Nighttime sightseeing in Kyoto is catching on with foreign tourists, as locals are working to satisfy visitors’ wish to enjoy traditional culture even after evening comes.

At 6 p.m. one weekday in August, an enthusiastic audience nearly filled Gion Corner, a theater of some 200 seats at the center of the Gion traditional entertainment district in the western Japan city.Occupying most of the seats, foreigners applauded vigorously every time a performance concluded. They also enjoyed photo opportunities, pointing their cameras and smartphones at the stage.

At the theater, seven traditional performing arts, including the “kyo-mai” dancing, “gagaku” court music and “kyogen” comic plays, are presented one after another in a program lasting about an hour.

The Japanese land ministry plans to revise the standards on barrier-free rooms at hotels to increase the number of guest rooms accessible to wheelchair users ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, informed sources have said.

Currently, hotels with a total floor space of at least 2,000 square meters and at least 50 guest rooms are obliged to have one or more rooms fit for use by people in wheelchairs.

New standards being considered by the ministry would require that at least one pct of all guest rooms at such hotels be those usable by people in wheelchairs, the sources said. To make the change, the ministry will overhaul an ordinance for implementing the nation’s barrier-free law.

Under the new rules, hotels with 201 to 300 guest rooms, for example, would have to have three or more rooms accessible to wheelchair users.

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Tourist farms in Japan have been attracting hordes of foreign visitors who are placing fruit picking high on their travel itineraries as the global reputation of Japanese fruit grows.

With more tourists seeking experiences over material goods during their trips, a number of companies have started getting involved in farm tourism, and tourist farms are becoming can’t-miss destinations, especially outside major cities.

The reputations of farmers who actively invest in and promote their farms are spreading beyond borders on the internet.

According to the Japan Tourism Agency, overseas visitors to Japan spent 143.9 billion yen on leisure activities in 2017, more than four times the amount spent four years before.

But since the ratio of spending on leisure activities among entire travel expenses was lower than in data revealed for Europe and the United States, both public and private sectors in Japan see even greater potential for growth.

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Several beaches ravaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan have been reopened for bathing for the first time in 8 years.

Haragamaobama beach in Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture, was opened to the public on Saturday.

Seawalls on the beach were badly damaged by the tsunami 8 years ago. But the reconstruction work has been completed.

A ritual was held to pray for safety, and a group of local residents released balloons into the sky before the beach was officially declared open.

Children then jumped into the water all at once.

Local diners have opened beach houses to offer shaved ice with syrup on top, as well as other food and drinks.

A woman in her 30s said she is happy to once again be able to swim in the sea, where she would come every year before the disaster.

A teenage boy said he has been looking forward to the opening of the beach. He said he wants to fully enjoy himself with his friends.

Four beaches in Fukushima Prefecture have reopened since the disaster including in Iwaki and Soma.

Hotel Okura Tokyo, the flagship hotel of one of Japan’s top hotel chain operators, has been fully booked during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics thanks to stays by officials connected with the International Olympic Committee.

All 508 guest rooms of the Tokyo hotel will be fully occupied during the Summer Games, Chizu Nakashiro, an official of Okura Nikko Hotel Management, a hotel-operating subsidiary of Hotel Okura Co., said at a promotional event in Kuala Lumpur last week.

About half of guest rooms at Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba, located in one of the most popular destinations for foreign tourists in Tokyo, have also been booked by IOC officials, said Nakashiro, who is in charge of international sales for the hotel operator.