series' production will be on display. The theme park will be on the seventh floor of a new shopping complex, DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, opening on April 19. An 18-meter statue of Gundam will stand outside the complex. A second outlet of the popular Gundam Cafe, located in Akihabara, Tokyo, will also open on the second floor of the complex. (Japan Times)

A new landmark has opened in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district that houses specialty shops for "Akiba culture" goods. The six-story Akiba Culture Zone, which used to be a Laox Co. computer store until it closed in 2007 after business declined, now has tenants offering such items as comics, animation figurines and pop idol goods. The shops include K-Books on the first and second floors, which stocks about 140,000 books and comics and about 300,000 recycled items, including games, figures and coterie magazines. (Japan Times)

Streets are bathed in indigo hues when I emerge from the Hibiya subway line's Tsukiji Station, heading for Tsukiji Oroshiuri Shijo which, though its name translates simply as "Tsukiji Wholesale Market," is actually the world's largest fish market. At 6 a.m., it's too late to catch the famed tuna or melon auctions, but I've got scaled-back ambitions. Fish stories and a filet or two will do. Heading south on Shin Ohashi avenue, with Tsukiji's Jogai Shijo (outer market) on my left, I pass through clouds of steam from sidewalk ramen shops. What changes there must have been in this area, I muse, since it first began to rise as landfill from Tokyo Bay in the Edo Period (1603-1867). By the mid-1600s, fishermen living on both the new mudflats of Tsukiji and raised islands across the Sumida River were netting the primary source of protein for the estimated half a million residents of Edo (present-day Tokyo). (Japan Times)

The New National Theatre, Tokyo, (NNTT) is opening its 2012 opera season with a classic by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. The Puccini piece, "La Boheme," is especially popular with Japanese opera fans and this time around it will be directed by Jun Aguni and conducted by Germany's Constantin Trinks. The piece is set in Paris in the 1830s and centers on the love story of poet Rodolfo (Ji Min Park), and seamstress Mimi Veronica Cangemi). It will be both Cangemi and Park's first performances at the NNTT. Cangemi is an Argentinian soprano and has performed on some of the most celebrated stages in the world. Park is a tenor who hails from South Korea. (Japan Times)

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)

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)

The world-renowned and most visited Louvre Museum of France is due to bring more than 20 art works to Japan as a show of solidarity with the Japanese in the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the country on March 11 and which triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. The announcement on Friday was made by Jean-Luc Martinez, director of the department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities at the Louvre museum. Louvre which is home to the world's greatest masterpieces will hold the exhibit in Japan specifically in the severely hit areas from the March disaster. The exhibit dubbed as "Meeting, Love, Friendship, Solidarity in the Louvre collections" will run from April 20 to September 17 in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. (Tokyo Times)

Surrounded by unspoilt forest, we traverse the footbridge over a steep ravine to the crystal-clear Umenoki Todoro Falls. There is hardly a person in sight it feels a world away from the bright lights and crowded city streets of Osaka and Tokyo. This is Gokanosho on the island of Kyushu. Accessible via a windy, one-lane road that climbs into the mountains, it is considered one of the last secluded areas on Kyushu. The district is famous for being a hidden refuge for a samurai clan in the 12th century. Luckily, we have a local guide who can easily navigate the area. As a first-time visitor to Japan, I expected lots of hustle and bustle and there is no doubt that the country is heavily populated. But when you reach this national park, you get the sense that this is the real Japan. The area is remote and rugged, and the locals are especially friendly, with Gokanosho home to several quaint villages. (The Age)

Back in October, Japan's national tourism agency floated a plan that seemed an ideal remedy to boost flagging visitor numbers in the wake of the March 11 disasters. Free flights to Japan in 2012. A full 10,000 of them. Now, as the country crunches through the detail of tight budget numbers for next year, the hope many had for visiting Japan in 2012 has evaporated into a pipe dream: There won't be any free flights next year, period. The budget for them has not been approved. Whatever tourism authorities thought a good idea, Japan simply can't afford it, the government's budget planners have concluded. The Tokyo-based Japan Tourism Agency didn't sugar-coat the decision in a statement on its website late Dec. 26: "The project titled 'Fly to Japan!' (to offer flight tickets to 10,000 foreigners with high potential to communicate Japan's attractions), which had been covered in a number of media in autumn this year, was not approved as a governmental draft budget of FY 2012." (Wall Street Journal)

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 graves of the 47 samurai can still be found, well tended, at Sengakuji Temple in Tokyo. Dec. 14 is the anniversary of the 47 samurai's revenge. The bare bones of the story are these: In 1701, for reasons unclear to this day, Asano Naganori, head of the Asano daimyoate (powerful territorial lord), pulled his sword on Kira Yoshinaka and slightly wounded him. Most versions of the argument between them have Kira demanding outrageous bribes to teach Asano the basics of Edo Castle protocol, of which he was put in charge - and Asano refusing. Asano was forced to commit seppuku the next day, which is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment (stomach cutting), and Kira escaped without punishment. The Asano Han (feudal domain) was abolished, throwing hundreds of Asano samurai out into the street as ronin wandering samurai with no master. (majirox news)

China's most renowned state treasure, the Qing Ming Shang He Tu, will be shown for the first time abroad in January when a special exhibition is held in Tokyo to mark next year's 40th anniversary of the restoration of ties between Japan and China. The Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City notified Japan on Dec. 12 of the authorities' decision to allow the exhibition of the masterpiece by Zhang Zeduan, a picture scroll from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). The special show, "Two Hundred Selected Masterpieces from the Palace Museum, Beijing," will be held at Tokyo National Museum in the Ueno district from Jan. 2 to Feb. 19 with the Qing Ming Shang He Tu as its centerpiece. The silk scroll will be on display only from Jan. 2 to Jan. 24. (Asahi)

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)

Major changes are slated for toll roads through some of Japan's most booming cities and areas directly affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The temporary changes will impact people traveling in and around Tokyo, Osaka, and the northern region of Tohoku, which was affected by the March 11 disaster, Japanese government and expressway officials said this week. From Thursday through March 31, vehicles equipped with the Electric Toll Collection system will not be charged on expressways in the Tohoku region - specifically between Aomori Prefecture and Mito in Ibaragi Prefecture, which is about 64 miles north of Tokyo. This move is being made to ease access for those assisting in recovery and reconstruction efforts and to boost tourism, according to officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. (Stars & Stripes)

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)

After a three-hour flight from Tokyo to the main Okinawa island - called, simply, Okinawa - my day starts early with a hearty fish and rice breakfast at a small inn run by a local architect in the picturesque village of Yomitan, on the western coast. Under clear, blue winter skies, I set off with confidence on an old bicycle lent to me by the inn owners who assure me it is impossible to get lost in such a small place. It takes only 10 minutes to become disoriented after cycling past identical rows of sugar cane and flower fields, with the sparkling blue South China Sea in the distance. It takes significantly longer to find any signs of human life until finally, an old man in a cap appears and after much confused pointing and waving, turns his bike around and leads me to my destination. Murasaki Mura is a village with old wooden houses capped by distinctive red-tiled roofs, winding stone paths and walled flower gardens. Time appears to have stopped several hundred years ago; it's difficult to shake the sensation that I'm an extra in a swashbuckling period drama. In fact, the entire village was constructed less than 20 years ago as the set for a six-month Japanese TV drama. (Sydney Morning Herald)

This spring, the Tokyo Sky Tree, the world's tallest broadcast tower (with restaurant, of course; this is Tokyo), is set to open: an apt symbol of the capital getting back on its feet after the gravity-altering March earthquake. But following two decades of economic malaise and a revolving door of prime ministers-six in the past five years-it'll take a lot more than a 2,000-foot tower to set things right. Still, economic growth is up for the first time since the quake (alas, for visiting Americans, the yen is high too; at press time it was at 77 to the dollar), and there is a sense that things are finally starting to get back to normal-even as, notes one salaryman, TV network "NHK has been broadcasting a radiation map of Tokyo every day." (nymag.com)

Japan's embattled tourism leaders have delivered a fresh appeal to stay-away consumers by insisting the country is safe and free of radiation risk. The Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) took the step at the Japan Travel Mart yesterday of producing radiation readings in key Japanese cities - although significantly not Sendai, one of the closest cities to the Fukushima power station - and comparing the levels to six other cities around the world. The JTA claimed the levels of airborne radiation in Japan "are well within safe levels and in fact lower than many other destinations". According the Japanese Government, all cities measured in Japan on October 3 - Sapporo, Chiba, Tokyo, Osaka and Okinawa - had levels below that of New York, Beijing, Berlin, Seoul and Singapore. (Travel Weekly)

The operator of the 634-meter-tall Tokyo Sky Tree going up in Sumida Ward started accepting entrance ticket reservations Tuesday, six months before the planned opening of the world's tallest antenna structure. By 11:45 a.m., more than 300 groups had already sent application forms by fax to the operator's office in Tokyo. The tower, which has been registered by Guinness World Records, is already popular with locals long before the grand opening on May 22. (Japan Times)

When it comes to visiting or touring Japan, we tend to read (and write) an inordinate amount about the historical and traditional sides of the country -- from temples and rituals to festivals and food, and rightly so; their variety is frankly amazing. Still, the fact that so many travelers are first attracted to Japan by its art and design makes it clear the more disparate, artistic aspects of the country deserve closer inspection. Here are half a dozen (very free-form) alternative tours for the artistically inclined visitor or cultural explorer. Tokyo, of course, has the whole range of galleries and museums, from small basements-for-hire to the 52nd- floor Mori Art Museum, but a short trip to neighboring areas will reward you with some very good local museums. (CNN)

When Lady Gaga came to Japan for a benefit concert for tsunami victims in June, she found herself taking on an unfamiliar role - that of tourism promoter. In characteristic Gaga form, she didn't hold back anything, either, saying at a news conference she wanted "to run around Tokyo, enjoy the beautiful city and kiss all the beautiful little monsters and scream at the top of my lungs that everyone should come visit this beautiful place." The country could certainly use a pop-star plug. Japan's international tourist numbers have plunged this year, hit by the double whammy of a record-breaking high yen and the lingering radiation concerns from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. (Time)

With the opening of Haneda Airport's international terminal a year ago, the two railway operators connecting the airport with central Tokyo are battling fiercely to attract more passengers. Both Keikyu Corp. and Tokyo Monorail Co. have stations connecting the airport's international and domestic terminals. Last year, about 92,000 passengers used Keikyu's two airport stations daily, compared to about 74,000 passengers who used Tokyo Monorail's three stations. The number of passengers using Keikyu's stations has increased about 2.7 times since 1998, when it extended its line to the airport, shunting Tokyo Monorail into second place over the past six years. (Yomiuri)

Many travelers, from first-timers to old-hand Japanophiles, consider the autumn months the single best time to visit Japan. The punishing heat and humidity of summer have burned away, and there's no threat of drenching rains. But for locals, there are two more important reasons to welcome fall: koyo and shun-no-aji -- the "changing of the leaves" and the "flavors of the season." While spring cherry-blossom viewing parties are better known, Japanese treat the changing of the leaves with equal reverence, particularly in places where they form a beautiful backdrop for temples and shrines. In the Tokyo area, the leaves generally begin to change in late October, with colors peaking in mid-November and lasting until early December. (wnem.com)

1) Sunshine 60 Build a massive shopping and entertainment complex in Ikebukuro (at one time the tallest building in Asia) on the very site where seven Japanese war criminals were executed and you are bound to piss off some ghosts. In fact, its construction was plagued by many incidents (injured workers, strange apparitions and so on). Even now people sometimes spot strange fireballs floating around. (Japan Times)