Random Japan

Darth Vader to be featured in large-scale snow sculpture at the 2015 Sapporo Snow Festival

Michelle Lynn Dinh

The annual Sapporo Snow Festival held in Japan’s northernmost prefecture has been delighting tourists and locals for over six decades. Each year, artists from around the world are invited to show off their talents constructing enormous structures out of ice and snow.

To commemorate the release of the seventh installment of the Star Wars series, The Walt Disney Company has collaborated with festival officials to design what looks to be the most epic large-scale snow sculpture yet, featuring enormous snow versions of Darth Vader, three Storm Troopers, a TIE fighter, and the Death Star.

Sapporo Snow Festival officials recently announced the collaboration, marking the first large-scale snow sculpture licensed by Lucasfilm. The design will be made a reality in time for the 66th anniversary of the festival, scheduled to take place from February 5 to February 11, 2015.

46,000 Number of children aged 0-2 who will be on waiting lists for nursery schools in fiscal 2017, according to government estimates

¥100 million Price of a platinum 2015 calendar from jeweler Ginza Tanaka that features images from the hit Disney film Frozen

30.45 million Number of people in Japan expected to take overnight trips during the New Year holidays—the second highest number on record, according to JTB

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

• Education authorities in Kobe suspended a junior high school teacher for punishing two students by forcing them to kneel on the floor and then posting their pictureson Facebook.
• Officials at the education and finance ministries are having a spat over whether first-grade classes should have a maximum of 35 or 40 students.
• Among the 1,800 guests to attend the autumn garden party at the imperial palace were actress Yukiyo Toake and Sochi Paralympic gold-medal skier Akira Kano.
• As part of their “long-term population vision for 2060,” government officials want to boost the fertility rate from the current 1.43 to 1.8.

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Lost cellphone provides connection for Japanese, Taiwanese railways

December 20, 2014

By MASATO YANAGIDANI/ Staff Writer

OSAKA--What started as a Taiwanese tourist losing a cellphone has led to Sanyo Electric Railway Co. and state-run Taiwan Railways Administration inking a sister-city agreement on Dec. 22, the Japanese company announced on Dec. 18.

Sanyo Electric officials said both companies have a station name with the same kanji characters and operate railways that go along the coast.

The Taiwanese tourist lost a cellphone in a train car on the Sanyo Electric Railway main line, which stretches along the Seto Inland Sea in Hyogo Prefecture, on Jan. 17.

A tourist with his wife and child reported the loss to station staff at Maikokoen Station, near the Akashi Kaikyo Ohashi bridge, in Kobe’s Tarumi Ward.