The STAGE48 post dump

that's a weird list, Belgium, Germany and the UK on the list, but the Netherlands isn't?
KLM still seems to fly on Narita (well, via Paris, so it's really an Air France flight)

btw ... I once flew to Shanghai via Paris, which was the silliest thing ever .... as the first leg from Paris ... took us right back over Amsterdam :/

 

if you had a few hours to spare you could have taken the train to Amsterdam central and take a stroll down the centre

I'll sound like a weeb, but I just love Tokyo, I really wish I would be able to go back there ... I want to walk around Akihabara and Ueno again :/

I yesterday saw a video of a guy that travelled by ricksha from Asakusa to Akihabara .... funny thing was the girl pulling the ricksha had never been to Akihabara and wasn't sure about the route .... I was thinking "left, you go left here, then right towards Ueno station"

and again I noticed how relatively few cars you see

 

Watching Document 72 Hours. Girl says she has two jobs because she goes to idol events and spends $2,600 US a month.

 

Story about effect of Russian invasion of Ukraine on energy prices in Japan.

"The world’s third-largest economy has counted on imported liquefied natural gas as it shuts coal-fired plants and keeps nuclear sites closed. But Russia’s invasion has pushed prices sharply higher.

In 2018, when the power company Hope Energy entered Japan’s new retail electricity market, it thought it had a surefire strategy. Wholesale energy was becoming ever cheaper as liquefied natural gas flooded global markets. Hope Energy would sell competitively priced electricity contracts to local governments and public facilities, undercutting Japan’s old-line power companies, which had long prioritized stable supplies over cost.

But then came the pandemic and the Ukraine war, which caused L.N.G. prices to soar. Hope Energy could not honor its price pledges, and it, along with more than 30 other electricity retailers in Japan, went out of business. Customers scrambled for new providers.

Now, the world’s third-largest economy is again confronting the fragility of its energy system. That has forced a reconsideration of how the resource-poor country can maintain a reliable and affordable power supply in an era of growing geopolitical uncertainty, reflected most immediately in rising calls for a boycott on Russian energy.

Japan is the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied natural gas after China, which took the lead last year. Even before the Fukushima disaster, L.N.G. generated around 24 percent of the country’s electricity, a share that had grown as the country took coal power offline."

After the meltdown, usage skyrocketed, and today over one-third of Japan’s power comes from the fuel. In 2020, Japan purchased more than 74 million tons of L.N.G., over one-fifth of the global supply.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/27/business/japan-energy-ukraine-war.html

 

Story about Kyoto going broke.

"The glorious ancient monuments, Zen temples and soaring pagodas of Kyoto have made it a major tourist draw for a century. The Japanese city's population is only about 1.5 million, yet it boasts 17 individual UNESCO World Heritage Sites. But Kyoto's treasure trove of priceless artifacts belie a painful reality: Japan's magnificent imperial capital city is running on empty.

Without steep cuts in public services, it was forecast that the city will fall $2 billion into debt, with all reserve funds exhausted, within just five years.

Japan's continuing ban on tourists amid the coronavirus pandemic has hit Kyoto especially hard. The city drew a whopping 88 million visitors in 2019 alone, but tourism has now dwindled to a trickle of mostly-domestic visitors. Japan's overall inbound tourism plunged to about 250,000 people last year, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1964.

"The core of municipal revenue is local and property taxes," he said, noting that on both counts, Kyoto comes up short. In part because of its numerous universities and 150,000-strong student population, only 43% of residents pay local tax.

The city is also blanketed with a remarkable 2,000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, all of which have militantly fended off any attempts at even modifying their tax-exempt status.

Barring divine intervention, the first round of cuts may not be enough to save Kyoto from bankruptcy, and having its finances taken over by the national government.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-kyoto-tourism-city-faces-bankruptcy/

 

After closing to foreign tourists for more than two years, Japan will allow a wide range of leisure travelers back in next month — with conditions.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Thursday that starting June 10, the nation will welcome visitors on guided package tours, which include transportation and accommodations. Tourists from 98 countries with low coronavirus infection rates will be permitted; the United States is in that group.

Visitors from the low-risk countries will not have to show proof of vaccination and will not need to isolate or test on arrival regardless of their vaccination status. According to a checklist published by Japan’s National Tourism Organization, travelers must show proof of a negative test within 72 hours of departure for the country.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/05/27/japan-tourism-allow-june-tours/