We’re headed to Kyoto today, but not to see the temples or shrines.

Temples and shrines are the first things that come to mind when travelers think of Kyoto, but the prefecture is also a treasure trove of outstanding michi no eki, or “road stations.” These combination roadside shops/rest areas offer a variety of unique local products, from foods and drinks to handicrafts, and with Kyoto Prefecture’s rich culinary legacies, its road stations include ones in famous green tea-growing regions and fishing ports on the coast of the Sea of Japan.

Today we’re asking our Japanese-language correspondent Susan, a native of Chiba Prefecture who’s travelled to 850 michi no eki, including all of the ones in Kyoto, for his list of 10 best Kyoto road stations, presented in no particular order.

1. Ocha no Kyoto Minami Yamashiro-mura (Minami Yamashiro Village)
Website

Minami Yamashiro is the only town in Kyoto Prefecture that’s legally classified as a “village” (mura in Japanese), and that alone brings a lot of travelers to this road station. Locally grown tea is the star attraction here, and in the attached restaurant you can dine on soba noodles with green tea mixed into their buckwheat flour. Looking for something sweeter? The Muracha (“Village Tea”) Pudding is not to be missed, with a deep, direct delivery of green tea flavor in every bite.

2. Michi no Eki Miyama Fureai Hiroba (Nantan City)
Website

You’ll find this road station on the way to Kayabuki no Sato, a beautifully preserved historic neighborhood with traditional thatched roof Japanese farmhouse architecture. The thing you’ve got to try if you come here is the Miyama Milk from the local dairy, or at least the ice cream, frozen yogurt, or cheese made with it.

The gelato is Susan’s personal favorite, rich but with a clean finish, and the lines get long for it on the weekends, but it’s worth the wait.

3. Michi no Eki Funaya no Sato Ine (Yosa)
Website

On its north side, Kyoto Prefecture stretches all the way to the coast of the Sea of Japan, and that’s where you’ll find the town of Yosa and Ine, a neighborhood of traditional fishermen boathouse homes built out over the water.

The refreshments on offer here include locally made soba and small-batch sake, but Susan also gives a special mention the hisuku, skewers of dried fish that you can buy from the outdoor Umyado stand to snack on while you admire the scenery.

4. Michi no Eki Nagomi (Funai)
Website

Heading back into the more mountainous inland, we come to this michi no eki in the town of Funai, situated next to the Yuragawa River. This is a tranquil spot befitting its Nagomi name (which means “harmony”), and your heart will feel even more at ease if you’re indulging in a cup of Mont Blanc pudding at the attached Nagomi Cafe.

Seasonal highlights include spring strawberries, autumn chestnuts, winter mochi, and in summer, a special “ayu garden” where you can experience catching ayu (a kind of river fish) by hand, then having it grilled up by the staff for you to enjoy at its freshest flavor.

5. Michi no Eki Mizuho no Sato Sarabiki (Funai)
Website

We’re still in Funai for this easy-to-access road station off the the Kyoto Expressway, near where travelers enter the lush countryside of the Tamba Highlands. The Mizuho district is famous for its buckwheat farms, and also for the soba noodles made from the grain, so naturally you can enjoy a bowl of them here, and the hiratake mushrooms, gathered in the local mountains, are delicious too.

This road station’s most unique feature, though, is its mini field hockey court. The Mizuho district hosted national field hockey championships during a sports event back in 1988, and the game has remained popular in the area ever since.

6. Michi no Eki Umi no Kyoto Miyazu (Miyazu City)
Website

Yes, the building itself looks cool, but this one is primarily on the list because it offers a great vantage point for seeing Amanohashidate. Considered one of the three most beautiful views in Japan, Amanohashidate is pine tree-covered sandbar that stretches across Miyazu Bay and is supposed to look like a bridge climbing into the heavens, especially so if you bend over and view it through your legs so that it’s upside down.

▼ Susan and a friend in front of Amanohashidate

The road station here has an attached shop with local sake and other souvenirs, but the main appeal really is the view, so make this one a daytime visit.

7. Michi no Eki Tango Okoku Shoku no Miyako (Kyotango City)
Website

Shoku no Miyako translates to “Capital of Food,” and the scale of this road station certainly warrants that distinction, as its approximately eight times the size of Japan’s famed Koshien baseball stadium. Whether you’re in the mood for Kyoto Tanba Kurowagyu steak or wood-fired pizza, there are restaurants here that are happy to oblige, and big eaters will enjoy the noodle shop with all-you-can-eat udon.

With so much to eat, you might want to have two meals here, and there are go-karts, a petting zoo, and even a hotel if you need something to do or somewhere to relax between chow-down sessions.

8. Michi no Eki Springs Hiyoshi (Nantan City)
Website

Aside from being valuable parts of public infrastructure, many dams in Japan have become tourist attractions in and of themselves. This road station is situated next to the Hiyoshi Dam, and fatures facilities such as an onsen hot spring bath, heated swimming pool, sauna, and outdoor BBQ spaces.

If you need provisions, the souvenir shop sells locally sourced mushrooms and eggs, and there’s even a campground with cottages for overnight guests.

9. Michi no Eki Kyoto Shinkoestumura (Nantan City)
Website

This road station is right off the Kyoto Jukan Expressway’s Sonobe Interchange, making it super-easy to access while driving across or around Kyoto Prefecture. Locally grown Onshin rice is the pride of the place, and aside from sacks of the rice itself you can taste it in the mochi rice cakes and senbei rice crackers sold in the souvenir shop.

This michi no eki also has a good selection of nama yatsuhashi, Kyoto’s representative sweet treat of a folded triangle of soft mochi with sweet red bean paste inside. Granted, you can find nama yatsuhashi at plenty of other places in Kyoto, but this road station’s easy expressway access makes it a very convenient place to pick up an extra box or two on your way home.

10. Michi no Eki Maizuruko Toretore Center (Maizuru City)
Website

And last, we’re back on the north coast of Kyoto Prefecture to stop at Maizuru Port, one of the largest seafood markets along the Sea of Japan. As soon as you step inside, you’ll be surrounded by the bustling energy of merchants hawking fresh catches of fish, crab, and oysters, among other saltwater delicacies.

This is basically the Tsukiji of road stations, with delicious snow crab in winter, iwagaki oysters in summer, and buri (yellowtail) in autumn, no matter when you visit, you’ll find something great to eat.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Pikachu and Gyarados invite you to come by for a relaxing soak as Noto town recovers from disaster.

A lot of storylines in the Pokémon anime and video games follow the journeys of Pokémon Trainers as they roam far and wide in search of rare Pocket Monsters as part of their training to become Pokémon Masters. No matter how strong your resolve is to be the very best, though, eventually you’re going to need to take some time to stop and rest along the way. Likewise, if your real-life travels take you to Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture, there’s now a Pokémon-themed hot spring where you can rejuvenate yourself.

You’ll find this place in the town of Nanao, on the Noto Peninsula. This part of the prefecture is part of the collection of communities called Wakura Onsen, which has a number of onsen (hot spring) inns. Many of these facilities were damaged during a powerful earthquake that struck the peninsula in 2024, but the latest sign of the region’s recovery comes with the completion of renovations to the ashiyu foot bath in Yuttari Park. Earlier this month, the foot bath reopened following renovations, and visitors can now enjoy a soak in the company of several different Pokémon, including Pikachu, Gyarados, Vaporeon, and Psyduck!

The photos of the now-open facility show that the designers have done a fantastic job delivering on the promises of the concept renders. The footbath uses legitimate hot spring water, but unlike with a full-fledged onsen, visitors don’t have to be nude to make use of it. Just slip off your shoes and socks, the slide your feet in. Since you’re not completely submerged, you won’t need anything more than a hand towel or handkerchief to dry yourself off afterwards either, making this equally appealing to those looking for a long soak or sightseers who just want a quick Poké-relaxation session before moving on to the rest of their itinerary (such as tracking down the area’s Pokémon manhole covers). Aside from the obvious appeal of the Pokémon statues and murals, the foot bath also faces out onto the waters of the bay adjacent to the park, so you get some beautiful natural scenery to admire as well.

And as cool as the place is, it won’t cost you a single yen to use. Wakura Pokémon Footbath is completely free, and is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Location information
Wakura Pokémon Footbath / わくらポケモン足湯
Address: Ishikawa-ken, Nanao-shi, Wakuramachi Hibari 1-1
石川県七尾市和倉町ひばり1丁目1番地
Open 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Source, images: PR Times
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A beautiful, highly customizable hike that’s an easy day-trip from Tokyo.

We’re finally in that not-too-cold, not-too-hot sweet spot of spring weather in Japan, providing a prime window for all sorts of outdoor activities. While “climb Mt. Fuji” might be the one that most quickly comes to mind for travelers in Japan, the country’s tallest mountain won’t be open to hikers until midsummer, but today we’re taking a look at a different great mountain to hike that’s doable as a day trip from Tokyo.

Mt. Tsukuba is located in the town of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. With a height of 877 meters (2,877 feet), it offers some great views from the top, but it can also be a safe, manageable hike even if you’re not a hard-core alpinist. As proof, our Japanese-language reporter Natsuno Futon, who readily admits to not doing a whole lot of exercise these days, recently headed out to Mt. Tsukuba with her two elementary school-age daughters to hike one of its trails.

There are a number of different routes you can take to the top of Mt. Tsukuba, but today we’ll be following along on Natsuno’s trek up the Otatsuishi Trail. You can get on the trail from the Tsutsujigaoka Parking Area, which itself can be reached in about two hours from downtown Tokyo, first by taking the Tsukuba Express train from Akihabara Station to TX Tsukuba Station, and from there a series of shuttle buses to the Numata, Tsukubasan-jinja Iriguchi, and finally Tsutsujigaoka bus stops, with 45 minutes spent on the train and a total of about 50 minutes on the buses (alternatively, if you’re arriving by car, you can just drive to the Tsutsujigaoka Parking Area and pay to park in the lot).

Natsuno rolled up at around 11:40 a.m. on a holiday. The parking area is already at an altitude of about 500 meters, so you’re starting off part-way to the top.

The early section of the trail is a series of paved steps, and less than five minutes after they’d started the hike, they were already being rewarded with beautiful scenery like this.

After about 15 minutes of walking, the paved steps had stopped and the course had turned into a genuine trail. Natsuno’s youngest, a first-grader, said “I’m tired” for the first time since they’d set out, so they stopped for short break, then continued on after she’d recharged.

Mt. Tsukuba has a reputation as being a beginner-friendly hike, but you’ll still want to wear proper hiking shoes and watch your step. At around 12:20, Natsuno passed through this section of trees with exposed roots stretching across the path…

…and this rocky section felt as much like an obstacle course as it did a hiking trail.

At 12:30, they reached a rest area at on overlook beside the trail. Long ago, this used to be the site of a teahouse, called the Benkei Chaya, and it’s still a place for those walking the trail to stop and rest their feet, though you’ll need to bring your own snacks or drinks to enjoy.

After a 10-minute breather and some munchies, Natsuno was on the move again.

Mt. Tsukuba has a unique shape, with essentially two peaks with a recessed plateau between them. The Nyotaisan, or “Female Peak,” is the higher of the two (877 meters versus the Nantaisan/”Male Peak’s” 871 meters), so when Natsuno’s group came to a fork in the trail, they took the path headed for the Nyotaisan.

▼ 女体山頂 = Nyotaisan peak

One of the cool things about the Otatsuishi Trail is how many different scenic spots there are along the way. For example, there’s the Benkei Nanamodori.

A narrow section of the trail where a large boulder wedged between the tops of two other creates a tunnel-like structure, this was once said to be a gateway between the world of the gods and the world of humans, and Natsuno felt a spark of adventurous excitement as they passed through it.

At 12:43, they reached a section of the trail called Takamagahara, after the “high plain of the heavens” where the sun goddess Amaterasu and other Shinto deities reside.

▼ There’s a shrine dedicated to Amaterasu here (you can see part of its roof in this photo).

10 minutes later they came upon the Kuniwari Ishi, or “Kingdom-splitting Rock,” where legend has it the gods drew lines upon the stone to determine who would have dominion over which parts of the realm.

And at 12:55, they found themselves at Debune Irebuni, “Ships Coming and Going,” a rock formation that resembles two boats passing by each other, and so a place of worship of Funadama no Kami, the patron deity of ships and sailors.

It had been an hour-plus of consistent ascents up to this point, but from here Natsuno got a slight reprieve as the trail sloped back down for a section. However, while she wasn’t having to work herself up and over rocks for a while, she still had to be mindful of her footing, since a slip here would mean a nasty tumble.

Up until now, Natsuno and her group hadn’t encountered many other people on the trail, but a posted sign said that as they got closer to the peak, things might get more crowded. From the point where they were now, it was usually only another 20 minutes or so to get to the top, but during congested times, it could take as much as four times as long.

Luckily, things that nearly so severe on this day. As the terrain got super rocky, though, almost like the mountain was giving Natsuno a final test, the slower speed at which hikers could progress did end up causing a bit of a traffic jam right before the peak.

Another part of the reason for this line, though is that people were waiting patiently to take photos at the top of the mountain, which Natsuno’s group got to at 1:24 p.m., about an hour and 40 minutes after they’d started hiking.

Taking in the breathtaking view and caressed by the cool breeze, Natsuno felt a sense of accomplishment, and her kids had managed the hike pretty well too, even if the youngest had said along the way, more than once, “I’m tired.”

Now, from here you could get back down simply by turning around and waking back the same way you came, or by taking one of the other trails to the bottom. There is, however, a third option, which is to take the ropeway gondolas that run between the peak and the Tsutsujigaoka Parking Area, and in deference to her younger daughter’s sagging energy level (and maybe her own), Natsuno made the decision to ride the ropeway back.

The ropeway station is next to a lookout area with tables and benches, where Natsuno spotted a few well-prepared groups having picnic lunches.

The view from here is amazing too, whether you’re appreciating it with the naked eye or using the coin-operated binoculars.

▼ You can also see the slightly lower Nantaisan peak from here.

The ropeway runs between 9:20 a.m. and 5 p.m., and the ride takes a little under 10 minutes.

At 2:23, Natsuno’s group was back at the Tsutsujigaoka Parking Area, where they rewarded themselves for their hike to the summit with some meat-wrapped rice balls on a stick and fried chicken cutlets.

▼ Mountain climbing is hungry work, after all.

Though Natsuno’s group took around an hour and 40 minutes to hike their way up, serious adult hikers can do the Otatsuishi Trail ascent in about 40 minutes, so walking it both ways, up and down, is still a very doable day trip. There are also longer trails that start lower on the mountain, plus one that connects the mountain’s two peaks, which are about 35 minutes apart on foot. All of that makes Mt. Tsukuba a very customizable hike, and a great way to get a taste of mountain trekking in Japan.

Related: Mt. Tsukuba official website, Mt. Tsukuba Cable Car and Ropeway official website
Photos ©SoraNews24
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Outer Senshi join their anime/manga magical girl sisters on the streets of Minato Ward.

Sailor Moon features some pretty fantastical settings, with much of its mythos involving ancient kingdoms on the moon and antagonists hailing from even farther reaches of the cosmos. However, most of the series takes place in Minato, one the actual wards of real-world Tokyo, where Usagi and her friends live, go to school, and fight many of the manga/anime’s monsters of the week,

So a while back, Minato Ward decided to celebrate the connection by installing Sailor Moon manhole covers featuring artwork of Sailors Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus. As fans will be quick to point out, though, that’s actually only half the series’ roster of magical girls. As time went on, creator Naoko Takeuchi added new heroines to the cast, and now Minato Ward is adding new Sailor Moon manhole covers to its streets.

Out of the first five covers, four featured the Inner Sailor Senshi (Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus), while power couple Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask shared the fifth. The two new designs will both once again feature the Inner Senshi, but they’ll be joined by the Outer Senshi, Sailors Pluto, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn, as well as disruptive and divisive time-traveler Sailor Chibi Moon.

The first of the new manhole covers has the fully assembled Senshi standing amidst the branches of a cherry blossom tree with the sakura in full bloom. It was installed towards the end of March in Minato Ward’s Roppongi district, specifically on the Roppongi 7-4-2 block, not far from the Tokyo Midtown shopping and entertainment complex.

The second new Sailor Moon cover, the seventh overall, will also show all 10 Sailor Senshi, this time with a pastel rainbow color scheme to the background. But while we know what it’ll look like, Minato Ward is keeping its location a secret for now, and will only be publicizing where to find it after it’s been installed.

Minato Ward is keeping the exact timetable under wraps too, but the Sailor Moon official website says that the rainbow Sailor Moon cover should be in place by the end of this month. And if you’re looking for even more crossovers between anime artwork and public infrastructure, don’t forget about the new Pokémon manhole covers in a part of Japan that’s looking to bounce back from a natural disaster.

Source: Minato Ward, Sailor Moon official website
Images: Minato Ward
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Special sweets designed to satisfy your sweet tooth and cool you off in the summer heat.

This year is Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, and the franchise is celebrating in style at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, with the hotel offering amazing Pokémon-themed rooms including one with 30 Pikachu plushies to keep guests company during their stay. But what if you’ve already got a place to sleep in Tokyo? Does that mean you have to miss out on the collaboration’s fun?

Not at all, because the Grand Hyatt Tokyo’s restaurants are also part of the party, and they’re offering both sweet and savory Pokémon-themed eats all summer long!

Starting things off is the Sora Tobu Pikachu (“Pikachu in the Sky”) Gourmet Burger Set, with a Pikachu-yellow bun, the Hyatt’s original barbecue sauce, and jalapeno pickles. It’s accompanied by curry powder French fries and chilled corn soup, and to drink you get a “Pikachu soda,” which looks to be an ice cream float with boba-style tapioca balls too.

The Pikachu burger is available in the hotel’s Oak Door steakhouse restaurant, but just like wild Pokémon appear in different parts of their regions, there are other Pikachus at the Hyatt’s Fiorentina cafe, which is adding a Sora Tobu Pikachu Summer Parfait to its menu.

Since this is a parfait to be enjoyed during one of Japan’s notoriously hot and humid summers, this dessert bypasses heavy chocolate or caramel sauces. Instead, the key ingredients are mascarpone mousse, peach gelatin infused with butterfly pea, and coconut gelatin, for visuals evocative of a bright blue sky and puffy clouds. The “balloons” that are carrying Pikachu on this flight are actually orbs of frozen mousse in mango, orange, pistachio, blueberry, and raspberry flavors.

And there’s still one more place to score some Pokémon treats. Head to the Hyatt’s Fiorentina Pastry Boutique and you can pick up a Pokémon 30th Anniversary Mango Cake.

This fancy cake has layers of mango and coconut jelly inside almond sponge cake, topped with mango mouse and a bouquet’s worth of mango slices arranged in the shape of roses. But even with all those floral flourishes, fans’ eyes will be drawn to the pair of Pikachu chocolates.

For those looking for permanent reminders of their Pokémon sweets sessions, Fiorentina can also supply Grand Adventure Sweets Trunk Cases, with Pikachu mango cookies, Eevee coffee chocolate cookies, and Gen-1 starter trio chocolates in a bundle with a special tote bag and lunchbox-style case.

…or Grand Adventure Baton Chocolate sets, with an assortment of gourmet chocolates and the tote.

▼ The cookies and starter trio chocolates can also be purchased by themselves, if you’ve already got your carrying equipment needs sorted.

As for pricing, the intricate decadence of the Pokémon 30th Anniversary Mango Cake puts it at 12,600 yen (US$81). The Pikachu burger set, meanwhile, is 6,600 yen, and the parfait 3,520. The Sweets Trunk Case and Baton Chocolate sets are 7,500 and 6,800 yen, respectively. The by-themselves chocolates are 2,200 yen, and Pikachu and Eevee cookie boxes are 1,200 each.

The Pokémon/Grand Hyatt Tokyo collaboration runs from June 20 to August 31, but reservations can already be made for the burger, parfait, and cake through the hotel’s website. Reservations are highly recommended for the burger and parfait, as they’re limited to quantities of 20 each daily, and reservations of at least three days in advance are required to purchase the Pikachu cake.

And if Tokyo doesn’t figure into your Japan travel plans this summer, or if you’ve already got all your meals in the capital planned out, there’s some cool new Pokémon stuff happening in another part of the country too.

Related: Grand Hyatt Tokyo website
Source, images: PR Times
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People have been traveling to Amanohashidate for centuries, and this week apparently bears are too.

Amanohashidate, located on the northern coast of Kyoto Prefecture, is considered one of the three most beautiful places in Japan (the other being Miyajima and Matsushima). Amanohashidate translates to “bridge to the heavens,” and it got that name because the strip of land that stretches across the bay here is said to look like a pathway rising into the sky.

Celebrated in poems and painting for centuries, Amanohashidate’s beauty continues to draw travelers today, with people coming from across Japan and around the world to take in the view. This week’s visitors, however, have included two bears.

In another instance in the growing trend of bears showing up in unexpected places in Japan, shortly after 4:30 in the afternoon on June 10 a call was placed to the 110 emergency services phone number reporting a bear that was spotted at the north end of Amanohashidate. The strip of land was evacuated and sealed off, and police and animal control personnel were dispatched to the scene. Firecrackers were used to scare the bear off of the bridge, after which it fled into the ocean and swam back towards the bay’s northern shore to the west of Amanohashidate. After coming back onto dry land, the bear climbed a tree and was then shot with a tranquilizer dart, falling asleep around 10:40 p.m. No injuries to humans were reported.

▼ And yes, some of the response team was equipped with handheld shields, like they were knights heading out to face off with a dragon or ogre.

Now, a visit to one of Japan’s top sightseeing spots, a quick swim, and getting to bed at a relatively early hour would be a pretty good day for most people, but the city of Miyazu, where Amanohashidate is located, doesn’t ordinarily get bears in this district, and so its appearance is cause for concern…and that concern has grown deeper with the spotting of a second bear, which was seen at Amanohashidate on the morning of June 12 at roughly 7:30. This bear was spotted by a foreign tourist, and after the report came in Amanohashidate was once again evacuated and closed off. As of this writing, the bear remains at large.

Source: TBS News Dig (1, 2), Nitele News
Top image: Wikipedia/Sylvestre
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Littering in Shibuya will get you a fine that must be paid on the spot.

Last Monday wasn’t just the start of June, it was the start of a new littering fine in Tokyo. As of June 1, if officials spot someone throwing trash on the ground in some of the city’s most heavily touristed areas, they can issue a citation with a penalty of 2,000 yen (US$13).

This new rule is enforceable in Shibuya, and not only around Shibuya Station, the famous Shibuya Scramble intersection, Hachiko dog statue plaza, and Center-gai shopping/restaurant street. The littering ban is for all of Shibuya Ward, which also includes the neighborhoods of Harajuku, Ebisu, and Yoyogi, among others. As a result, that littering is now a finable offense on the trendy and high-end fashion meccas of Takeshita Street and Omotesando and the pedestrian approach to Meiji Shrine too. Moreover, the law states that the fine is enforceable on both public and private property within Shibuya Ward, and while leaving an empty candy wrapper at your friend’s apartment isn’t going to get you in trouble with the law, that aspect does mean that fines can be collected from those caught littering within shopping centers, train stations, and other such spaces.

▼ Takeshita Street

To enforce the littering ban, Shibuya Ward has a team of approximately 50 roving inspectors. It’s unclear whether they’ll be a permanent dedicated anti-littering squad or if watching out for litterbugs is one of multiple public safety/order duties they perform while in the field, but the Shibuya administration does say it will have anti-litter inspectors in action 24 hours a day.

Unlike Japan’s recently introduced bicycle safety infractions, fines for littering in Shibuya Ward will be collected on the spot by the inspector. This aspect of the system may have been put in place to address perceptions that a disproportionate amount of litter in the area comes from foreign tourists, and to prevent them from being able to leave the country while still having unpaid fines. Payment can be made in cash or through cashless methods such as credit cards.

In addition, Shibuya Ward has also begun requiring convenience stores, takeout food/beverage sellers, and vending machine operators to provide trash receptacles, with fines of 50,000 yen for non-compliance. In a Shibuya Ward study conducted in 2025, 97 percent of inspected fast food restaurants and 80 percent of cafes were found to already have trash cans available, but those numbers dropped to 50 percent for food trucks and 47 percent for take-out beverage sellers.

However, the aim of the trash receptacle requirement is for food/beverage sellers to contribute to the proper handling of trash generated by their business operations, which could complicate finding a place to throw away your specific type of trash. For example, vending machine trash receptacles in Japan tend to be exclusively for recyclables of the materials used in the containers of the drinks that the machine sells, so if you’ve got, say, a paper bag from Krispy Kreme, the vending machine trash can isn’t going to help you. Likewise, with most Japanese people not being big on eating/drinking while walking, trash can capacity is likely to be relative to the amount of customers that particular place itself expects to have, so if you roll up to a drink stand with a family meal’s worth of fast-food containers from someplace else, they might not be able to accommodate you. Because of that, it’s probably still a good idea to be prepared to hang onto any trash you generate while in Shibuya until you get back home or to your hotel, since the ward is clearly looking to keep its streets cleaner.

Source: Shibuya Ward, Mainichi Shimbun via Yahoo! Japan News via Hachima Kiko, Tokyo MX
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso
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End of an era is coming for ecological and economic reasons.

Train travel in Japan is going to be looking a little different, as East Japan Railway Company, a.k.a. JR East, has announced that it’ll be making a major change to its ticket design. Right now, JR East tickets have your starting station and fare printed on the front, and a magnetic strip on the back. At the gate, you slide your ticket into the slot, the gate opens up, and your ticket pops back up from another slot on the other side of the machine for you to grab as you continue on your way, then put into the other ticket gate at the exit from your destination station.

▼ A traveler inserting tickets into a gate at Nikko Station

However, JR East has announced it will be phasing out magnetic-strip tickets beginning next spring, with the eventual goal being to do away with them entirely for short-distance rides. In their place JR East will be introducing new non-magnetic tickets with a QR code that you scan at the gate instead.

▼ A video showing the front of the current magnetic-strip tickets on the left, and the upcoming QR-code tickets on the right.

The mockups in the above video are obviously jumbo-sized to make them easier to see, but the new tickets really will be larger than the current ones. JR East’s Magnetic-strip tickets measure 3 by 5.75 centimeters (1.2 by 2.3 inches), but the QR ones will be 5.75 by 8.5 inches, to make them easier to scan.

JR says there are two reasons it’s making the switch, one of which is an effort to be more environmentally friendly. JR East’s produces about 160 metric tons of ticket trash every year, and the magnetic backing has to be chemically treated before they can be disposed of. Because the QR-code tickets rely on optic scanning, though, they can be made of just regular old paper, eliminating both the potential ecological harm caused by disposed of magnetic strips and the cost to JR East to treat them.

A switch to QR codes will also reduce ticket gate machinery complexity, as they’ll require fewer moving parts than the currently complex array of gears and motors needed to propel a magnetic-strip ticket through the gate, and making QR code scanning the standard should also help promote smartphone digital ticketing services.

While the changeover will mark the end of a major chapter in Japanese train travel, many passengers stopped using magnetic-strip tickets quite some time ago. JR East’s Suica prepaid IC card became an instant hit following its launch in 2001, and it’s only grown in popularity in the years since thanks to its tap-payment simplicity and cross-functional capabilities as a way to pay for shopping, restaurant, and vending machine purchases too. JR East says that magnetic-strip tickets now account for only 2.5 percent of the rides taken on its trains, and for those who have already transitioned to Suica or other such IC cards, they’ll still be paying fares and passing through the gates as usual.

However, for some rail fans the tactile aspects of sliding the ticket into the gate, hearing the internal machinery whir and click, and grabbing the ticket as it comes out without breaking stride is a familiar and satisfying part of taking a train in Japan, so there will no doubt be people said to see it go. If this bittersweet news has them looking for comradery, they can find it among those who still remember the days before magnetic-strip tickets became the standard, when Japanese train stations were staffed with human ticket inspectors and the rhythmical ringing of their ticket punching tools during rush hour, as seen in the point queued in the video below.

JR East says it will be gradually discontinuing the magnetic-strip tickets come spring, so they won’t all be disappearing at once. In addition, magnetic-strip tickets will continue to be issued for Shinkansen and long-distance special express trains. This is likely because, depending on the passenger’s destination, these trains sometimes end up at stations in parts of Japan managed by one of the other divisions of the Japan Railways Group, which have not yet announced plans to get rid of magnetic-strip tickets. If you’re a rail fan, though, the next time you’re at a JR East station you might want to consider buying a lowest-fair magnetic-strip ticket, though, as something to remember the era by.

Source: Nitele News via Livedoor News, TBS News Dig
Top image ©SoraNews24
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And yes, there is a reason Mercy is dressed that way.

With Japan being home to many of the world’s most passionate gamers, Japan Railways Group periodically partners with popular video game franchises to add a little extra fun to fans’ train travel in Japan, like we’ve seen in previous tie-ups with the Final Fantasy and Pokémon series. For its next video game collaboration, though, JR Central (a.k.a. JR Tokai) is teaming up with a series that hails from the U.S.

This summer, characters from the cast of Blizzard’s Overwatch will be taking a ride on the Shinkansen as part of the Payload to Osaka campaign (a reference to the game’s “payload escort” missions). The promotion’s key art shows Hanzo, D.Va, Genji, Kiriko, Mercy, Hammond, and Jetpack Cat getting off the bullet train at Shin Osaka Station, the closest stop on Japan’s high-speed rail network to downtown Osaka. The artwork contains a few tips of the hat to Osaka’s famous food culture, with Hammond snacking on takoyaki octopus balls and Hanzo scarfing on a steamed pork bun (and you’ll note that Hanzo is eating it after getting off the train).

From July 17 to September 23, passengers onboard JR Central Shinkansen trains can take an Overwatch-themed quiz via their smartphones, and correctly answering the questions gets you one of seven phone wallpapers. While the wallpaper you win is randomized, you can take the quiz as many times as you want during your ride (10 questions are randomly pulled from a pool each time), and JR Central guarantees you won’t get any duplicate wallpapers until you’ve completed a full set of all seven.

Even if you’re not up to taking the quiz, you can still receive a PC wallpaper image of the illustration just by answering an online questionnaire, which, like the quiz, can be accessed through the promotion’s official website, while onboard the bullet train. This also serves as a record of your Shinkansen ride, which you can then show at the Osaka Nipponbashi branch of anime merchandise store chain Animate to receive an Overwatch cleaning cloth with the same illustration.

Animate Osaka Nipponbashi will also be hosting an Overwatch Payload to Osaka popup store with character pins and acrylic mini standees from July 17 to 26.

While Overwatch does have fans in Japan, the series’ most passionate supporters tend to hail from other countries. With international tourists accounting for so much travel in Japan these days, though, especially on the JR Tokai section of the Shinkansen network that connects Osaka with Kyoto and Tokyo, JR Central most likely expects to get a lot of interest from non-Japanese fans, enough so that the company felt the need to follow up on its official Twitter announcement for the collaboration with a statement that “These items are available in Japan only.”

Speaking of the Twitter announcement, at least one non-Japanese fan was furious about the clothing that Mercy is wearing in the artwork.

What is this kind of OUTFIT? ugly as hell pic.twitter.com/4wkggD4fpR

— 𓆩♡𓆪 ✦ÆØNLIZ ✦𓆩♡𓆪 (She/Her) (@AEONFLUX_85) June 4, 2026

From the choice of words and capitalization, that was probably meant as a rhetorical question, but hey, there’s actually a reason for this outfit (sorry, OUTFIT). Aside from having a vibrant food culture, Osaka is also known for its flashy fashion sense, in particular its ladies’ fondness for animal prints. Granted, it’s usually associated with women of a more mature age than Mercy, but a little touch of Osaka style isn’t completely out of place here.

Related: JR x Overwatch Payload to Osaka official website, Animate Osaka Nipponbashi
Source: JR Central via Hachima Kiko
Images: JR Central
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With the rainy season here, this umbrella companion is a Daiso-premium bargain.

Having flipped the calendar to June, we’re clearly not in spring anymore, but many Japanese people would argue that we haven’t really made it to summer just yet. That’s because we’re at the start of tsuyu, or “the rainy season,” a roughly month-long stretch of wet weather that precedes the idyllic fun-in-the-sun section of summer.

As a matter of fact, Tokyo is getting drenched with heavy rains at the time of this writing, which is why we’re happy that we recently hit up Daiso and picked up an extremely handy item that we’re going to be putting to good use in the weeks to come.

This is actually one of Daiso’s premium-priced products, costing double what the chain usually charges for its items. Of course, with Daiso being Japan’s most famous 100 yen shop, that means that the Telescopic Umbrella Cover is still only 200 yen (US$1.30), and for how useful it is, that price feels like a bargain.

Even with Japan’s excellent train/subway network, life here tends to involve a lot of walking, since you’re at least going to need to get to/from the station. But while an umbrella will keep the rain off you while you’re outside, once you head inside or onto a train, you’ve now got a sopping shaft of damp fabric that’s going to wet your clothes, or the clothes of anyone standing close to you on one of Japan’s famously crowded trains.

Daiso’s Telescopic Umbrella Cover is here to solve that problem. Essentially a plastic cup with an accordion-like construction, it’s conveniently compact when scrunched down to its smallest size, but expands to accommodate umbrellas.

Simply insert your umbrella into the cover and push until it reaches your desired length.

Daiso’s case has a number of advantages compared to the disposable thin plastic bag-style slip-on covers provided at some shopping centers and stores in Japan. For one, there’s no trash generated with Daiso’s reusable cover, and unlike the disposable versions, the Daiso cover works not only with long umbrellas with pointy tips, but shorter folding umbrellas, the kind most popular with travelers, too.

Also, when you take your umbrella back out from a plastic-bag cover, you’re left with a bag of water from all the drops that dripped off the fabric. Daiso’s cover instead has a removable cap at the tip so that you can pour out the water in an appropriate place.

And while some umbrellas come with cloth covers to be slipped over them when wet but not in use, you then end up with a soggy fabric cover that’ll need to be washed once you get home, and repeated washings can damage its moisture absorbency. On the other hand, since Daiso’s case is made of plastic, you can simply wipe off the interior surfaces and it’ll be ready to go again.

Really, the only drawback we could see is that the case didn’t completely cover an extra-large 70-centimeter (27.6-inch) long umbrella that we included in our testing, but even then, it provided a long area length of protection.

Daiso’s Telescopic Umbrella Cover even has a chain so that you can clip it to your bag for easier carrying, and with sudden showers being something that can happen even after the “rainy season” is done, we might have one of these with us all summer long.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Bringing futuristic solutions to historic streets.

Upon coming to Japan and exploring the cities, I soon came to one of many realizations: the country has a near-complete lack of public trash cans. While it’s technically possible to call into one of the many convenience stores to unload your pockets of snack wrappers into the store’s waste receptacles, there are almost always signs asking you to refrain from doing so, and you could potentially face criminal charges for dumping garbage from products not purchased in-store.

Instead, it is socially expected for any and all trash generated from snacking to be carried and disposed of at your house or hotel, so much so that it’s quite normal for people to carry around small plastic bags in your handbag or backpack to hold onto accumulated wrappers and napkins until the end of the day. As such, for those who are accustomed to having public trash cans being easily accessible, they can often end up with pockets filled with sticky waste and crumb-filled backpacks when they go sightseeing.

This cultural difference has been exacerbated considerably due to the post-pandemic boom in tourism, with millions of enthusiastic travelers flocking to sightseeing hotspots, like Kyoto, seeking to delve into the region’s charming history and food, which naturally increases the volume of sidewalk snacking. When you’re wandering through the picturesque streets of Kyoto’s Higashiyama ward, miles away from your hotel, the last thing you really want to be doing is holding the wrapper from your mid-morning Family Mart fried chicken snack for the rest of the day. So, the few trash cans available tend to fill up quickly and potentially overflow.

Fortunately, Kyoto has started tackling this problem with some high-tech efficiency. On May 27, two futuristic, eco-friendly smart trash cans called SmaGO, made by Forcetec, were introduced near the busy southbound Kiyomizu-michi bus stop, a highly traversed area for anyone looking to explore the area’s streets and temples.

The SmaGO units run entirely on solar power and feature an automatic trash-crushing mechanism that compacts waste down to just one-fifth of its original volume. They also connect to the internet to report exactly how full they are in real-time, allowing collection crews to swoop in before the trash starts to overflow and propagate to the nearby vicinity.

While these are the latest two units of a total of 34 throughout Kyoto, these eco-bins were actually donated to the city by the famous Kiyomizu temple and the nearby Rokuharamitsuji temple, with the Bank of Kyoto stepping in to provide the installation location, in the hopes of creating a more comfortable and beautiful city for both citizens and tourists.

So, the next time you venture into the historic former capital of Japan, you can rest assured that waste management will be one less thing to factor into your travel itinerary.

Source and images: PR Times
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20-year-old outdoors enthusiast last seen approaching hiking trail east of downtown after sunset.

The Japanese police and volunteers are searching for an American college student who went missing in Kyoto and hasn’t been seen in a week.

20-year-old James “Weston” Higginbotham and his family arrived in Japan from the U.S. on May 25, spending time in Tokyo and elsewhere before reaching Kyoto. Having argued with his mother during their trip, Weston declined to go with his parents and 18-year-old younger brother while they visited a temple on May 29, instead opting to sightsee on his own, while sharing his location through the Life360 phone app.

▼ James “Weston” Higginbotham, missing since the night of May 29 in Kyoto

Based on his location data, Weston left the family’s hotel by himself at around 6 p.m. and later boarded a train at Kyoto Station, a five-minute ride away. He can be seen on multiple security cameras leaving Yamashina Station and walking in the neighborhood around 8 p.m., wearing a gray T-shirt with “Save the bees” written across it and brown pants, and carrying a shoulder bag. His last known location was on a path that leads to a hiking trail that goes into the mountainous forest region to the east of Kyoto City.

At 8:29, Weston turned off location-sharing on his phone, something his mother said he has never done before in such situations. Examination of his location data prior to disconnecting also shows that Weston visited a home supplies store at some point after leaving the hotel. By 2 a.m., Weston had not returned to the hotel or contacted his family, so they reported him as missing to the police.

According to his family, Weston is an experienced outdoorsman and international traveler, having solo hiked in Europe, and the family often hikes, mountain bikes, and river rafts together. “It’s not unusual for Weston to blow off steam going to the woods and just exploring,” his mother, Nancy, said. “That’s his happy place.” As such, she remains optimistic that her son has simply gotten lost and can be safely rescued, but a powerful storm that passed through the area earlier this week means conditions were likely more dangerous than usual.

Japanese online reactions to the family’s plight have included:

“I hope they find him soon.”
“Please let him have been taken in by some kind countryside family that’s been feeding him good food all this time.”
“I work as a delivery driver, so I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for him.”
“Hoping he makes it back with a simply ‘Sorry! Got lost.’”
“Please, please be safe.”

At the time that he went missing, Weston is believed to have had around 10,000 yen (US$63) in cash on him, and none of his credit cards have been used since he was last seen. With no signs of foul play, the police are treating the situation as a missing person case, and have deployed helicopters and police dogs in the search, and Japanese volunteer groups have been pitching in as well, but so far, no sign of him has been seen.

Source: Teleasa News, CNN, CBS, YouTube/ANNnewsCH
Top image: Wikipedia/SONIC BLOOMING
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