Northeastern Japan pounded by heavy rain

After days of near-summer heat through May 20th, rain believed to mark the start of Japan's rainy season front swept across the country on May 21st, bringing sharp temperature drops, strong winds, and warnings for potentially heavy downpours.

More people are skipping the couple's getaway in favor of booking a flight with their closest friend. It's a shift that says something about how priorities have changed.

Traditional ukai cormorant fishing, a seasonal custom signaling the arrival of early summer, began on May 20th along the Chikugo River in Asakura, Fukuoka Prefecture, following the opening of ayu sweetfish fishing on the river that flows through southern Fukuoka.

Surrounded by mountains in Kyoto Prefecture, Miyama’s Kitamura district preserves one of Japan’s most iconic rural landscapes, where rows of traditional thatched-roof houses have been maintained for generations through strong community cooperation and deeply rooted village traditions.

The Japanese government has released a set of guidelines titled "Six Rules to Avoid Encountering Bears" as bear sightings across the country continue to rise sharply compared to the same period in previous years.

Video footage appears to show graffiti being carved into bamboo at Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Taisha, with witnesses claiming two foreign visitors were involved in the vandalism.

Dazaifu Tenmangu in Fukuoka Prefecture, which enshrines Sugawara no Michizane, the deity of learning, opened its restored main shrine to the media on May 18th after completing its first major renovation in 124 years.

A 78-year-old man who drove off a brown bear by punching it in the nose has recounted the terrifying ordeal, as an unusual surge in spring bear sightings continues across Japan, including in the Kanto region and Tokyo.