japan– tag –

Snow has already been used as a renewable energy source here. Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan, is the largest producer of potato, onion, and rice in Japan, and snow is used to refrigerate those crops during storage.

As I wrote before, our home town is the mecca of wooden furniture, where we have the world's famous chair collector, Noritsugu Oda. The number of chairs in Oda Collection amounts to about 1350, including most of the world masterpiece chairs, of course!

【Have you been to roadside stations in Japan?】 This is one of the basics to enjoy a road trip in Japan, especially in Hokkaido: Make the best use of roadside stations. This transport infrastructure was born in around 1990. It's like re...

In the early 90's when I was a kid, the zoo was so boring and a little creepy. It was like a horror movie scene of Stephen King: there were few people; animals were deathly still; old and rusty attractions made a squeak (in the amusement area in the zoo). In 1995, the zoo took the first step to the great comeback by the inauguration of a new director.

【What we do for Christmas in Japan】 Almost all the cities are filled with Christmas decorations in this season, though the percentage of the Christian population is only 1% in Japan. As I wrote before, we are good at cream-skimming oth...

Kiyomi Mikuni is the most famous Japanese chef born in Hokkaido. He grew up in extreme poverty. Soon after graduating from junior high school, he started to work for a rice dealer for free meals and the opportunity for attending a night cooking school. In Hokkaido, there are some restaurants supervised by him. Fratello Di Mikuni is one of them.

【What is done cannot be undone】 More than 30 years ago, Japanese main railway operations were run by the government. Since the full privatization, many rail lines have been abandoned especially in rural areas like here in Hokkaido. If ...

【Toyota Prius was just in time for the 21st century】 Do you know the animation movie, Astro Boy? It was released in Hollywood in 2009, though it wasn't a big hit. The origin of the movie is a Japanese classic comic book. The story was ...

【Real estate bubble in Niseko】 Ginza is the area in Tokyo well known as a luxury area. The above image (the thumbnail image) is Ginza 4th block's intersection. The area holds the highest land price record in Japan: about 500,000 USD/sq...

The movement of tilting back chairs just like students do in a classroom is most severe structurally for chairs, and it is highly likely to give heavy damage to chairs. This is the reason why the same movement is adopted in the standard strength test of chairs as shown in the contained movie. Chairs are jerked in the backrest with the weight of 60 kg on the seat.