New columnar apple variety developed in Japan

TOKYO, June 12 — National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) announced on June 11 that it has developed Benitsurugi, a new columnar apple variety. Columnar apple trees grow in an upright form without the branches extending horizontally like in typical apple trees, making it easier for growers to manage them and enabling them to harvest the fruit using picking machines, leading to improved work efficiency. It is a mid-season variety and is comparable to major varieties in terms of quality such as sugar content, NARO said. It is the first time a columnar apple grown for eating raw that meet a certain standard was developed in Japan. It took … Continue reading

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They fall into mud, and love gets deeper

GUNMA, Jun. 4 – On June 2, in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, five married couples participated in a joint wedding ceremony followed by a mud run in their wedding attire at a rice field. Approximately 1,300 guests celebrated the couples with big smiles and clapping as the brides’ pure white wedding dresses turned “colored” in the mud. This event was part of the 19th Yoshii Mud Festival, which aimed to strengthen community bonds between parents and children. One of the organizers, Shigenari Okabe (69), proposed holding the wedding ceremony for couples who were already married but had not held their ceremonies. The couples who participated in activities headed to the … Continue reading

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AI daily cow art contest held in commemoration of World Milk Day

TOKYO, June 5 — A contest for artworks depicting dairy cows created with the use of artificial intelligence image generators was held in Japan to commemorate World Milk Day on June 1. In the contest, organized by Noujoujin, an agriculture branding service firm based in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, the top prize was awarded to an artwork by Tetsuya Kawakami, 37, a dairy farmer of Izumo, Shimane Prefecture. Kawakami’s work portrays a design of a cow along with red, orange and yellow flowers and plants. He instructed AI to include not only a dairy cow but also farm produce so that people who look at the work will understand how the … Continue reading

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Lisianthus flowers have scent components that attract cats like silvervine: NARO’s research reveals

TOKYO, May 28 – Giving silver vines to cats? Yes, but lisianthus flowers can also make your cats happy. The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) has published that lisianthus flowers possess scent components like iridoids and actinidine, like silver vine, which attract cats. This is the first time these components have been found in the types of flowers sold as cut flowers. This property will likely become a new advantage of lisianthus, which is already famous for its wide variety of colors and shapes and good keeping quality. NARO analyzed 13 breeds, including New Lination White, with a weak, sweet scent. Then, 36 chemical compounds, including iridoids and … Continue reading

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National bullfighting summit held in Niigata to preserve the tradition

NIIGATA, May 27 — The 27th national bullfighting summit was held on May 26 in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, with 28 bulls clashing their horns at the Yamakoshi Bullfighting Arena before an audience of some 1,100 people. Nagaoka Mayor Tatsunobu Isoda, who heads the event’s organizing council, said, “It is 20 years since the entire population of the village of Yamakoshi was evacuated following the (2004) Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake. We want to show how the area has been restored by the passion of the local community and those who provided support so that we can offer strong hope to people in other disaster-hit areas.” The village of Yamakoshi became part of … Continue reading

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