Random Japan

Pot-sticker paradise, hot-spring hotel just outside of Tokyo makes for a tasty retreat
Meg Murphy

Ask a Japanese person to give some examples of Chinese food, and they’ll likely reply with things like chaahan (fried rice) and the quintessential gyoza (pot-stickers). With their crispy fried outsides and juicy, flavorful insides, you can’t go wrong with gyoza, and many would say that Chinese food chain GYOZANOMANSYU (餃子の満州), based in the Kanto region of Japan, is the leader of them all.

Those wishing to take the gyoza experience a bit further can visit the hot-spring hotel Toumeikan in Gunma Prefecture, managed by GYOZANOMANSYU, and for a mere 5,900 yen per night (roughly US$59) you can stay in one of their cozy Japanese-style rooms, take a relaxing soak in the onsen hot springs, and get your fill at their breakfast buffet. Located deep in the mountains of Gunma, yet within a two- to three-hour drive from Tokyo, makes this a great place for a weekend getaway. Albeit one involving lots of garlic and chives.

STATS

42
Penitents who doused themselves with ice-cold water during a purification ceremony last month at Kandamyojin shrine in Chiyoda-ku


¥5,372,000
Average yearly income of all households in Japan, according to the labor ministry


¥2,434,000
Average yearly income of single-mother households, according to the ministry

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Officials at the education ministry announced plans to establish a center for promoting “active learning” in primary and secondary schools.

A newspaper survey revealed that 38 out of 47 prefectures have, since the March 11 earthquake, added staff dedicated to disaster-prevention efforts.

Meanwhile, the 1995 Hanshin quake is being credited with a rise in the number of local governments that have reached mutual assistance agreements in times of emergency.

A 71-year-old liquor store owner in Tokyo found two bottles of whiskey that are believed to be from the original batch made by Nikka founder Masataka Taketsuru in the early 1940s.

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Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express will be a bullet train in Japan

JIJI
West Japan Railway Co. is launching a bullet train Saturday decorated with images of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter area that opened last July at Universal Studios Japan in the city of Osaka.

The Harry Potter train will run on JR West’s Sanyo Shinkansen Line and Kyushu Railway Co.’s Kyushu Shinkansen Line.

It will run as the Sakura No. 580 train Saturday mornings from Kagoshima-Chuo Station on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line to Shin-Osaka Station on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line, or as the Hikari No. 580 bound for Shin-Osaka from Hakata Station on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line, also on Saturday mornings.