Nipponica

The British company Skytrax recently announced the winners of its 2025 World Airline Awards. Regarded as the top prizes in the aviation industry, the awards began in 1999. All Nippon Airways was fifth and Japan Airlines ninth in the World’s Best Airlines category.

Much love for my two home airlines, but the most interesting part of this article is the chart of historical places in this survey. ANA has always been consistent, but JAL was in the 20s and 30s a decade ago. An amazing turnaround for the flag carrier.

Crowds cheer as ornate 5-meter-tall floats parade through the streets of Aomori City on Saturday, when the five-day Nebuta Festival kicks off to color the summer of the Tohoku region. Dancers chanted to the sounds of fifes and drums, and 16 nebuta floats, depicting samurai and other figures, were seen on the first day. All 23 large floats will appear in the procession on Tuesday and Wednesday. “I’m so impressed with the skill of the nebuta artists who created such beautiful floats,” said a company employee from Tokyo who visited the city on a trip.

Such beautiful floats, especially seen in person. I was in Aomori recently and visited the museum where they are stored throughout the rest of the year. Such beautiful craftsmanship.

"This is the first historically confirmed eruption of Krasheninnikov Volcano in 600 years," RIA cited Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, as saying.

She added that the eruption may be connected to the earthquake on Wednesday that triggered tsunami warnings as far away as French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of Klyuchevskoy, the most active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

And some news to our north that may portent to future events back home.

The “Joint Sea-2025” exercises kicked off in waters near the Russian port of Vladivostok and would last for three days, China’s defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The two sides will hold “submarine rescue, joint anti-submarine, air defence and anti-missile operations, and maritime combat”.

Just noting what the neighbors are doing in our shared pool to the west.