TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Canada’s Tourism British Columbia has recently opened a “Whistler Café” at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture, which is limited only during the winter season. The café is with the theme of Whistler in Canada, and this is a joint project which was organized by the Tourism British Columbia, the Naeba Ski Resort and corporations which related to Whistler tourism.

After operating the café for the last consecutive four years, a Canadian aluminum dome tent and a Tipi, which is a traditional tent style dwelling of Native Americans, have been built at the site. While the café serves Canadian casual food, beer, British Columbian wine, you can also find brochures, magazines and books, which related to Whistler, since the café also represents as an information dispatch base for Whistler.

Also, during the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games which will be held in February, games will be broadcasted in the café. For the selected popular Olympic events, public viewings will also be arranged.

The café opens during 19th December 2009 and 28th March 2010. It has launched a “Go! Whistler campaign” to celebrate its opening. There will be 100 prizes including a trip to Whistler (Canada) for a pair, Naeba ski lift coupons etc.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

You can never miss crabs when you are talking about seafood in winter. Especially, captured only in the Japan Sea, the taste of Zuwai-gani is Exquisite. With its long legs and succulent meat, this type of crab goes well with any recipes. Boil, grill, or nabe (one-pot dish), for example. Interestingly, Zuwai-gani changes its name by region; “Matsuba-gani” in Tango and Sanin, and “Echizen-gani” in Fukui and Ishikawa Prefecture. To distinguish the brands, these days the fishermen’s union in each area put the name of the landing port onto the crabs after they are captured. With these color-codes of the port of origin, you can instantly identify where the crab comes from.

Among the high-brand Zuwai-gani, “Taiza-gani” is a rare and super-deluxe product that costs more than 20 thousand yen per crab. Taiza-gani, with its unfamiliar name, is also known as “a rare Matsuba-gani.” Even among Matsuba-gani, the specialty of Sanin region (Shimane, Tottori, Hyogo, Kyoto), the only crabs entitled to be named “Taiza-gani” are the ones landing in Port Taiza of Tango Peninsula in Northern Kyoto.

They reason of the crab’s rarity is due to the limited haul of the crab, as it is captured using a few number of small boats. Unlike large fishing boat with fishermen staying and operating for each and every day, these small crab boats can be easily affected by stormy weathers and climate change; fishermen may not be able to capture crabs for more than a week if the sea is rough. The fishing ground is off the shore in the northern tip of Kyoto Prefecture. The fish boat cast off from Taiza port before dawn and return in the afternoon, and the crabs captured will be traded on the very day.

Quality of the crab meat goes off even if it is kept alive in an aquarium, so the fishermen prioritize the freshness and the taste rather than the fishery yield. Thanks to those efforts, the freshness and the meat quality is superb, making the crab very rare that can only be savored in classy diners or Japanese restaurants. The density of the meat is also great, and many celebrities and chefs fell in love with the crab, praising “Once tried, you will never forget the taste.”

There are varieties of ways to taste Taiza-gani. Grilled, Kani hotpot, sashimi, porridge, or name any kind of recipes. Don’t worry if you have a limited budget, you can try going over to the local producers to try the crabs. Interestingly, if you order a course meal at restaurants or Japanese-style inns you will always get to see live crabs shown before they are cooked.

The first dish served in the course menu is sashimi. Dipping the prepared meat into ice water, the meat spreads like a flower as the nerves around the legs are still alive. It tastes as if it melts in your mouth. Savoring one whole crab, the course menu continues with boiled, shabu-shabu, grilled, and crabs hot pots, and Japanese porridge is served in the end of the feast. The inn would be quite expensive, ranging from 30,000 to 40,000 per person including the accommodation fee. But the seasonal Taiza-gani is the king of crabs. This crab tastes delicious regardless of the menu, so it is worth trying for at least once if you are fortunate enough to indulge in its taste.

By the way, the origin of the name Taiza dates back to Asuka Period. In the end of sixth century, two ruling families Soga and Mononobe had a conflict, and Aanahobeno-hashiudo, Prince Shotoku’s mother, found shelter with “Ohama-no-Sato” to escape from the disturbance. Taiza was once called Ohama-no-Sato, but after the war was over, the queen gave her name to the area “Hashiudo Village” upon her return to Ikaruga in Yamato. However, the people in Ohama-no-Sato displayed the feeling of awe, avoiding to call the name of the queen and left the village (i.e., “Taiza” is a homonym for the word “to leave the place”). It is said that the area is called “Taiza” from this incident.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

The aggregate number of international passengers booked on Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) during the New Year vacation period (December 25, 2009 – January 5, 2010) declined 6.7 percent to 598,621 compared to the same vacation period a year earlier. While ANA increased the number of international passenger reservations by 7.1 percent to 179,214, JAL, in contrast, decreased its number by 11.6 percent down to 319,407. Although ANA showed a positive growth in a number of its destinations, the total number of passengers booked is forecast to fall short of the year-ago level with the exception of China which rose 3.1 percent to 134,406. Thanks to significant reductions in seat capacity, however, both airlines are expected to improve the rate of international passenger reservations, which is a basis of calculating seat load factor, by around 10 percentage points respectively, registering a consolidated booking rate of 84.9 percent, up by 9.5 percentage points.

The number of international passenger bookings declined year-on-year on JAL’s entire network destinations. Guam shows the least decrease by two percent, followed by China, down by 3.7 percent, and Hawaii, down by 6.2 percent. US destinations enjoy the highest booking rate of 96.7 percent. An average rate of booking of the airline’s entire network went up by 9.1 percentage points to 86.4 percent alongside a 20.9 percent decrease in seat capacity.

Meanwhile, ANA continues to show positive traffic growth in destinations in China, Asia and US trans-Pacific. Its Asia destinations, in particular, enjoy the vibrant traffic growth. Asia is the only region with increased seat capacity. It edged up by only 0.2 percent, but the number of passenger reservations continues to hover at a high growth of 16.2 percent with its booking rate of 90.9 percent, up by 12.5 percentage points. The airline’s overall booking rate rose by 11.0 percentage points to 81.5 percent. As reduction in seat capacity is kept at 7.3 percent, ANA’s rate of international passenger reservations is slightly lower compared to that of JAL.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.