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» New York-based Baumann Travel (tel +01 914 419 8470) offers regular food/cooks' tours of Japan. The tour includes shopping in Tokyo and cooking lessons with Ms. Elizabeth Andoh a culinary expert living and working in Japan. The tour is limited to 6 people and lasts 7 or 8 days.
» This spring, summer and autumn InsideJapan Tours are offering the opportunity to visit the World Expo 2005 (a showcase for the latest technological wizardry, including the new MagLev trains) as a day-trip from Kyoto on their Tokaido Train and Alpine Highway tours. See the site for further details. InsideJapan Tours is a UK-based, Japan-only specialist providing a unique service of the highest standard. It caters for everyone from back-packers through to five-star luxury.
» The new Chûbu International Airport has opened off Tokoname, south of Nagoya.
» Tokyo's new Tsukuba Express running northeast from Akihabara to Tsukuba via Asakusa opens 24 August.
» Following the tragic train accident in Amagasaki City, near Osaka, on April 25, JR West's Takarazuka line is back in operation since June 19. The maximum speed has been lowered and the travel time has been lengthened, because the consensus has it that the extremely tight train schedule was one of the biggest causes of the accident. The system of "reeducation" for train drivers who caused delays and other mistakes will also be reexamined.
» Bicycle for Everyone's Earth (BEE) is an awareness-through-action campaign to promote green living in Japan with an annual bike tour from Hokkaido to Kyushu. Along the way the team visits schools and community groups, organizes clean up sand travel as ambassadors for sustainable ways of living. It's been going since 1996. Round the World by Bike, the website of Alastair Humphreys, who's been cycling around the world. After 31/2 years he's now in Japan after pedaling through Europe, Africa, the Americans and Siberia. Check his website for details of his ride through Japan. The All Japan Railpass is becoming less useful on the main Sanyo-Tokaido line as most of the trains are now Nozomi services, for which the pass in not valid. However, the Nozomi is available to users of the Japan West Rail Pass. From Tokyo, if you are planning a mainly Western Honshu trip, then it's probably worth getting this pass and paying separately for the return trip from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka.
» We found the food in Japan very cheap (especially those restaurants where you go in and buy a ticket from a machine, sit down and then are served your meal - for a pig in a poke they are great!) and very reliable.
» A police report has revealed that sexual harrassment on the Tokyo metro is on the increase. Three times the number of incidents are reported compared to 8 years ago. One third of victims are school girls. In response, some train operators in Tokyo and Osaka are introducing women-only cars on certain trains during the rush hour.
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