Nipponica

As Wednesday marks the 80th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, streetcars exposed to the attack continue to provide transportation and opportunities for peace education in the city.

The affected streetcars have become a symbol of the city's reconstruction, as they resumed operations soon after the blast.

A key transport link in the city and a treasure. The city and the Hiroshima Electric Railway should be celebrated for keeping this link to the past operating throughout and past the darkest days of humanity.

The Red Star is set to debut in February 2027 to coincide with the drift ice season along the Sea of Okhotsk. The round-trip service will span two days between JR Sapporo and Abashiri stations.

The Blue Star will be in service from June to September, mainly during the lavender blooming season, between JR Asahikawa and Biei stations, and JR Furano Station.

The more trains the better even if some of them are mini Snowpiercer expresses for the rich. Train travel is already normalized for much of the world, but if we lure some people with big wallets on these experiences then maybe they will fund similar things in the unenlightened world.

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.

The number of foreign passengers using Narita Airport, near Tokyo, rose 1% in June from a year earlier to 1,849,269, a record high for the month, the airport's operator said Thursday.

The increase was led by flights to and from China, Narita Airport said.

The total number of international passengers, including Japanese, at the airport in Chiba Prefecture, was up 2% in June, at 2,670,104.

For awhile after Haneda evolved into the primary Tokyo international airport, the future of Narita seemed dark. But it has evolved into a hub again for long haul and low cost flights, catering to its own niche markets and not in competition with its cousin across the bay.

A man sustained injuries after falling through the floor of a bathroom at a train station in western Japan, the railway operator said Thursday.

According to JR Shikoku, a panel in the floor covering a maintenance space gave way under the man trapping him in a 65-centimeter-deep hole.

The incident occurred at around 8:45 a.m. at Ritsurin Station on the Kotoku Line in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture.

My literal worst nightmare.

The page displaying the passport holder's photo now uses plastic instead of laminated paper, and incorporates technologies such as holographic cherry blossoms and watermark cranes. Special processing has also been applied to raise the photo and date of birth above the surface.

Passports are one of my special interests and I always find it interesting on how they are produced. As the article mentions, previously they were made locally but no longer.

Japan’s only passenger hovercraft service carrying riders between Oita Airport in Kunisaki, Oita Prefecture, and Oita City was launched on Saturday.

The service takes just 35 minutes to travel between the two sites, compared to about an hour by road, making the airport more accessible than it was before.

I know they are fairly commonplace now, but the word hovercraft still excites the 10 year old in me.

The South Korean Air Force said Friday that a transport aircraft bound for Guam urgently landed at the U.S. Air Force's Kadena base in Okinawa Prefecture on July 13 as it ran out of fuel.

The South Korean military transport aircraft is believed to have entered Japan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) without prior notice, causing the Air Self-Defense Force aircraft to scramble.

I'm far from an expert on fuel consumption but this must have been quite the diversion to force a landing at Kadena. Someone fucked up in a big way here.

It is said that home is the place you long for when you are lost in the world. The place where you can be the person you are rather than the person you have to be.

For your narrator, this place is the land that lies beyond the sliding doors that separate the void from the Arrivals Floor in Haneda Airport in Tokyo Bay. Past the immigration sentries, the luggage daycare, and the passage of non-declaration, those doors are a portal to the country that took me in when I was lost in the world many years ago.