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Tokyo adding new anti-littering fines in Shibuya and Harajuku, will require more trash cans too
With fewer excuses for littering, there’s going to be less tolerance too.Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood is one of the most popular, and crowded, parts of the city. In particular the part of the district that stretches from Shibuya Station, across the world-famous Shibuya Scramble intersection, down the Center-gai shopping street, and into the shops, restaurants, and pubs along the way and the roads that branch off from it, is packed with sightseers on pretty much any day or night of the week.Shibu
Starbucks teams up with 166-year-old Kyoto doll maker for Year of the Horse decorations【Photos】
Higashiyama doll artisans deliver some festive holiday cheer alongside their more traditional Japanese lineup.If you’re the type of person who feels incomplete without at least one auspicious item themed on the Chinese zodiac, one of the largest Starbucks stores in the world, Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo, has some great news for you. Just in time for the end of the year, when we’ll say farewell to the Year of the Snake and welcome in the Year of the Horse, the Roastery is releasing a delight
More people in Japan quit sending New Year’s cards and many have started to regret it
With increasing numbers of people embracing nengajo-jimai and switching to digital equivalents, many now find they are left feeling empty.For over ten years now, I have sworn off Christmas and birthday cards: simply writing my name, plus a sentence or two, simply doesn’t justify the dollars spent purchasing and sending cards. As a recipient, I feel obliged to display them somewhere visible for a couple of weeks, before either keeping them in storage to never look at again, or trashing them
Japanese Cabinet to officially announce new romanization spelling recommendation next week
After 71 years, the Cabinet is ready to do something just about everyone else did several decades ago.Sometimes the wheels of Japanese government turn slowly. Very, very slowly. As an example, way back in 1954 the Cabinet of Japan said “Hey, everybody, please use the Kunrei romanization system for writing Japanese words and names in the Latin alphabet,” and it’s taken more than 70 years to fix what feels like a pretty obvious mistake.To be fair, at the time, being less than 10 years removed from
Tokyo’s Tsukiji sushi neighborhood asks tour groups to stay away for the rest of the month
Inbound tourism boom and Japanese New Year’s traditions are too much for the world’s most famous sushi town to handle simultaneously, request says.For those with an interest in Japanese cuisine, you can’t hear the name of Tokyo’s Tsukiji neighborhood without thinking about sushi, and it’s hard to think of sushi for very long without thinking about Tsukiji. Up until 2018, the Tsukiji fish market was the largest seafood wholesale market in the entire world, and in the late 1990s it slowly started
Tokyo zoo imposes one-minute time limit for viewing pandas, line still four hours long
Ueno Zoo is doing what it can to keep the line moving as fans come to say goodbye to Japan’s last pandas.Earlier this week, Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo announced that its twin giant pandas, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, will be leaving Japan. Fans knew this would happen someday, as the pandas, though born at Ueno Zoo, are the children of a pair of pandas on loan from China as part of a breeding research initiative, and under the agreement any babies to come out of the project would eventually have to be transferr
Japanese woman mistaken for bear
With the right clothing anyone can bear a resemblance.Although reports of bears showing up in various parts of rural Japan are still coming in as we enter winter, it does appear that the more dangerous encounters with humans have been slowing down in recent weeks. However, the months of seemingly non-stop news about bear attacks has left a lot of people on edge.At about 7:35 a.m. on 15 December, a motorist on National Route 13 in Yamagata City saw a bear sitting on the side of the road and repor
Return of Totoro sequel short anime announced for Ghibli Park
Yes, if there’s a Catbus, of course there’s a kitten bus too!If you want to visit Ghibli Park, it’s important to plan ahead, and there are three reasons why. The most obvious is that the theme park, dedicated to the anime films of Studio Ghibli, requires reservations, which need to be made more than a month in advance. Second, while Ghibli Park isn’t located too far from Nagoya, it’s still a fair bit outside the city center, so you’ll need to sort out the train or bus route you’ll be taking ther
ASIA Napoli's 2025 Achievements Unveiled
On Thursday, December 18, at 11:00 AM, in the City Council Hall (via Verdi, 35), ASIA Napoli will present the activities carried out by the company during 2025. During the press conference, data,...
Street Fighter Hadouken Churros to be launched and eaten in Tokyo, Okami pudding on offer too
Hadouken Pasta also on the menu at themed cafes celebrating Capcom art and history exhibition.Back in October, video game publisher Capcom caused a stir by teaming up with McDonald’s Japan for a line of Street Fighter hamburgers. It turns out that this was just the beginning of Capcom’s culinary ambitions, though, as it’s got a whole new menu of themed food about to be served up in Tokyo, including hadouken churros!The Great Capcom Exhibition, also called Capcom Creation, is rolling into Tokyo l
Final Fantasy and Shinkansen announce collaboration with in-train audio play, SD art and merch
There ain’t no gettin’ offa this bullet train we’re on, till we get to…Nagoya.Rail operator JR Central (a.k.a. JR Tokai a.k.a. Central Japan Railway Company) recently announced that they’ll be adding additional bullet trains to the Tokaido Shinkansen route that connects Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Osaka. That’s definitely good news for travelers, but not necessarily a development worthy of being called “awesome.” No, for that the Shinkansen would have to have something real
7-Eleven now sells rice burgers in Japan, blurring the line between fast and convenience store food
Are these two new varieties good enough to take on the fast food game?7-Eleven is currently bracing for the Japanese cold by upping its winter offerings, and its latest release, the Rice Burger, looks set to warm our bellies while blowing our minds as well. What makes this new product so special is twofold: firstly, rice burgers like these are usually only seen on menus at fast food chains like Lotteria, Mos Burger and McDonald’s. Then there’s the fact that 7-Eleven has a better ric
Japan’s last two pandas leaving for China next month, Ueno Zoo announces final day for twins
When Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei leave Tokyo, it’ll bring an end to more than 50 years of pandas in Japan.Ueno Zoo is both the biggest zoo in Tokyo and the most conveniently located, just a quick walk from Ueno Station, making it easy to combine a visit to the zoo with a stop by one of Ueno Park’s museums or a stroll along its tree-lined paths. But beyond scale and accessibility, there’s another key reason for Ueno Park’s popularity: pandas.Let’s go back in time to the early 1970s, when Japan had a pa
Japanese avoiding domestic travel as foreign tourists increase, possibly creating vicious cycle
More foreign tourists leading to fewer Japanese tourists could be leading to more foreign tourists which could lead to fewer Japanese tourists which could…Every month, the Japan Tourism Agency, part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, releases statistics about the total number of hotel stays in Japan (i.e. the total number of nights booked times the number of guests in the room). With the most recent publicly available data being the tallies for September, so f
Poll finds support to let women inherit imperial throne as Japan faces possible succession crisis
Allowing for female succession would require changes to law and over a thousand years of cultural tradition.So here’s an odd statistical anomaly. Right now, in all of Japan, there are only three people who are closer in line to inheriting the imperial throne than you are.That’s because there are currently only three people in the entire world who could become Japan’s next emperor. And no, this isn’t a situation where those three share first dibs on the position, but if something were to happen t
TikTok releases its Year in Music 2025 – Japan’s Top 10 Songs ranking
Japanese idol units and songs about not giving up strike big in this year’s list of the most influential TikTok tracks in Japan.Social media app TikTok continues to serve as a hub for popularizing music both old and new. In particular, various trends on the platform cause certain songs to go viral and propel artists to fame.TikTok recently released a number of lists to celebrate the songs that dominated 2025, including a ranking of the top ten songs on TikTok Japan. Featuring mainly newer
Exhibit featuring cutting-edge smell technology held at Tokyo Skytree
Come take a whiff of the future.Societies have ways to indulge in most senses. Paintings and movies dazzle our eyes, our ears are treated to concerts and recordings, and a vast spread of food from around the world can tickle our taste buds. But what about smelling?A stroll through a nice garden or lighting some incense will certainly be pleasing to the nose, but overall, we’ve lacked a way to control scents with anywhere near the same precision and accuracy as other forms of sensory stimul
More Shinkansen trains being added to Japan’s “golden route” to meet traveler demand
Extra bullet trains at peak times and new early-morning/late-night departures will make it easier to zoom from one region of Japan to another.The Shinkansen isn’t the only way to get around Japan, but it’s the fastest, the most comfortable, and the most convenient. That combination, though, also means that it’s the most popular mode of long-distance transportation among travelers, and that means that seats can fill up quickly, especially along the “golden route” combination of the Tokaido Shinka
7-Eleven Japan now sells…matcha burritos?!?
Well, this is a convenience store find we never saw coming.In Japan, convenience store chains are constantly thinking up new ways to stay ahead of the competition, and 7-Eleven is edging ahead right now with the release of its new matcha burrito. Officially called “Burrito Matcha Azuki Mochi” in Japanese, or “Matcha Red Beans Filling & Rice Cake” in English, this brand new product is the latest flavour to join the chain’s burrito range, which is already a top-se
We go on a quest to find the cheesiest sushi at Japanese conveyor belt sushi chains【Taste test】
Ultimately, we found an un-brie-lievably cheesy hidden gem at a lesser well-known revolving sushi chain.Cheese and sushi may not seem like two things that were destined to go together, but original cheese-based sushi creations have actually become fairly standard fare over recent years at conveyor belt sushi chains in Japan. We were feeling in a particularly gouda mood recently and decided to compare the different offerings at some of Japan’s biggest conveyor belt sushi chains, and boy wer