TRAVEL

A 24-year-old woman was in a serious condition Friday after being stabbed by a man whom she reported to police for stalking her in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. (Japan Today)

The Japan Meteorological Agency said Friday that cherry blossoms came into full bloom in central Tokyo and the cities of Miyazaki, Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Kochi and Yokohama the same day. (Jiji Press)

A Japanese doctor is working on raising public awareness of the disease called surfer's ear, an ailment that has become more common amid a surfing boom in recent years. (Japan Times)

An expected huge earthquake with a magnitude of around 9.0 in the Nankai trough off Japan is forecast to cause up to 220.3 trillion yen in damage, the Cabinet Office said Monday. (Jiji Press)

A man in his 60s in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Nagasaki died in autumn 2005 after developing severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or SFTS, due to the infection with a tick-borne virus, the health ministry said Tuesday. (Jiji Press)

A man died in Hiroshima Prefecture last summer after being infected with a tick-borne virus, becoming the fourth known victim of the viral infection in the country, the health ministry said Tuesday. (Yomiuri)

The health ministry said Wednesday two more people have been confirmed dead due to a viral infection transmitted by a mite bite, bringing the death toll in Japan to three. (Japan Times)

A suspected norovirus outbreak has killed four people and infected almost 100 others at a hospital in the Japanese city of Yokohama south of Tokyo, officials said. (inquirer.net)

A norovirus outbreak at a hospital in southwestern Japan has killed six patients, hospital officials said Sunday. (UPI)

Police said Wednesday they have arrested a 75-year-old man in Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, over a hit-and-run incident in which three elementary school children were run down by a van as they were walking home from school. (FNNnewsCH)

A Japanese maitre d' was crowned world's best in an international competition to find the top high-end server. (The Australian)

The Miyazaki District Court rejected a lawsuit Wednesday filed by citizens seeking to have mobile carrier KDDI Corp. stop operating a cellphone transmitter they claim has hurt their health. (Japan Times)

A rarely seen eclipse of Venus by the transiting Moon was observed by sky watchers in Japan in the early hours of Tuesday, for the first time in the country since 1989, though the viewable regions were sharply restricted due to bad weather. (Mainichi)

A twin propeller plane with 55 people on board made an emergency landing on one engine in Japan on Wednesday after sensors indicated the other was overheating, Japan Air Commuter said. (Japan Today)

A 16-year-old high school student nearly drowned in a river here after a group of "friends" pulled his legs and dunked him under the water while filming the scene, police said. (Mainichi)

Heavy rain fell on Nagasaki, Miyazaki and Kumamoto prefectures in Kyushu on Sunday. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, more than 330 millimeters had fallen on parts of the two prefectures by 6 p.m. (Japan Today)

Wide swaths of the Pacific coastline stretching from Honshu to Kyushu may be hit by tsunami over 20 meters high if a newly feared megaquake occurs in the Nankai Trough, a Cabinet Office panel warned Saturday. The new warning comes after the panel revised its 2003 estimate to reflect new findings from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the coastline of the Tohoku region last year. (Japan Times)

The Miyazaki branch of the Fukuoka High Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence for a 24-year-old man convicted of killing his wife, baby and mother-in-law in the city of Miyazaki in March 2010. Siding with the lay-judge trial decision handed down by the Miyazaki District Court in 2010, presiding Judge Takumi Enomoto said the defendant, Akihiro Okumoto, committed "cold-blooded and atrocious crimes" because of his "self-indulgent and self-centered motives." (Japan Times)

Naomi S. Kida is perhaps the first Japino to make it to the finals of Miss Universe-Japan. Born in Tondo, Manila, in June 1988, she made it to the Top 5 of the beauty contest in Tokyo on June 17, 2011. Naomi is the daughter of Cristina Rivera Santiaguel of Imus, Cavite and Masami Kida, president of a cement production company. Fluent in Japanese, English and Filipino, Naomi regularly visits the Philippines and stays in Almanza, Las Pinas, with her aunt. (inquirer.net)