May 25 (Abroad in Japan) - Hokkaido is home to Japan's most luxurious and rarest steam train, the winter express. Only in operation several weeks of the year, we bag ourselves tickets as we continue our journey across Japan.
Riding Japan’s Most LUXURIOUS Steam Train -- FIRST Class in Hokkaido
POPULAR NEWS
A large fire that broke out late on November 23rd at a waste plastic recycling plant in the city of Bando in Ibaraki has continued to burn for roughly 18 hours, with no clear timeline for containment. The blaze was first reported at around 10:40 p.m. on November 23rd when nearby residents alerted firefighters after seeing flames and smoke rising from the site.
A deepening labor shortage is increasingly weighing on the Japanese economy, forcing businesses to shorten operating hours or scale back services and generating massive lost opportunities that are estimated to reach 16 trillion yen in fiscal 2024.
The Japanese government is moving to substantially raise fees for residence-related administrative procedures for foreign nationals, aiming to secure stable funding for its foreign resident policy as the number of foreign residents in Japan continues to grow.
Sales have begun for the Year-End Jumbo Lottery on November 21st, offering a combined 1 billion yen for the first prize and bonus numbers, prompting long queues of people hoping for a once-in-a-lifetime windfall.
Culling of bears in Hokkaido has surged to unprecedented levels this fiscal year, with 963 animals killed across the prefecture as sightings and human attacks rise at a record pace, prompting local governments and disposal facilities to struggle with the sheer volume of carcasses awaiting processing.
MEDIA CHANNELS
MORE Travel NEWS
The former JR Fukuchiyama Line track bed along the Mukogawa ravine, now a popular hiking route, has reached peak autumn colors on the trees surrounding the trail as large numbers of hikers visit the area to enjoy the seasonal foliage.
Hunter Mountain Shiobara, one of the largest ski resorts in the Greater Tokyo area, opened for a limited three-day pre-season run in Nasu-Shiobara on November 23rd after a strong cold front brought earlier-than-expected snowfall to the region.
A large bear that appeared in central Akita City on November 19th was captured in numerous videos submitted to ABS Akita Broadcasting, with the footage revealing how it moved through tourist sites, school routes and even the city’s nightlife district before disappearing from view.
Sapporo’s winter sports season officially arrived as Sapporo Kokusai Ski Resort in Minami Ward opened on November 21st, welcoming skiers to a handful of summit-area courses that were cleared for the first runs of the season. With fresh snowfall earlier this week, the resort opened 10 days earlier than in 2024, drawing visitors who had been waiting since morning for the first lift to start.
Excavation work at the site of a long-lost lecture hall north of the Great Buddha Hall at Todaiji has revealed the scale of its foundation, confirming that the structure, when first built in the Nara period, was second only to the Great Buddha Hall in size.
A coordinated police crackdown on pedal-equipped electric bikes known as mopeds was carried out in Osaka’s Minami district, where traffic violations involving the increasingly popular vehicles have been spreading.
Workers began cutting bamboo along the famous Arashiyama Bamboo Grove in Kyoto on November 19th as the city moved to halt a surge in graffiti damage that has spread across the popular tourist path, where at least 350 stalks have already been defaced.
Okinawa Hotel in Naha received a commemorative bronze plaque from the Agency for Cultural Affairs after being designated as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property by the national government.