Project Undiscovered Japan

Above, the Bandai Bridge in Niigata. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Finding ways to get foreign tourists out of the major tourist areas such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and other places and into other areas that are not too familiar has been something that Japanese tourism officials have been trying to solve.

They have come up with a new idea of getting foreign tourists to these areas.

According to Japan Today:

TOKYO —Japan has launched a new project to advance tourism in areas that still remain unknown to many, in a bid to deviate tourism from the current golden routes.
The project, called “Undiscovered Japan,” is led by the National Tourism Zones Promotion Council, a government-sponsored private organization, launched in 2014 to develop sightseeing areas in line with the Abe administration’s target of boosting tourism to 20 million visitors a year by 2020. 

“Undiscovered Japan” divides Japan into 12 new tourism zones that foreigners are yet to fully discover. The project encourages officials in each of these zones to improve the quality of tourism in all sectors and actively provide information in English and various other languages to attract new tourists. The project further aims at reviving these small cities, that have for a long time been surviving in the shadows of Japan’s large cities and tourism sites.

I visited once such zone, Niigata, back in 2010. It was interesting to see the countryside and mountains while on the shinkansen while traveling from Tokyo and Niigata.

It will be interesting to see if this project will be successful in drawing tourists into these zones.

To read more, go here.

Japan Regions Court Tourists With New Guide To Specialty Shops

Above, the Bandai Bridge in Niigata. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Just as Atlanta is different from New York City and the Mid-West is different from the Deep South in the U.S., different regions in Japan differ from each other.

When tourists go to Japan, they generally visit Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto and, maybe, some outlying areas of those cities.

Some local governments in different regions of Japan would like to change all that and have tourists visit their areas. They have taken a step in that direction.

According to Kyodo News:

Eighteen local governments and the Japan Center for Regional Development have put together an English brochure on their "antenna shops" in Tokyo selling local specialties in the hope that foreign tourists visiting them will be encouraged to travel to their regions. 

Accompanied by photos of local traditional foods offered at those shops, the brochure includes maps of Tokyo's posh Ginza district and other areas where the shops are located, as well as information about WiFi connections. 

More detailed information about the shops in English, Chinese and Korean can be accessed online by scanning QR codes in the brochure on smartphones.

I have gone out of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto and have ventured into Kyushu in the southwest, the Tohoku region in the northeast and Niigata on the Sea of Japan side of the main island of Honshu. I enjoyed venturing out into different areas of Japan and seeing first-hand the differences each presented.

To read more, go here.

November Airfare Check For L.A. To Tokyo

Above, the Bandai Bridge in Niigata. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

We're now in a new month and it is time to check and see what the airfares are from Los Angeles to Tokyo.

Last month, the Los Angeles Times Travel section reported that the airfares they found ranged from a low of $1,087.00 to a high of $1,758.00. These prices are before any taxes or fees are added in.

Yesterday, the Times reported that L.A. to Tokyo airfares have dropped and they came up with a low of $789.00 to a high of $1,313.00. These fares are, again, before any taxes or fees are added.

I checked with my favorite source for airline tickets, GatewayLAX, to see what they could come up with for a direct, non-stop flight to Tokyo and back.

Here's what they came up with:

The flight departs Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)Ai November 17 on Delta Air Lines and returns with Delta on December 1 for $512.00. This is a non-stop round-trip economy fare. This, as indicated, is before any taxes and fees are added in.

We'll see next month if fares have dropped even further.

Tips To Make Your Travel Photos More Dynamic

Above, the Bandai Bridge in Niigata, Japan. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Due to the hospitalization of my "roomie" this past week (she's doing better, but still not yet out of the woods), I had to miss the Los Angeles Times Travel Show being held this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

I was perusing their online Travel page and found a good article with 14 tips on making your travel photographs better.

The article begins with:

You’ve come home from your trip and you’re looking through your photos, but they’re not as dynamic as the destination you’re remembering. Our photo experts and editors gathered a list of 14 tips for making those memories as good as those in your mind’s eye.

If you are shutterbug as I am, you may want to take a look at the article so your future travel photos are much more dynamic.

To read more:
http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-14-photo-tips-for-2014-20140114,0,6809810.story#ixzz2qu5nQk00

Japan Tourism Numbers Surge In August

Above, the Bandai Bridge in Niigata.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Japan tourism numbers for August is making a lot of people smile within the Japanese tourism industry.  The August numbers are now out.

The Japan Times reported:

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in August surged 42 percent from a year earlier to an estimated 776,000 — the second-highest figure for the reporting month, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Friday. 

The figure is 3.3 percent lower than in August 2010, when the monthly record was set, it said.

 To read the full article, go here.

Japan Times: Boosting Japan's Flagging Tourism

Above, the Bandai Bridge in Niigata, Japan. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

An article has been posted over at The Japan Times on "Boosting Japan's Flagging Tourism."

The article rehashes the numbers of foreign tourists between last year and this year's after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. I've already posted those numbers so I won't go over them again.

However, the article has a number of suggestions for reviving tourism to Japan.

They include:

The Japanese government, travel agencies, tourism associations, tourism-related businesses, transportation companies and local governments should work together to make Japanese tourism more attractive.

The top task at hand is for the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. to bring the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's reactors in Fukushima under control as fast as possible.

The government also must disseminate accurate information as quickly as possible on the efforts being made to end the nuclear crisis, on radiation levels in various areas of Japan and on the progress being made to rebuild infrastructure in the areas of Tohoku that were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami.

Many visitors comment that they have been most impressed with the beauty and culture of Japan and the hospitality of its people. But Japan has its share of downsides, including high costs and difficult-to-understand information on transportation and tourist attractions.

Tourism agencies should put together travel packages suitable for a wide range of budgets. Maps and signs should be written in a manner that is easy to understand for non-Japanese.

Tour guides should at the very least be fluent in English, if not additional foreign languages, and people working at sites popular with tourists, including temples, shrines, restaurants and bars, should be capable of giving brief explanations in English.

To read the full article, go here.

Japan: Day 5

Above, a Ginza Starbucks. My daughter would feel right at home in Tokyo.

Today was spent exploring Niigata. I went to a photographic exhibit over at the cultural center. I saw a Japanese gentleman with his wife looking at the exhibit and he was almost a dead ringer for the actor who played Gen. Aso in the Heisei Godzilla series and the prime minister in the two Millennium MechaGodzilla movies.

I also visited a shinto shrine and the Bandai Bridge (don't you just love that name?).

The temperatures and rain made my wandering little short. When I left the Bandai Bridge, the temperature was 6 celsius (around 40 degrees farenheit).

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if it snows tonight. It did hail while I was out and about.

I haven't seen a Starbucks in Niigata yet.