Twentythree

In one region, the number of climbers has even decreased by an unbearable 34 percent since 2024.

As bears have been increasingly encroaching on human spaces around Japan in recent years, the government has ramped up safety and awareness efforts and some entities have been going to extreme lengths to keep them away. The constant buzz of bear encounters on the news is why 熊 (“bear”) was even chosen as Japan’s 2025 Kanji of the Year. It seems that people themselves are also wanting to be cautious by staying away from mountainous areas, as data collected by behavioral big data platform Beacon Bank may suggest.

Beacon Bank tracked and compared trends in human movement patterns on Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains, a widely cited list compiled by a Japanese mountaineer in 1964, during the timeframe between April through June of 2024, 2025, and 2026 on national, regional, and individual mountain levels. The spring season was selected for comparison because bears are highly active then after awakening from hibernation to eat the plentiful mountain plants. To draw its conclusions, Beacon Bank analyzed the number of climbers who went within a 500-meter (547-yard) radius of a mountain’s summit using smartphone GPS location data.

▼ Bear warning sign on Mt. Bandai in Fukushima Prefecture

First, on the national level, the percentage of mountain climbers has decreased by 18 percent since 2024 (finalized data from spring 2026 is still forthcoming but preliminary figures suggest no net change since the previous spring).

On a regional level, the percentage of climbers has decreased most drastically in the past two years by 34 percent in the northeastern Tohoku region, where bear sightings have sharply spiked since 2023 when Japan’s Ministry of the Environment noted 20,513 sightings. In 2025, a bad harvest of acorns and other nuts that bears eat in Tohoku caused them to venture into more urban areas in the fall, resulting in a staggering 50,801 sightings. This year’s preliminary data as of August 6 indicates 6,260 sightings this past June, the highest level for the month since 2022.

In fact, Tohoku has consistently had the highest number of sightings across Japan since 2022, with 70 percent of them concentrated in the region during the surge in numbers last year. While we can’t confirm that the drop in climbers can be attributed to the rise in sightings, one might infer that locals have been playing it safe rather than sorry by choosing to engage in other activities than climbing.

Finally, on an individual mountain level, Beacon Bank published its findings of human movement patterns on 23 mountains with the most reliable data. As can be seen, out of all of these, Mt. Hachimantai in Tohoku’s Iwate Prefecture experienced the biggest percentage drop in climbers by 46 percent in the past two years. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mt. Kaimon in Kyushu’s Kagoshima Prefecture actually experienced an 18-percent uptick in climbers over the same period.

▼ Much of the Tohoku region conjures up images of mountains and rice fields, such as in this view of Mt. Iwaki in Aomori Prefecture.

We should stress once again that the above data does not definitively prove that increased bear sightings have resulted in a decrease of mountain climbers across Japan as there could be other factors at play, but Beacon Bank calls the data “geographically consistent.” In any case, make sure to take all necessary precautions if you do plan on going mountain climbing in Japan in the near future by packing your bear spray and bells and downloading the bear sightings app before you hit the slopes.

Source: PR Times
Featured image: Pakutaso
Top image: PR Times
Insert image: Pakutaso (1, 2)
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Apparently it’s not a bother at all for Pooh Bear to dress up like the Japanese skating star.

Yuzuru Hanyu’s fondness for Winnie the Pooh is well known, and the Japanese figure skating legend’s fanbase has created a tradition of showering the ice with plushies of the character after his performances. But is Pooh Bear himself one of Hanyu’s fans?

That might seem like an impossible question to answer, given that Winnie the Pooh, like most fictional animated characters, isn’t in the habit of giving interviews. But as they say, actions speak louder than words, and so it’s probably safe to say that Pooh likes Hanyu too, since he’s now cosplaying as the skater.

Publisher Kodansha is getting set to release To Pooh-san: Yuzuru Hanyu and Pooh-san Memory Book. The 40-page book contains a photo collection and exclusive interview with Hanyu, and to sweeten the deal, it comes bundled with a 20.5-centimeter (8.1-inch) tall Winnie the Pooh plushie. For this collaboration, Pooh is forgoing his customary red polo shirt and instead going with more fantastic fashions.

The plushie comes with two outfits, recreating the costumes worn by Hanyu at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, where he won the second of his gold medals. The ensemble Pooh is wearing in the above image is the same as the one Hanyu wore for his free-skate program to the musical piece titled “Seimei.”

And if you change Pooh into his alternate included set of clothes, he’ll match what Hanyu was wearing for his short program skate to Chopin’s “Ballade No. 1.”

Also part of the package are a 51.5 x 72.8-centimeter poster and reproduction of a handwritten note that Yuzuru penned to Pooh.

Kodansha is asking 22,000 yen (US$138) for To Pooh-san: Yuzuru Hanyu and Pooh-san Memory Book and its bundled merch, and all units are being produced to order. On the one hand, that means that pre-ordering is required, but it also means that actual fans are guaranteed to be able to purchase the set without having to go through a scalper.

▼ Yuzuru posing with Pooh dressing as Yuzuru…honestly, this does seem like a missed opportunity for the skater to have worn the bear’s shirt.

Pre-orders are open between now and October 20 through Amazon Japan and Rakuten (here and here), with Amazon listing shipping as slated for late May of 2027. And if you need even more Yuzuru Hanyu/Winnie the Pooh crossover merch, there’s the pair’s also recently revealed Shower of Heart collection.

Source, images: PR Times
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Travelers love Sumiyoshi’s kishimen, but there’s a way to skip the long line and get a better deal on your meal.

Nagoya an outstanding destination for traveling foodies, thanks to the city’s numerous tasty claims to fame, including tempura shrimp rice balls, a special kind of local miso, and a unique breakfast culture. Then there’s Nagoya’s representative type of noodles, kishimen, broad udon noodles with a soy sauce-based broth.

Kishimen is so strongly associated with Nagoya that you can even find great places to try it inside Nagoya Station. Travelers regularly form a long line outside Sumiyoshi, a stand-and-eat kishimen joint on the Shinkansen platform.

▼ The Shinkansen platform Sumiyoshi

However, while passing through Nagoya Station the other day we found out that Sumiyoshi also has kishimen stands on three non-Shinkansen platforms, and these are the better ones to go to, for two reasons. First, they’re less crowded, or at least they were when we stopped by on a weekday afternoon. At that time, the Shinkansen platform branch, as usual, had a line to get in, but we could walk right into the Sumiyoshi on the non-Shinkansen Line 5/6 platform Sumiyoshi with no waiting.

▼ The Line 5/6 platform Sumiyoshi

The other reason to visit one of the non-Shinkansen Sumiyoshi branches? The One-coin Kishimen, which is exclusive to the regular-line branches.

▼ ワンコインきしめん = One-coin Kishimen

The “one coin” here refers to the price of just 500 yen (US$3.15), which is also the largest-denomination yen coin. Suiyoshi already charges 450 yen for a bowl of just plain kishimen noodles, and most topping options beyond some simple seaweed will cost you 700 yen or more. The One-coin Kishimen, though, is a thoroughly satisfying bargain.

Along with the noodles, you get a nicely sized tempura shrimp, some aburaage (fried tofu), katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and sliced green onion.

This isn’t a mini portion of kishimen to make up for the toppings, either. It’s a full-sized serving of noodles, with barely any additional charge for all the extras that are in the bowl with them. And the low price isn’t the result of the non-Shinkansen Sumiyoshi branches using lower-quality ingredients or skimping on seasonings either. We asked the staff if there was any difference between how the regular and Shinkansen-line locations prepare their noodles, and were informed that they all make their kishimen the exact same way.

All it took was a single taste to confirm that the staff was telling the truth. This tasted every bit as good as the Sumiyoshi kishimen we’d eaten on the Shinkansen platform on a previous visit, just at a more budget-friendly price.

In addition to the Line 5/6 platform branch that we ate at, Sumiyoshi also has kishimen stands on the Line 1/2 and 3/4 platforms, and it’s a pretty safe bet that their noodles are equally delicious. And should you be looking for dessert afterwards, Krispy Kreme Japan has some special donuts in Nagoya that you can’t get anywhere else in the world.

Restaurant information
Sumiyoshi (JR Nagoya Station Line 5/6 branch) / 住よし（JR名古屋駅 5・6番線店）
Address: Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi, Nakamura-ku, Meikei 1-1-4, Nagoya Station interior
愛知県名古屋市中村区名駅1丁目1−4名古屋駅構内
Open 7 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
Website

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We head to Osaka to say goodbye to Ebitsuta, and get a new view at one of the city’s most famous landmarks.

The physical media market definitely isn’t what it used to be. Back when he was a college student in Osaka, our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa spent countless hours hanging out in the Ebisubashi branch of multimedia chain Tsutaya. Located in the Dotonbori entertainment district, Ebitsuta, as the cool kids called this Tsutaya, had just recently opened, and was stocked with so many CDs and movies to rent or buy that it felt like an enchanted forest of audio/video wonders. As an aspiring rock guitarist, Seiji regularly got blissfully lost looking through the gigantic music selection, and if he was meeting up with friends in the neighborhood, he’d often get there early and tell them to come find him at Ebitsuta.

Sadly, though, Ebitsuta’s days are numbered. With fewer and fewer people buying or renting physical media, Tsutaya has spent the last several years dramatically restructuring, and now the decision has been made to close the Ebisubashi branch, which opened all the way back in 2003. Thankfully, Ebitsuta will still be open for a few more months, which meant Seiji had time to go back recently and say goodbye, and also to find a great photo-snapping vantage point.

Since he moved to Tokyo not long after graduating, it’s actually been a very long time since Seiji stopped by this Tsutaya, and stepping inside, he found out that in many ways it’s already pivoted away from its former foci. The basement floor, for example, now houses the Osaka IP Shoten, Tsutaya’s sub-brand for anime character merch.

There is still a music vibe going on, though, thanks to how huge a presence virtual YouTubers, many of which have vocalist side hustles, now have in the otaku sphere. This Ebitsuta Osaka IP Shoten seems to be especially oriented towards female fans, with huge standees of male VTuber group Eden-gumi waiting at the entrance to greet shoppers when Seiji visited, and a comparatively smaller section for female performers.

Next, let’s skip ahead to the third floor, which is devoted to…

…cosmetics? At first, Seiji thought this might be a non-Tsutaya tenant who was renting out the third floor, but actually this is another example of the company’s evolving diversification, as it now has its own cosmetic retailing sub-brand, called @Cosme Store/Tsutaya.

Moving up to the four floor, Seiji found it pretty much entirely stocked with idol singer CDs, photo albums, magazines, and other related merchandise. It felt sort of like the flesh-and-blood counterpart to the basement level’s anime goods.

The fifth floor is an event hall, but with nothing on the schedule this day, it was closed to the public. So now let’s head back down to the first floor, where there’s a Starbucks.

In and of itself, that’s nothing to get all that excited about, since there are tons of Starbucks branches in Japan. Still, being in Dotonbori, this is a convenient enough location, and things really get good when you head up to the second floor, where there’s additional seating…

…and a fantastic view of Osaka’s world-famous mechanized crab sign!

The storefront of the main branch of crab specialty restaurant Kani Doraku is a must-see when visiting Osaka, and this might be one of the best places to see it from. When viewed from the street outside, you’re mainly only able to see the bottom half of the creature, and it’s not really visible from inside Kani Doraku itself. The Ebitsuta Starbucks’ second-floor windows, though, let you look at it straight on, allowing you to fully grasp its scale and how intricate its movements are.

▼ You can even see how its eyes move!

The last day for Ebisubashi Tsutaya will be January 11. It’s not clear what’ll happen after that, such as whether the building will be torn down for a replacement or whether new tenants will be moving in to a redistributed and renovated interior. That means that there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to see this view of Osaka’s mecha crab landmark, so if you’re looking for a place to sip on one of those new Japanese grape Frappuccinos, we’d highly recommend this one.

Location information
Tsutaya Ebisubashi / ツタヤ戎橋
Address: Osaka-fu, Osaka-shi, Chuo-ku, Dotonbori 1-8-19
大阪府大阪市中央区道頓堀１丁目８−１９
Starbucks open 8 a.m.-10:30 p.m.

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But that doesn’t mean we don’t love it.

Japanese convenience store chain Lawson’s Karaage-kun is one of the absolute all-stars of the combini food world. These bite-sized pieces of karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken), which even come with a toothpick so you can eat them without getting your fingers dirty, are so deliciously satisfying that it’s hard for us to recall a time when we regretted buying a pack of them.

But while Karaage-kun is a reliable favorite, Lawson still likes to change things up by offering seasonal and limited-time flavors alongside the always-available regular-version Karaage-kun. That’s what brought us to Lawson on a recent afternoon to try their new corn soup-flavored fried chicken.

It might not be a standard-bearer for Japanese cuisine with such global fame as sushi or ramen, but corn soup definitely has a place in the country’s heart and stomach. Anyone who’s traveled in Japan during the fall or winter has probably spotted cans of heated corn soup for sale in vending machines, but you can find it year-round at restaurants that serve Western-style fare in Japan, including steak restaurant chain Asakuma, whose take on corn soup is so popular that it’s sold on its own too.

▼ Asakuma corn soup

You can find Asakuma branches in the Tokyo area, but the chain got its start in Nagoya, and so the Asakuma Corn Soup Karaage-kun is not only a limited-time flavor, but a region-specific one too, only available at Lawson locations in the Tokai and Hokuriku areas that sit between Japan’s eastern Kanto and central Kansai. We were willing to track it down, though, to see how it tastes.

▼ The box’s graphics sport the Asakuma (あさくま) logo.

Japanese-style corn soup, also sometimes called corn potage, is similar to corn chowder, but simpler, creamier, and slightly sweeter. It’s an accessible, widely loved flavor, but would it work well with fried chicken?

As soon as we opened the flap, the inviting aroma of corn soup wafter up out of the box. After spearing a piece of chicken, we popped it into our mouth, and just as our olfactory senses had been promised, this Karaage-kun delivered the gentle but unmistakable rich flavor of corn soup. There was nothing forceful or artificial-feeling about it, just a comforting, enticing flavor profile that smoothly accentuated the meaty notes of the chicken with those of sweet corn.

Just how happy were we with the Corn Soup Karaage-kun? So happy that we immediately bought another box, since we were absolutely certain knew we’d be craving more after we finished the first pack.

▼ Buying just one would be a mistake.

With the Corn Soup Karaage-kun priced at 298 yen (US$1.90), we also had room in our budget for another collaboration between Lawson and Asakuma, this one a 248-yen roll cake reimagining of the purin (custard pudding) Asakuma serves.

Nagoya is famous for the quality of its eggs, and their rich sweetness, with a touch of bitterness from the ribbon and drizzle of caramel sauce, make for an excellent dessert

Really, the only downside here is that these items aren’t available nationwide, so if you want to try them, you’ll need to head to a Lawson in Aichi, Shizuoka, Gifu, Toyama, Ishikawa, or Fukui Prefecture, or to participating stores in Mie or Fukui Prefecture. On the plus side, that means you’ll also be able to try the other Tokai/Hokuriku foods Lawson has in those regions right now, like the chicken cutlet sandwich produced in cooperation with Nagoya chicken wing specialty restaurant Furaibo.

And hey, if this gives you an excuse to combine travel and fried chicken, two of the finest things in life, then that sounds like a win-win to us.

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Taste-testing the northern frontier of local foods in Japan.

Just about every corner of Japan has some special food it’s famous for, and if you head up to the country’s northern tip, Hokkaido Prefecture, there are several. Travelers often arrive in Hokkaido licking their lips as they look forward to some of the country’s best salmon roe, sea urchin, and crab, plus delicious miso ramen, soup curry, and all sorts of cheeses and dairy desserts.

But on our recent visit to Hokkaido, the most memorable things we ate were the ones we hadn’t ever heard of before this trip: ohaw, ruibe, and pocche.

If you’re an experienced eater of Japanese cuisine yet don’t recognize any of those, don’t fell like you’ve got to turn in your foodie card. All of those dishes come from the culture of the Ainu, the indigenous people who populated Hokkaido before the arrival of Japanese settlers and the region’s absorption into Japan. Though Hokkaido’s Ainu population is far smaller than it used to be, cultural centers like Akanko Ainu Kotan, near the shore of Lake Akanko, help to preserve Ainu cultural traditions and share them with visitors.

In addition to a theater with traditional dance performances and shops selling handicrafts, Akanko Ainu Kotan also has restaurants where you can try Ainu dishes, and with our visit coming right around launch time, we decided to check out the eatery Marukibune.

▼ 丸木舟 = Marukibune

After sitting down, we opened up the menu and took a look. While such standard dishes as soy sauce broth ramen and curry rice are available, we wanted a literal taste of Ainu culture, so that’s what we gravitated towards…

…and for our first step into this new-to-us food frontier, we selected the yuk kam ohaw.

Breaking that down linguistically, ohaw is a kind of stew made with fish or other animal stock and kelp. Kam ohaw means that there’s meat in the stew, and yuk indicates that the meat here is venison.

Our ohaw also contained root vegetables and wild garlic.

It looked very different from the sort of soups common to mainstream Japanese cooking, and we braced ourselves for something that could possibly be an acquired taste. That apprehension turned out to be unnecessary though, as we found it immediately delicious.

Despite the generous portion of venison, there was no gaminess at all to the flavor profile, which was instead fortifying yet simple and comforting. It was so good that we think we might find ourselves craving a bowl of ohaw once the winter chill sets in later this year.

Next up: parimomo ruibe.

Ruibe is the Ainu equivalent to sashimi, but with a few key differences. First, ruibe is prepared, and served, frozen. Second, while conventional sashimi consists pretty much entirely of saltwater seafood, ruibe is made with freshwater fish as well. In our case, parimomo is the Ainu word for the fish called Ezo ugui in Japanese (whose scientific name is Pseudaspius sachalinensis), a relative of the freshwater minnow.

Marukibune catches its Ezo ugui from Lake Kussharoko, which isn’t too far away from the restaurant, so it’s fresh and flavorful, with a sweetness that comes to a clean finish. The mouthfeel of the frozen fish slices, and the sensation of the texture changing as they thawed as we chewed, took a little getting used to, but made for an enjoyably stimulating change of pace from regular sashimi.

We also ordered a kotandon. This is a donburi (rice bowl) topped with strips of grilled pork, wild garlic, onion, and egg, flavored with a salty sweet marinade.

To be honest, we’re not sure exactly how traditional the kotandon is. In addition to being part of Akanko Ainu Kotan’s name, kotan is the Ainu word for a village or community. It seems like the kotandon might be a more modern fusion concession to visitors to Akanko Ainu Kotan who want something that’s a nod to Ainu culture but isn’t going to feel too challenging. None of that changes the fact, though, that this is a very tasty rice bowl, and one that just about anyone will probably enjoy.

And last, we ordered a pocche set.

That might look like a plate of cookies accompanying our cup of tea, but pocche are actually preserved potatoes. Hokkaido gets very cold in winter, and pocche are traditionally made by leaving potatoes outside until they freeze, then bringing them inside to thaw, and repeating the process enough times for fermentation to take place.

So rather than a dessert, pocche were actually a way to make sure the entire potato harvest could get eaten. They have a chewy texture but no sweetness beyond that which you’d find in a regular potato. We can’t really say they tasted particularly good, but they didn’t taste bad either, and they’re an interesting way to experience hands-on one way that the Ainu culture turned the harsh conditions of Hokkaido’s winter weather into a positive.

As for prices, our ohaw was 1,200 yen (US$7.50 yen), the ruibe 1,100 yen, the kotandon (which also came with a side of ruibe) 2,600 yen, and the pocche set 1,100 yen. Taking the portion sizes into account, those prices are a little on the high side, but it was money well spent for such a unique meal.

After eating, it’s also well worth your time to take a look at the rest of Akanko Ainu Kotan too.

We especially recommend the Ikor Theater, which hosts three different traditional storytelling dance performances.

Even without a reservation, we were able to catch the Ainu Ancient Ceremonial Dance program, which presents an inaw, a ceremonial tool mean to form a connection between performers and the kamuy (Ainu gods). The dances aren’t flashy, but seated in the theater, with the light of open-flame torches illuminating the dancers and singers, we were comfortably mesmerized for the 30 minutes the performance lasts.

As an added bonus, the nearby Lake Akanko is quite beautiful too, whether you’re admiring the scenery from the shore of from the deck of one of the boats offering cruises for day trippers.

So if you’re looking to broaden not only your cultural knowledge, but also your palate, while you’re in Hokkaido, stop on by Akanko Ainu Kotan and Marukibune.

Location information
Akanko Ainu Kotan 阿寒湖アイヌコタン
Address: Hokkaido, Kushiro-shi, Akan-cho, Akanko Onsen 4-7-19
北海道釧路市阿寒町阿寒湖温泉4丁目7-19
Website

Marukibune / 丸木舟
Address: Hokkaido, Kushiro-shi, Akan-cho, Akanko Onsen 4-7-9
北海道釧路市阿寒町阿寒湖温泉4-7-9
Open 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
Possible irregular hours during winter and cold-weather months, so are reservations recommended at those times.

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