Come August and people of all age groups make their way to Yokohama city in Japan to enjoy the summer festival.
Held at Minato Mirai area, the dance filled event collaborates with Pokemon, a world famous animation character.
The event's popularity is touching new heights since it began three year ago.
A foreign visitor, "My kids love Pokemon and Pikachu."
Yuka Nagai, Director for City Promotion, City of Yokohama, said, "Pokemon is well known both domestically and internationally. We feel that its reputation and the fact that it's being broadcast on overseas media will be helpful in raising the awareness of Yokohama and the effort made there. We think highly of the store owners, employees of various facilities and business entities of the Minato Mirai area for being cooperative and letting more and more people participate."
There are lots of summer surprises in this event held in the famous tourist destination the Red Brick square.
Another foreign visitor said, "Awesome. Loved it. That was great."
The other attraction of the event was an illuminated Pokemon night display. Tourists enjoyed to be part of the summer festival.
If we talk about 1950s, Tokyo used to be in a serious air pollution situation.
However, the smoke control of boilers, the rules of using ultra- low-sulfur fuel oil, and the regulations of diesel vehicles got back the blue sky of Tokyo.
The Institute of Environmental Sciences has been contributing to this effort.
The Institute is conducting inspections on exhaust gas regulation and the effectiveness of the diesel vehicle rules.
Minoru Kobayashi, an official of the Bureau of Environment in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, said, "It was 2000 when Tokyo started regulating diesel vehicles. Environmental problems derived from automobiles were serious for a metropolis like Tokyo. In order to protect the citizens' health, Tokyo set the regulations in 2000. After calling out to the nearby local governments of Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa, these three governments started the effort simultaneously in 2003."
This is the potato exhaust gas test taking place in the Institute of Environmental Sciences.
The institute is reproducing the actual running condition and testing if the quantity of exhaust materials is within the regulated range.
The test data is being monitored in a separate room. In the future, Tokyo will continue to make effort on achieving the goal of CO2 reduction.
Kobayashi added, "Political, economical, and logistics resources accumulated in Tokyo, the heart of Japan. This idea is initiated by Tokyo, which is solving the environmental problems with local governments. We consider this was crucial in improving the environment at an early stage."
Saitama Prefecture is known for its food.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) has been introducing various attractions in Japan. Since September, the food of Saitama Prefecture has been the topic.
Tomoko Sugaya,an All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd.official said, "While the capital has become saturated with tourists, Saitama Prefecture was discovered as an attractive tourist destination which is close to the capital as well. By just going little further, there are different tourist spots that are conveniently accessible. We look forward to have everyone to come to visit us."
As part of the project, the ANA has been focused on the sweets and teas of Saitama Prefecture. It includes Kudzu starch cake made from Sayama tea.
The first step is to dry the freshly picked tea leaves to make the key ingredient dried tea leaves.
Later, after a few steps, it's heated with far infrared ray and special aromas are added to the dried tea leaves.
Takiko Nagamine of Nagamine-En said, "As the origin [of tea, Sayama is] located in the coldest place, so the mesophyll is thick. Like the old saying, "Sayama means the best in flavor," the taste is very sophisticated, due to the thick mesophyll which makes its flavor have great depth."
Customers are not only shopping, but also enjoying the gourmet food. It's a new form of inbound tourism.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
