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Japan’s most famous Mt. Fuji view park cancels cherry blossom festival because of overtourism

In-home trespassing, public urination, and other bad manners bring an end to a local tradition.If you’ve got even a little bit of interest in traveling in Japan, odds are that on multiple times over the past few years you’ve seen a photo taken from the exact same vantage point as the one above, with a five-story pagoda in the foreground, a grove of cherry blossom trees at its base, and off in the distance, Mt. Fuji, with its peak shrouded in snow.It’s such a concise concentration of traditional

Act of Japanese kindness touches one man’s heart, provides hope for elevator etiquette

The fate of the first to board has long been a problem in Japan, but this could be the solution. A curious thing happens in elevators – once you’re in there, and someone who wants to board is about to miss the closing doors, you’re able to extend a gesture of kindness by pressing the “open” button so they’re able to catch the lift they otherwise would’ve missed.In Japan, though, this act of kindness can work against you, because an unspoken rule of etiquette d

Naruto jerseys coming to Major Leage Baseball theme nights, Hello Kitty to take over a field

The Brewers believe it!There are all sorts of fighting skills that come in handy for ninja, from hand-to-hand combat to proficiency with throwing stars, explosives, or supernatural ninpo spells. But more than anything, the definitive shinobi talent is stealth. True ninja must be so adept at infiltration that they can suddenly appear anywhere, even where you’d least expect them…like at a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game.We’ve still got a month-plus until the start of the 2026 MLB season, but

Three beautiful places to see Japan’s plum blossoms after starting your day in downtown Tokyo

It’s time to go out and see the ume.Pretty much as soon as the new year starts, people in Japan start looking ahead to sakura season, and with good reason, as the cherry blossoms are Japan’s most famous flowers. They’re not the country’s only beautiful flora, though, and if you want to head out and see some breathtaking blossoms without waiting for winter to wrap up, we’re getting into the best time of year to see ume, or plum blossoms.Plum blossoms tend to start blooming in late January or earl

Is China’s don’t-go-to-Japan warning affecting the lines at a popular Tokyo gyukatsu restaurant?

We investigate whether now is a good time to grab some beef cutlets in a popular tourist area of Tokyo.Given the unprecedented numbers of foreign tourists in Japan over the past year, we’ve been curious to see how the recent Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ warning to Chinese citizens not to visit Japan in the midst of a diplomatic dispute has been affecting the crowds at some of the most popular Tokyo sites for inbound tourists. We’ve also recently begun checking out the i

Here comes a new katsudon: ice cream katsudon?!?

Casual Japanese restaurant chain creates a new genre of pork cutlet bowls.Broadly speaking, katsudon (pork cutlet bowl) comes in two varieties. There’s tamagotoji katsudon, in which the cutlet is sort of wrapped in egg……and then there’s sauce katsudon, in which a special sauce, tasting kind of like a sweeter Worchester, is drizzled over the cutlet.But now, here comes Japanese restaurant chain Fuji Soba with a brand-new category of pork cutlet bowl: ice cream katsudon.Yep, that’s a po

Starbucks Japan releases new Chocolate Milk for Valentine’s Day

The green mermaid shakes up the menu with a limited-edition twist on a classic drink.With less than two weeks to go until Valentine’s Day, Starbucks is vying for our attention with a new limited-edition beverage called Sweet Milk Chocolate. Specially designed to align with the Japanese custom of gifting chocolate on Valentine’s Day, this new offering is a drink you’ll want to gift yourself, with its three-layer construction creating beautiful hues…and multiple tiers of fl

Japan’s job-quitting service claims bosses contact it to try to make their employees quit

Some employers want to flip the script to indirectly get rid of workers they don’t want, company says.In Japan, quitting your job can be psychologically complicated. Employment at many companies is indefinitely very long-term, without scheduled regular meetings to discuss whether or not to re-up the working arrangement, which also means fewer built-in opportunities to organically tell your boss, “I think it’s time for me to move on to something else.” Japanese culture also generally prefers to a

Cherry blossoms already blooming at Gap Japan with Sakura Collection lineup【Photos】

If you’re looking to get a head-start sorting your sakura looks, Gap Japan is ready too.We’re getting down to the last few weeks before cherry blossoms season starts. In many people’s minds, spring hasn’t really started until Japan’s most famous flowers bloom, and so the event is often seen as an opportunity to put away your heavy winter coats and sweaters and bust out your lighter, more festively colored spring clothes.Gap Japan is ready to help you start getting your cherry blossom wardrobe re

This gigantic judo dojo-sized hotel room will make you feel like royalty, but it’s disappearing soon

There’s plenty of space to stretch out, but not much time to spare if you want to have this unique Japan travel experience.We’d like to think that our writing here at SoraNews24 is of the sort that’s enjoyable to those of you who appreciate clever, colorful prose. So we were happy, but not necessarily surprised, when a reader recently contacted us to tell us about a very spacious hotel room they’d recently stayed in. How spacious?“It was so big that you could do judo inside of it.”Haha, nicely p

Cherry blossom forecasts map shows Japan’s OTHER sakura season is starting right now

You don’t have to wait for spring to see this special kind of sakura.Cherry blossoms, as just about everyone knows, are a symbol of spring in Japan. The exact timing of their arrival depends on which part of the country you’re talking about and that year’s specific weather patterns, but the sakura start to bloom between late March and early May, right, as shown once again in the latest cherry blossom forecasts.But while all of that is true, it’s true specifically for the Somei Yoshino, the most

Ghost in the Sheel goes traditional with Japanese porcelain Tachikoma robots, only 50 to be made

Perfect with your other ornaments or as a stand-alone complex.I’m always a sucker for fusions of classical and modern Japanese arts, whether it’s woodblock prints of Nintendo characters or watches made from samurai armor. This latest one certainly fits the bill of combining an iconic work of anime with one of Japan’s most elegant traditional crafts.On one hand, we have the manga and anime classic Ghost in the Shell and its scene-stealing walking tanks, the Tachikoma. These are robotic vehicles t

How to make a lucky sushi roll with KFC fried chicken skin【SoraKitchen】

Mr. Sato dreams up an innovative way to ensure good luck and give yourself an excuse to eat fried chicken.This year, the Japanese holiday of Setsubun falls on February 3. Originally meant to mark the start of spring, it’s also a day on which to wish for peace and happiness for your family and household, and it’s said that one way to do that is by eating sushi rolls.Specifically, you’re supposed to eat ehomaki, rolls of vinegared sushi rice and luxurious fillings. While supermarkets and food spec

Japan has abolished advance deportation notifications to foreigners’ lawyers

16-year policy swept away with less than a week for transition.On January 26, the Japanese government’s Immigration Services Agency, the branch of the Ministry of Justice in charge of immigration regulations, officially announced that it would be abolishing its practice of informing lawyers representing foreign residents facing deportation of their deportation date in advance. Considering the significance of this shift in policy, one might expect there to be a substantial amount of time until th

World Federation of Consuls South Asia regional meeting kicks off today in Colombo

The South Asia Regional Conference of the World Federation of Consuls (FICAC) will kick off today (2) in Colombo, reaffirming Sri Lanka’s role as a regional hub for diplomacy, trade, and tourism. The conference, which runs until 4 February at Cinnamon Life, brings together honorary consuls, senior diplomats, Government officials, business leaders, and international stakeholders. Organised un ..

Government proposes planning team for Apec finance ministers’ meeting in Hong Kong

Financial services chief says about 500 delegates are expected to attend conference, the first to be held in Hong Kong, in October Some 500 guests are expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic ...

Cherry blossom sake rice beer arriving in Japan well ahead of cherry blossom season, but how?

The return of the sakura and the arrival of sakura beer are both annual events, but their timing doesn’t have to match.Spring in Japan isn’t just the time for cherry blossoms, it’s also the time for cherry blossom sweets, as we see a flurry of sakura-flavored cakes, cookies, and other sweets that show up right about the time Japan’s most famous flowers are starting to open. Here’s the open secret, though: the cherry blossom treats we enjoy every year are usually made with last year’s sakura.That

Trouble making friends? Sticker collecting works surprisingly well

Good friends stick together.A short while back, we showed you how the sticker craze has been sweeping Japan with a look at how difficult it is to buy some of the finest stickers around. The last time Japan caught sticker fever of this caliber was around 20 years ago, during the Heisei era, and now many of those young girls who kept sticker books have grown up into mothers of their own young girls. As a result, they too can’t help but get back into the sticker-collecting game.Our writer Haruka Ta

Kyoto planning surprise late-night inspections of Airbnb-style rentals to fight overtourism

Local residents’ complaints about bad-mannered tourists prompt pledges from mayor to consider tighten regulations.When travelling in Japan and looking for a place to stay, it used to be that you basically had two choices, a hotel or a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn). In recent years, though, Airbnb-style short-term rentals, in which gusts stay in a rented home, apartment, or condo, have been popping up in many places.Make that too many places, in the minds of some upset residents, including a

Japanese women sound off on their minimum height requirements for a husband【Survey】

Participants also list other ways a guy can make up for vertical shortcomings.As polite a society as Japan is, singles can be surprisingly unabashed when it comes to expressing their physical preferences in a romantic partner. Just as many Japanese men are quite open about how they gravitate towards women with large busts, a lot of Japanese women have no qualms about stating, flat-out, that they don’t want to date any short guys.But when it comes time to really start looking for a serious relati