The words “Japan, wine exporter” have a somewhat unlikely ring but that is the aim of a new organisation, Koshu of Japan, which is keen to shine an international spotlight on a grape variety that is often dismissed within its native country.
I have just made my second visit in 12 years to Yamanashi prefecture, the Bordeaux of Japan in terms of winemaking. Except it reminds me more of Switzerland than Bordeaux. Every square metre in the heavily populated Kofu basin overlooked by Mount Fuji is cosseted. Individual vineyards are tiny, …

There’s no shortage of tourist hotspots in Tokyo, where a walk down an average city street is an experience in itself, but some of the capital’s quirkiest encounters are those not always listed in the guidebooks.

The Japanese love a museum and alongside the city’s many well-known galleries and institutions are dozens of smaller, often privately-run museums dedicated to just about anything you care to imagine, all well worth a detour from the traditional tourist landmarks.

Hotel packages featuring two meals but no overnight accommodation have been growing in popularity since autumn. Such plans are taking off among people who are keen to enjoy their holidays without traveling to distant locations and who would rather enjoy a hotel’s facilities for several hours without staying the night. For example, Hakone Kowakien Yunessun Inn, a hotel in Hakonemachi, Kanagawa Prefecture, offers a two-meal daytime plan for 6,500 yen per person for a room that usually costs 15,000 yen as part of a two-meal, overnight-stay package. The deal also …

Sapporo Snow Festival at Night with Beautifully lights!

Iolani Palace [Photo by tmaeda_japan]

Gundam [Photo by あくあ]

Gundam [Photo by あくあ]

Michael Jackson [Photo by tmaeda_japan]
Highlights Reel

Chibi Maruko-chan [Photo by あくあ]

Northern Zoos [Photo by 悪さー]

Northern Zoos [Photo by 悪さー]

The Place Where Dreams Come True [Photo by minkara]

A body was found inside a wheel well of a Delta Air Lines plane after it landed in Tokyo from New York, and Japanese authorities Monday are trying to identify the man.

A mechanic found the body lying inside the landing gear compartment of the Boeing 777-200 during maintenance after Delta Flight 59 landed Sunday night.

Three female “ambassadors of cute” were appointed by the Foreign Ministry last year to spread the word of “kawii” aboard.
Many youth around the world are fascinated with anime and “cosplay,” or the hobby of dressing up in costumes based on their favorite characters. So, inspired by the characters in Japan’s distinctive “anime” films and “manga”, one of the new ambassadors dresses as a schoolgirl(Shizuka Fujioka) and another as a Victorian doll(Misako Aoki) in voluminous frilly skirts. The remaining of the trio is a very fashionable singer(Yu Kimura) that would …

The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (沖縄美ら海水族館, Okinawa Churaumi Suizokan), located within the Ocean Expo Commemorative National Government Park in Okinawa, Japan. It is the world’s second largest aquarium behind the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

The aquarium is made up of four-floors which hold attractions of deep sea creatures, sharks, coral and other tropical fish. The aquarium is set on 19,000 m² of land, holds a total of 77 tanks with 10,000 m³ of water. Water for the saltwater exhibits is pumped into the aquarium from 350m offshore 24 hours a day.

The Tokyo government is considering running the Toei Chikatetsu 24 hours a day, due to the increasing number of flights that will be coming into Haneda airport. Currently the subways shut down at 1am city wide. The Toei Subway system consists of the Asakusa, Mita, Shinjuku and O-edo lines. This new proposal may open up new doors of business and make Tokyo another city that never sleeps. It will also probably go over better with travelers whose only other option for leaving the airport would be by …

Masatoshi Shimbo has always felt more than a bit paternal toward the changeling Roppongi district, the inner-city neighborhood where he grew up and his family made its real estate fortune. But Roppongi often breaks his heart, over the decades turning from a U.S. servicemen’s haunt into a respectable business district and then back to disrepute — the gentle women in kimonos giving way to mobsters and drug dealers. Good or bad, in this famously safe city, Roppongi stands out: elegant one block, seedy the next, a multicultural meeting spot known …

The number of foreign tourists who visited Japan in 2009 plunged 18.7 percent from the previous year to 6.79 million, the first fall in six years, due to the global recession and the spread of the H1N1 strain of influenza in Asia, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Monday.

In 2009, the largest number of foreign tourists came from South Korea at 1,587,000, followed by Taiwan at 1,024,000 and China at 1,006,000. The top three rankings remained unchanged from a year earlier.

Interestingly,…