Category Archives: Photos

【News】Racers go ups and downs through lush Shizuoka tea plantations                          Green tea growers finds new way to promote green tea consumption (May 13, 2016)

In Shizuoka Prefecture, its famous green tea plantaions become a race course for cyclists. The roads that run through the green tea gardens are perfect sites for a road race and an organized bike ride as they have great ups and downs, are well-paved, and have no signals. On some Saturdays and Sundays, the roads are closed to cars and pedestrians and hundreds of cyclists turn them into a race course for a day. (There is almost no other established race course in Japan that can accommodate this many riders at a time.) During the race, cyclists are also welcome to enjoy the most delicious shincha (a special type of … Continue reading

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【News】Noh no IKEBANA: Let’s exhibit respective characters of each material (2) Arranging flowers as main characters (May 13, 2016)

One of the interesting things with “Noh no Ikebana” is the use of vegetable flowers. They’ll give you a lovely surprise of discovering how cute the flowers of vegetables are. They come in various colors and tones. So they are important elements of the arrangement. They can add pleasant scent, too. When arranging flowers, we need to be careful not to let them wither. We chose containers carefully so that we can put them in water and keep them happy. In this case, I put a flowering branch of a fruit tree in a plastic bottle and placed a stepstool which is tall enough to hide the bottle. We arrange … Continue reading

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【News】The Japan Agricultural News Photo Contest (Yearly Awards) (May 10, 2016)

Winners of the 41st Japan Agricultural News Yearly Photo Contest were announced. The first prize in Set Them Section, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister’ Award, went to a Teruhiko Yono’s “Unaccustomed to carrying young rice plants.” The first prize in News Photo Section, Japan Agricultural News Award, was given to Reizo Sakamoto’s “Pasture invaded by alien plants.” These photos were chosen from the winners of monthly photo contests held during 2015. Please have a look at the award winning photos of the year. <Set Theme Section: Photos taken under the theme “Brilliance of Four Seasons”> Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister’ Award Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives   (JA-ZENCHU) Chairman’s … Continue reading

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【News】Chisen-Botan: Breath-taking flower carpet in Matsue-shi, Shimane Prefecture (May 8, 2016)

In late April, the pond is filled with over 30,000 blossoms of peonies. The attraction is called Sanmanrin-no-Chisen-Botan, meaning ponds with 30,000 peony blossoms in Japanese, and held in Yuushien Japanese garden on the Daikon Island in Matsue-shi, Shimane Prefecture. The island is the largest producer of young peonies and these flowers are gathered from local peony farmers, 30 of them in total this year. The breath-taking scene first appeared four years ago as the highlight of the garden’s spring peony festival and with the aim of bringing more people to the island. In 2015, during the festival that offers this very exclusive experience, the garden was visited by approximately … Continue reading

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【News】Setouchi Triennale 2016: Artworks to bring people together on islands (Apr. 10, 2016)

A number of contemporary artworks gathers on the islands dotting the Seto Inland Sea for Setouchi Triennale 2016, a triennial art festival organized by Kagawa Prefecture and Setouchi Triennale Executive Committee. The international art festival is held in hope of bringing vitality back to these islands, which are experiencing the shrinking and aging of the populations. Visitors can enjoy traveling to each island by boats and ferries, watching the artworks and interacting with islanders. The festival has been held once in three years since 2010. The Triennale held in 2013 brought 1,070,000 visitors to the islands. The venues are scattered on 12 islands in the Seto Inland Sea including Shodoshima, … Continue reading

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