Twentythree

A simulation for the summit-curious that’ll literally blow you away.

Mt Fuji is on the bucket list for a lot of hikers, but did you know there’s a way you can experience what it’s like to be at the summit without having to take on the arduous climb?

▼ One local recently tipped us off to the unique facility, called Mt Fuji Radar Dome Museum.

Located in Yamanashi Prefecture, which is home to one half of Mt Fuji, with Shizuoka laying claim to the other half, this unique facility features a former weather tracking station that stood at the summit for 35 years, from 1964-1999.

▼ The original radar dome is now displayed here.

Initially opened in 2004, the exhibits inside the building were fully renewed in 2022 to include information regarding disaster prevention, in addition to mainstay displays on weather observations and history. The below panel is particularly interesting as it shows the work involved in setting up the Mt Fuji Radar System, which was listed as an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) milestone in electrical engineering upon its completion in 1964, alongside the Shinkansen in the same year.

There’s a lot to see here, but one thing you won’t want to miss is the “Fuji Summit Cold Experience” which includes wind, video and sound elements that have been updated recently for improved realism.

This facility is designed to raise awareness of the importance of weather observation, and the immersive experience helps to do that by mimicking two types of weather conditions on the mountain — one with wind gusts of 10 metres (33 feet) per second and temperatures of -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) and another with wind gusts of 15 metres per hour and temperatures of -25 degrees Celsius.

▼ The former experience (in red) is dubbed “Sunrise Course” while the latter (in blue) is dubbed “Blizzard Course“.

Each visitor can participate in only one course, and there are some English explanations so you can know what to expect.

Each course takes roughly a minute, so we opted for the Blizzard.

▼ “Please do not enter until instructed by staff”

While we weren’t allowed to film inside the chamber, imagine being at the top of this mountain, only with barely any visibility due to a massive snowstorm, and freezing wind bursts that just about knock you off your feet.  

Thankfully, the snowstorm was depicted on the large screen inside the chamber so we weren’t wet but we were icy cold when we stepped outside. The blizzard’s power was truly incredible, giving us new respect for the mountain and its harsh conditions.

We learned that snowy weather can be severe before even reaching the summit, and after experiencing it firsthand, albeit in a controlled environment, we now know why the mountain is closed to hikers outside of the July-to-early-September climbing season.

▼  A rare place to experience an off-season Mt Fuji climb.

A visit here is a unique and memorable experience, and well-priced as well, with the admission fee for adults being 63o yen (US$4.21) and the fee for elementary, junior high and high school students being 420 yen. So if you’re summit-curious or simply looking for a fun day out, the Mt Fuji Radar Dome Hall is ready to blow you away…literally!

Site information

Mt Fuji Radar Dome Hall / 富士山レーダードーム館
Address: Yamanashi-ken, Fujiyoshida-shi, Shinya 3-7-2
山梨県富士吉田市新屋3-7-2
Open: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Closed: Tuesdays (open on public holidays, open all through August)
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Let’s Play at Satsuki and Mei’s House is hopefully a sign of things to come.

Last year we learned that it’s possible to feel warm and fuzzy while simultaneously also feeling extremely jealous. The reason for this discovery? Finding out that the staff of the Ghibli theme park in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture actually cooked in the kitchen of the real-world version of the My Neighbor Totoro house.

As revealed in a post from the Ghibli Park official Twitter account, members of the staff gathered inside the kitchen of sisters Mei and Satsuki’s house and cooked a pot of rice using its wood-burning stove, plus filled and heated up the bath in the house’s bathroom, also by burning wood. This helps give the house a lived-in feel, and that extra touch of authenticity is totally in keeping with the hands-on way of doing things that Studio Ghibli is known for.

At the same time, fans couldn’t help but be envious of the staff for being able to eat something cooked in the actual Totoro kitchen, and many mused that they’d like to have the opportunity themselves. It looks like that’s finally going to be a possibility this spring with the Let’s Play at Satsuki and Mei’s House event. 60 participants will be randomly selected to visit the home to cook rice and heat up the bath the old-fashioned way, with Goro Miyazaki, who was Studio Ghibli’s primary creative contributor in the planning of Ghibli Park, also attending to give a special talk.

There is, however, a bit of a catch. Let’s Play at Mei and Satsuki’s House is part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Expo 2005 world’s fair that was held in Aichi and was the original reason the real-world Totoro house was built (Ghibli Park is also located within Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park, which served as the fair’s venue). In keeping with that, Let’s Play at Satsuki and Mei’s House, which is scheduled for April 1 is limiting eligibility to children living in Aichi Prefecture who are in the fifth or sixth grade of elementary school, which works out to ages 10 to 12 (applications can be made online here).

This is still good news for all Ghibli fans, though, even if you’re outside the eligible demographic. With Let’s Play at Mei and Satsuki’s House being just a one-day event, it’s likely that as long as it goes smoothly Ghibli Park will offer other opportunities for fans to come in and cook in the Totoro house in the future, and hopefully on some of those days grown-ups will get a chance too.

Source: Aichi Prefectural Government
Top image: Ghibli Park
Insert image: Studio Ghibli
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Details not many people know about reveal connections between the chain and traditional architecture.

Starbucks has a knack for adapting its brand to suit overseas markets, and in historic areas of Japan that means changing the entire look of their stores to fit in with the surrounding landscape.

Over in Mie Prefecture, along the Oharai-machi approach to Ise Jingu, Japan’s most sacred shrine, you’ll find one such Starbucks branch, which does away with the chain’s distinctive green-and-white brand colours and disguises itself within a beautiful traditional Japanese building.

▼ You won’t see any flashy green-and-white mermaids disrupting the historic setting here.

This Starbucks branch is known as “Ise Naiku-mae“, with “mae” meaning “in front” and “Ise Naiku” being one of the two main shrines at Ise Jingu. It blends in so seamlessly with the other buildings that you might find yourself walking right past it, but it’s worth stopping to admire some of the beautiful details.

Firstly, the store’s wooden townhouse has been constructed in the “tsuma-iri” architectural style, where the entrance is on the same side as the gabled roof.

The signs on the building are surprisingly modest, with a wooden “Starbucks” appearing above the entrance…

…and the siren beside the entrance, in plain white and seemingly dug into the surface to resemble a wall relief.

The traditional details continue when you step inside, where you’ll find a simple counter staffed by baristas on the first floor, and a quiet, warmly lit space on the second floor.

It’s much deeper and wider than you might expect, and when you head to the back of the second floor, you’ll see a residential area and a parking lot from the wall-to-wall window.

The most popular seating area, however, is towards the front of the building, where you get to admire the traditional streetscape.

▼ The view from the second-floor window at the front of the building.

Though this Starbucks branch looks and feels very different to other run-of-the-mill branches in Japan, the menu remains the same, with all your favourite drinks available, including limited-edition varieties like the Ruby Chocolat Symphony Frappuccino below.

It’s one of the most relaxing Starbucks stores in all of Japan, and when you’re outside again, even more details become apparent, with onigawara, Japanese gargoyle tiles, adorning the roof.

A closer look through the power of a telephoto lens reveals details not many get to see up-close.

This beautifully crafted roof ornamentation shows incredible attention to detail in the mermaid’s face, with textural marks giving it a sense of movement and life. 

There’s attention to detail a little lower down as well, in the tomoegawara (round tiles at the eaves), which show the fruits of the coffee tree.

The onigawara above the eaves on the first floor depict these coffee trees in a three-dimensional manner, showing just how well Starbucks is able to add its own spin on ancient Japanese traditions.

▼ The more you look, the more tiles you find, adding unique charm to the building.

Hidden behind the roof’s front view is another onigawara, this time depicting a bird. Though hawks and eagles are often often chosen for this kind of motif, Starbucks is known for its hummingbird program, which creates learning opportunities for children and young people struggling with financial difficulties, leading us to believe this may well be a hummingbird.

The hummingbird program was inspired by an Andean folk tale known in Japanese as “Hachidori no Hito Shizuku” (“Water drop of a Hummingbird“), in which the bird drops water from its tiny beak onto a raging forest fire. When the forest animals question the bird over this seemingly useless task, the hummingbird replies, “I’m just doing what I can“. Like the hummingbird, Starbucks is doing what it can to help with its charity program, and as onigawara tiles are often seen as protectors of buildings against fire damage in Japan, this folk tale ties in perfectly with the longstanding roof-tiling tradition.

While this Starbucks branch has come to the attention of local guides and visitors to the area since it opened in 2021, the story of the roof tiles is yet to receive any similar recognition, with the official site only briefly mentioning that they exist, and an Internet search in Japanese giving us no deeper information on them.

So if you’re visiting Ise Jingu and want to go viral on social media, you might want to stop by this store and give your followers a closer look at the roof tiles and the hidden stories behind them. Don’t forget to tag us in your posts so we can hit you up with a like, and you can always check out some other unique Starbucks branches in Kawagoe, Kyoto, and Toyama, the last of which has been deemed “the world’s most beautiful”.

Photos © SoraNews24 
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Rare chance to cheer on LeBron and Luffy under the same roof.

As we reported last year, One Piece will set sail for Crypto.com Arena on 28 February for a one-day collaboration game between the LA Lakers and LA Clippers. This is the latest collab between the anime and manga juggernaut and premier LA sports franchises, following One Piece Day with the LA Rams last year.

In all honesty, though, the generally lanky One Piece cast, for the most part, tend to be built far more for basketball than football so this team-up is like a match made in Heaven Island. And what better way to illustrate that point than with an actual illustration of the Straw Hat Pirates, all in Lakers uniforms?

▼Luffy has the number 5656, which can be read as “Gum-Gum” in Japanese. The other characters all have their birthdates as numbers.

It’s a rare look at one of anime and manga’s most famous teams dressed as one of basketball’s most famous teams, and if you’re a ticket holder for Friday’s game, then you’re in luck because you can get this drawing in poster form for free!

That’s not all either, everyone admitted into the game will also get a free T-shirt featuring Luffy going in for a monster dunk and showing a lot of restraint by not just stretching his arm right up to the basket.

These two freebies alone would be worth the trip that also lets you see stars like LeBron James and Rui Hachimura play. But there’s going to be even more festivities planned, such as a special photo booth based on the One Piece video game Bounty Rush, where you can take a commemorative photo inside the arena.

There’s also going to be a special on-court game in which random fans will be plucked from the crowd and given a chance to win special prizes. Details about the game and prizes are being kept under wraps, but considering the T-shirt and poster above are standard, it’s sure to be something really great.

For those of us who can’t make it to Crypto.com Arena, or even LA for that matter, it’ll still be possible to enjoy the event by checking out the official social media accounts of the LA Lakers, where they’ll be posting images of all 10 Straw Hat Pirates dressed in Lakers gear individually throughout the game.

Friday night: ’The Straw Hat Pirates' will be coming to LA in the Purple & Gold. Join us for the #LakersxONEPIECE collab game on 2/28!

金曜日の夜にthe Purple & Goldに身を包んだ「麦わらの一味」がLAにやってくる！
2/28（現地時間）、#LakersxONEPIECEのコラボゲームを盛り上げよう！ pic.twitter.com/hIMu3gmBSk

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 25, 2025

But those who can make it are really in for a treat. The game sounds like it’ll be great too since it’s against the Clippers, who will definitely be out for revenge for not being able to team up with One Piece. After all, pirates sail on clippers…

That is what the team’s named after, right? It can’t be like the hair trimmers. And come to think of it, what the heck is a “laker” anyway? Someone who lives by a lake?

Anyway… You all go and check out this game. I’ll catch up after I swing by Wikipedia and figure all these names out.

Source: Press release
Images: ©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, ©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation, ©Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
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What you see is what you get, and exactly what we want, with this regional treat.

Many Japanese sweets are delicate and complex things, weaving together subtle flavors and intricate aesthetics for an experience true gourmands can appreciate on several different levels. Even in Japan, though, there are sweets shops that believe the best strategy is to keep things simple, and that’s the philosophy behind the extremely popular confectionaries of Ise, Mie Prefecture.

After stopping by the city’s Ise Shrine, many travelers’ next destination is a souvenir shop to buy either Akafukumochi or Ofukumochi. Though made by different confectioners, Akafuku and Ofukumochi are essentially the same, consisting of a small piece of mochi completely covered in a large amount of smooth anko, or sweet red bean paste. As a matter of fact, the “Aka” part of Akafukumochi means “red,” and the ratio of anko to mochi is so heavily balanced towards the anko side that you almost might not even notice the rice cake core in Akafuku and Ofukumochi.

▼ Akafukumochi

Again, the two treats are so similar that most people would probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference between Akafukumochi and Ofukumochi in a blind taste-test, and they’ve both been big hits since the early 1700s. Of the two, though, Akafukumochi is the brand with the higher name recognition. However, there is a very compelling reason to seek out Ofukumochi, which is that it’s also available in a matcha version, and it’s probably safe to say that anyone who like green tea sweets will be unable to resist it once they see how beautifully delicious it looks.

▼ The matcha Ofukumochi, flanked by the standard red bean paste version and another variant coated with kinako (roasted soybean powder)

We weren’t even going to try to resist this sweet siren song, so we swiftly ordered a box of matcha Ofukumochi for 860 yen (US$5.70). They come wrapped in a charming paper with an illustration of Ise’s Meoto Iwa, or “Wedded Rocks,” a local landmark of two rocks rising from the sea and connected by a length of blessed rope to symbolize the marriage of the gods Izanagi and Izanami.

▼ The Meoto Iwa also appear on the inner seal.

Inside were eight mouthwatering matcha Ofukumochi. We actually rearranged them a bit to get them all aligned extra nicely before snapping the above photo, and the fact that none of them ended up with their anko torn, slid off, or otherwise out of place is testament to the generous quantity of sweet bean paste on each one.

So how do they taste? Exactly like they look! While some green tea desserts soften the tea intensity by adding in large amounts of sugar or cream, the matcha Ofukumochi are confident that anyone choosing such verdant sweets wants the green tea flavor to be equally deep, and the sheer amount of anko means that it instantly envelops your taste buds in a rich all-encompassing matcha sensation.

Unfortunately, as we mentioned above Ofukumochi isn’t as well known as Akafukumochi, which makes it harder to find in shops outside the Ise area. Thankfully, Ofukumochi has an online shop too, and the matcha version is available for order here.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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“One-of-a-kind premium fireworks” event offers amazing views with eye-popping ticket prices.

The traditional time for fireworks festivals in Japan is summer, when there’s zero chance of crowds getting chilly while waiting for the show to start. So the organizers of The Zekkei Fireworks are going against conventional wisdom by having their event in the spring, but they’ve got a good reason. They want guests to be able to see fireworks and cherry blossoms at the same time, so they’ve scheduled the event for April, when the sakura will be in bloom.

The Zekkei Fireworks isn’t just presenting a double dose of Japanese beauty, though, but a triple one, because it’s taking place at Mt. Fuji, with the symbol of the country serving as a backdrop as the fireworks light up the sky on the night of April 19.

Zekkei translates to “beautiful scenery,” and the mountainous part of that promise comes from the Zekkei Fireworks venue, the Fujiten Resort area located partway up the slopes of Mt. Fuji, near its first station. Four of Japan’s most celebrated fireworks producers will be contributing creations, starting with Nagano Prefecture’s Beniya Aoki Fireworks, which was founded 109 years ago. Shockingly, Beniya Aoki is actually the youngest company taking part in the festival, as the other Japanese fireworks producers will be Yamanashi’s Saiki, Aichi’s Isogai, and Gunma’s Kikuya Obata, which were founded 124, 138, and 153 years ago, respectively. Two fireworks firms from overseas have also accepted invitations to join in, Spain’s Ricasa Riardo Caballero and America’s Pyro Spectaculars (founded in 1881 and 1906).

In addition to the spring-instead-of-summer timing, Zekkei Fireworks also wants to differentiate itself by being a less congested and stressful event than Japan’s major fireworks festivals often are. All viewing areas will require tickets and offer great views of the fireworks, the organizers say, eliminating the need to fight crowds and stake out a spot hours in advance.

▼ A map of the various seating areas

Zekkei Fireworks says its goal is to provide “one-of-a-kind premium fireworks entertainment,” and with a total of just 3,000 seats available, the pricing is premium too, with the cheapest single-person Standard Ticket costing 30,000 yen (US$199), and the least expensive per-person options being a pair of Standard Tickets for 55,000 yen or four for 111,000 yen, each of which works out to 27,500 yen per person. Tickets top out at the VVIP Seats (yes, they’re very, very important-class) which cost 200,000 yen each and include “gourmet food service.”

The venue opens at 4 p.m. on April 19, and the fireworks start going off at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be reserved via the links on the Zekkei Fireworks official website here.

Related: Zekkai Fireworks official website
Source: PR Times, Zekkai Fireworks official website
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Zekkai Fireworks official website
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No other convenience store drink stands up to this one right now.

There was a time when 7-Eleven Japan was most famous for its coffees, but these days it’s making just as much of a stir for its smoothies. Right now, for instance, there’s a variety that’s become a huge hit on social media, not just for the taste, but the fact that when you search for it on the official site, it isn’t listed as it’s only available in select regions.

Called the “Baked Sweet Potato Milk Smoothie“, this drink contains actual cubes of the vegetable, which are clearly visible when you purchase the smoothie in its pre-mixed state from the freezer section.

▼ Priced at 420 yen (US$2.80), you’ll find the drink at select stores in the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, Chiba, and Ibaraki prefectures.

The visual element is part of what makes these smoothies so popular, as you get to see exactly what goes into the drink. The lid on this particular variety is even printed with the words “Beni Tenshi” (“Red Angel“), indicating the type of sweet potato inside, which is sourced from Ibaraki Prefecture and characterised by a rich sweetness and smooth texture.

Half the fun of the drink is in its making, as customers need to whip it up themselves after paying for it, using the dedicated machine on the counter. Simply scan the barcode to open the machine door, then peel off the lid, set it in place and press the button to start the smoothie-making process.

▼ Within seconds, you’ll have your freshly made smoothie!

Upon trying it, you’ll be surprised to find that it tastes exactly like a baked sweet potato. It has the same comforting sweetness, with the addition of milk adding a soft creaminess to the mix.

With visible remnants of vegetable chunks inside the drink, it’s like drinking a sweet potato, and checking out the ingredients list reveals it also contains banana puree and concentrated apple juice to amp up the drinkability.

At 192 kilocalories, and with 40.7 grams (1.4 ounces) of carbohydrates in every cup, this variety is more calorific than other smoothies at 7-Eleven so if you’re up for a sweet and filling once-in-a-while treat, this’ll definitely tickle your fancy. If you’re watching your calories, though, then the chain’s Cafe Latte Smoothie, which is equally hard to find, will be right up your alley.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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