There are no statistics available for this player Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here AD Opening Reception May 9 (Fri) 2025 17:00 - 20:00 Leave a rating/comment#Painting#InstallationBack to ArticlesSHARE Ala – The Rocket City Trash Pandas are excited to announce the addition of Hiroshi "Morris" Morioka as the club's Senior Manager of Promotions and Entertainment for the 2025 season Morris brings over a decade of unique experience gained from working with professional basketball and Ala – The Rocket City Trash Pandas are excited to announce the addition of Hiroshi "Morris" Morioka as the club's Senior Manager of Promotions and Entertainment for the 2025 season Morris brings over a decade of unique experience gained from working with professional basketball and baseball teams in both the United States and Japan Morioka played basketball from elementary school through high school He says his experience in Japanese basketball has prepared him for his new role with the Trash Pandas "There are many similarities between Japanese professional basketball and minor league baseball," said Morioka we don’t engage fans like teams in the United States While baseball is the most popular sport in Japan especially following the recent Olympic Games Morioka's sports background began in the United States when he joined the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (MiLB) in 2009 Although his English was not strong enough for phone calls then he quickly improved his language skills and earned the club's trust through his passion and innovative ideas for fan entertainment “Joining the best brand in Minor League Baseball I look forward to gaining a deeper understanding of how to run a sports venue of this size and the business of baseball," Morioka stated “I’m excited to leverage the knowledge I've gained from other sports franchises to engage with the Japanese community and promote baseball in any way possible.” Morioka is also playing a key role in the upcoming Japanese Anime Night on April 10 and is promoting a jersey featuring koi fish and cherry blossoms that the team will wear All game production and entertainment elements will highlight Japan's heritage and culture "I am thrilled to have Morris join our team," said Lindsey Knupp Executive Vice President of the Trash Pandas "He brings an unmatched level of energy Morris is also a fantastic ambassador for our Trash Pandas brand within the community I look forward to uniting even more communities here at Toyota Field." Morris has previously worked with the Oklahoma City Thunder (NBA) he also contributed to the NBA Japan Games in 2019 and 2022 during his time at Rakuten Morris's creativity was on full display in 2011 when he went viral for dribbling a basketball for 230 miles over 12 days from Tokyo to Sendai raising money for victims of the 2011 Japanese Tsunami This initiative captured national attention as news outlets followed his journey The Trash Pandas open their fifth season at Toyota Field on Friday, April 4, against the Chattanooga Lookouts. Single-game tickets for the 2025 season are now on sale, starting at just $8 for general admission and $16 for field-level seats. They can be purchased online at tptix.com Fans can also purchase tickets in person during regular business hours at the Wicks Family Foundation Box Office or by calling 256-325-1403 Fans can now start booking group outings for the 2025 season by visiting trashpandasgroups.com or by calling the group sales department directly at (256) 325-1403, option 2. 20-game mini-plans are also available at tptix.com For the latest information on events at Toyota Field, visit trashpandasbaseball.com/events Kitakami River bank and Mt. Iwate, Morioka City, Central Iwate (Image: VISIT IWATE) The 26th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (formerly the International Conference on Cold Fusion) will take place May 26-30 in Morioka The conference on low-energy nuclear reactions (LENRs) will be hosted by the ICCF26 organizing committee in cooperation with Iwate University an Iwate University professor in the Department of Physical Science and Materials Engineering The program is now available on the conference Web site Sponsors of the conference include Carl Page’s Anthropocene Institute company, the Japanese Thermal & Electric Energy Technology Inc. Foundation, the Japan CF-Research Society (JCF), and Hideki Yoshino’s Clean Planet company To learn more about LENRs, please visit the New Energy Times LENR Reference Site “I do not remember any case in my lifetime in science when so many experts have differed for such a long time on such relatively simple and inexpensive experiments.” “Perhaps a neutral particle of small mass and marginal stability is catalyzing the reaction You will have not modified any strong nuclear reactions but you may have opened up an interesting new field.” “Large heat release from fusion at room temperature would be a multi-dimensional revolution Somebody is going to have to eat his hat.” And when something that you don’t believe turns out to be true you never know what the consequences would be.” “The corpse of cold fusion will probably continue to twitch for awhile even after two nights of unrelenting assaults at the APS Baltimore Meeting.” “Low-energy nuclear reactions are real phenomena There’s probably something there but its not well-understood yet.” Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More The first of a two-phase renovation project on the Ted Morioka Gymnasium at Palolo Valley District Park will close the facility starting Monday according to the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation The renovation will begin with a reroofing of the park’s gym and pool pump building that includes an upgrade of the gym’s steel framing the gym will be closed in addition to areas in adjacent fields and some public parking due to staging of construction equipment and access The gym will reopen prior to Summer Fun 2025 The city awarded Diede Construction the $1,710,100 construction contract and RMA Architects Both contracts apply to the two renovation phases The Ted Morioka Gymnasium was named after the late State Representative for Palolo/St who was a WWII veteran and served eight terms with the State of Hawaii House of Representatives The gym houses indoor courts and a boxing ring and sits next to a recreation building pool and several ball fields within the 11.39-acre Palolo Valley District Park 1952 and last saw capital improvement renovations in 2021 A soba noodle restaurant in the northeastern Japan city of Morioka has revived its classic "home run baseball soba" last seen some 90 years ago the restaurant crafted a new version that hits the spot A search for the dish's origin reveals the shadow of Babe Ruth the iconic major league slugger who appeared to have captivated the restaurant's owner of the time with his remarkable hitting achievements during the American League All-Stars' 12-city tour of Japan in 1934 where the restaurant has operated for the past 140 years is also the home prefecture of Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani one of the few players to draw comparisons with Ruth "This is soba that was once sold with a home run-approved logo which is mainly known for its famous Iwate specialty "The 'mekabu' seaweed is the grass of the baseball field and the onsen-poached egg is the ball," Matsui says explaining the present-day version of her baseball soba The aroma of the "dashi" Japanese soup stock wafts as the broth and spices are added from a separate bowl to the noodles and other ingredients It was 1935 when the restaurant advertised a "Home Run Approved Baseball Soba" in the local daily But since neither a photo nor the original recipe of the dish remained then completed it in time for the 140th anniversary before including it on its menu in September The advertisement back then was placed by Yuko's grandfather Yuko requested information in newspapers and other media to find anyone who had ever tried it but came up empty Chokurian was not the only one with baseball-inspired dish ideas It was discovered that Sarashina Nunoya in Tokyo's Minato Ward had been serving baseball soba of its own since the 1920s got the idea when members of the Keio University baseball team came to the store," explains Sarashina Nunoya owner Eiichi Kaneko The warm broth soba that the restaurant began serving included shrimp tempura boiled egg and glove-shaped "kamaboko" steamed fish cake nor any record of the recipe ever being taught to anyone else One suggestion of the inspiration for Chokurian's baseball soba comes from the possibility that Yahei went to see a game in Sendai when Babe Ruth and other major league All-Stars were visiting in 1934 a member of the editorial board of the research institute at Iwate Nippo and an expert on the history of baseball in Iwate Prefecture said Yahei likely took an interest in the tour of American professional players No professional baseball existed in Japan at that time There was secondary school baseball (now high school baseball) and the Tokyo Big Six Baseball League for intercollegiate play which was at the center of the student baseball boom in pre-war Japan and it is difficult to imagine that he could have watched any of the Big Six league games Chiba at the Iwate Nippo daily suggests the Japan-U.S game held in Sendai in November 1934 was one Yahei likely attended "It was big news when Babe Ruth hit that many homers the "Home Run Approved" branding also makes sense According to Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Ruth hit 13 homers in the 18 games the All-Stars played in the 1934 series in Japan including two split-squad matchups between them The Japanese players selected specifically for their games against Ruth and Co served as the foundation of Japan's first professional baseball team that would go on to become the Yomiuri Giants The combination of the sport and noodles saw Sarashina Nunoya's baseball soba featured in the popular manga "Sobamon Nippon Soba Angya," which wrote about soba noodles in various regions of Japan when it was published in a comic magazine between 2008 and 2016 "I never knew there was another baseball soba," said Osamu Yamamoto Baseball:Shohei Ohtani determined to remain 2-way player for rest of career FEATURE:Japan's food makers eye "fermentation tourism" for foreign visitors Train travelers in Switzerland to get taste of Japan "bento" box eats To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox, subscribe here. Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription. Please check your inbox for a confirmation email. If you wish to change your message, press 'Cancel' to go back and edit. Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible. Tohoku’s range of festivities is absolutely unmatched.  The Sanno Matsuri in Tokyo is a multi-faceted annual festival spread over 11 days—including a special procession of portable shrines on even-numbered years.Photograph courtesy of Hie jinja ShrineByRob GossDecember 18 as spring transitions into the stickiness of early summer accompanied by musicians and hundreds of people in period costumes works its way through the streets of central Tokyo held over 11 days each year (and including a special procession of portable shrines on even-numbered years) is regarded as one of the three great Tokyo festivals handed down from the Edo era (1603-1867) along with the Kanda Matsuri in mid-May (in odd-numbered years) and Fukagawa Matsuri in mid-August (every three years) From top down: Aomori - Nebuta Matsuri float festival Connected via local train lines.Illustrated by Tatsuro Kiuchi All three events offer colorful glimpses of old Tokyo and along with a plethora of fireworks shows and smaller scale festivities they form part of an incredible array of annual celebrations in Japan’s capital Yet you don’t have to restrict yourself to Tokyo if you want to experience the festive side of Japan You could combine a stay in the capital with a trip north to the Tohoku region home to festivals that run the gamut from samurai reenactments to traditional street dancing—many of which began as prayers to the gods to protect the region’s rice crops and provide a bountiful harvest in autumn If you are free in the first week of August it’s possible to see several of Tohoku’s top matsuri starting with a ride on the high-speed Tohoku shinkansen bullet train a couple of hours north of Tokyo to Morioka in Iwate Prefecture for the Morioka Sansa Odori festival each day of the festival features dancing that legend says was born centuries ago when locals danced at Mitsuishi Shrine to celebrate the defeat of a demon that had been terrorizing Morioka’s castle town and flutists create an incredible atmosphere Originally a small event where locals danced around a stone at the Mitsuishi Shrine the Morioka Sansa Odori is now one of Tohoku’s biggest and liveliest festivals.Photograph courtesy of Morioka Sansa Odori Festival Organizing Committee you could then take the shinkansen an hour further north to Aomori City in Aomori Prefecture for the superb Nebuta Matsuri Taking place between August 2 and 7 long-standing festival sees giant paper-covered floats depicting characters from traditional kabuki plays and Japanese mythology being hauled through the streets teams of dancers and musicians each of which takes craftsmen months to design and build appears to come alive when illuminated from within The artwork on one of the giant floats paraded through Aomori City for the annual Nebuta Matsuri in August.Photograph courtesy of Aomori Prefecture With a combination of bullet and regional JR trains the final stop of this whirlwind festival tour could be in Yamagata Prefecture for the Yamagata Hanagasa an exhilarating street festival that brings together 10,000 performers of all ages Whether dressed in vibrant summer kimonos or vivid happi coats they perform variations of a regional Hanagasa dance waving hats adorned with orange safflowers and singing folk songs as musicians play a hypnotic mix of shamisen The Yamagata Hanagasa festival in Yamagata Prefecture sees thousands of dancers take to the streets to perform traditional dances.Photograph courtesy of Yamagata Prefecture Hanagasa CouncilFireworks and Flyovers eyes will be looking skywards for more of the region’s standout summer events In Miyagi Prefecture in late August every year the Matsushima Airbase Air Show—near scenic Matsushima Bay—is an alternative to the traditional fireworks displays that occur all over Japan in summer with pilots performing acrobatic stunts in the sky One of the Blue Impulse aerobatic planes that take to the skies for the Matsushima Airbase Air Show in Miyagi Prefecture in late August.Photograph courtesy of Miyagi Prefecture Travelers can also enjoy one of Japan’s best fireworks displays in Tohoku which is served by the shinkansen from Tokyo and then a network of local trains the Omagari Hanabi National Fireworks Competition on the final Saturday of August unites fireworks artists from around Japan as they vie to be crowned the nation’s best pyrotechnician sees some 18,000 fireworks exploding into a kaleidoscope of multi-colored patterns in the sky and attracts more than 700,000 spectators annually Akita Prefecture’s Omagari Fireworks Display doubles as Japan’s national fireworks competition featuring the top pyrotechnicians from around the country.Photograph courtesy of Omagari Entrepreneurs Group but moved to the cooler days of late May from 2024 onwards another classic Tohoku event is the Soma Nomaoi festival in Fukushima Prefecture’s Minamisoma City this spectacular festival is centered on 400 riders in samurai armor who gallop with flags strapped to their backs like a flashback to the era when shogun ruled Japan The Soma Nomaoi festival in Fukushima Prefecture includes a dynamic display of horsemanship that recalls Japan’s samurai roots.Photograph courtesy of Fukushima Prefecture Even calmer is Sendai Tanabata Festival between August 6 and 8 an event dating the Edo era that celebrates the one day of the year when the Milky Way parts and allows the lovestruck deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (the stars Vega and Altair) to meet in the heavens The people of Tohoku’s largest city celebrate by hanging long paper streamers that stretch for several yards throughout Sendai and enjoying the food stalls that set up around the city These colorful streamers made of washi paper appear across Sendai in early August as part of the annual Tanabata celebrations.Photograph courtesy of SenTIADiscover more sights and delights just a short trip from Tokyo here. Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright © 2015-2025 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved Volume 9 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fams.2023.1100147 This research study inspects the effectiveness of synchronization methods such as active control and backstepping control from systematic design procedures of a synchronized Shimizu–Morioka system for the same parameter It aimed to achieve synchronization between the state variables of two identical Shimizu–Morioka chaotic systems by defining the proposed varieties of the error dynamics coefficient matrix this study also aimed to designed an active controller that enables the synchronization of these systems The use of designed recursive backstepping nonlinear controllers was based on the Lyapunov function it also demonstrated the stability of the synchronization of the nonlinear identical Shimizu–Morioka system The new virtual state variable and establishment of Lyapunov functionals are used in the backstepping controller to stabilize and reduce errors between the Master (MS)/Drive (DS) systems the complexity of active controllers is verified to be such that the designed controller's effectiveness based on backstepping is attainable in engineering applications numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization strategy with the Runge–Kutta (RK-4) algorithm of fourth order through MatLab Simulink Chaos synchronization is an attractive science and technology phenomenon involving various real-life processes, and in a physical system, it appears challenging. In the 1990s [21], Pecora and Carroll [22] explored synchronization techniques for two chaotic systems with known parameters and different initial conditions Researchers began studying chaotic systems' synchronization procedures broadly and intensively around this time The master system-drive (MS-DS) system or response-slave (RS-SS) formalization is used in the majority of chaos synchronization techniques if one chaotic system is designated as the MS and another chaotic system as the DS is to use the output of the MS to control the DS so that it asymptotically tracks the output of the master system We successfully developed both methods for effectively controlling chaotic systems recursive backstepping controllers for global asymptotic synchronization between two chaotic systems can be designed The main novelty of this research is that the eigenvalues of the coefficient matrix of error state variables are adjustable to achieve the desired synchronization time in the suggested active synchronization control strategy The active control technique requires sequential controllers in all of the equations in the system but the backstepping approach just needs a single sequential controller The second method provides a useful contrast in that it offers superior performance while being much easier to implement We believe that the recommended control strategies will assist in bringing certain chaotic or hyperchaotic systems into synchronization given that the majority of chaotic systems in nature have distinct structures The control of chaos in the Shimizu–Morioka system is investigated using the active and backstepping control methods and compares the simulation results in the effectiveness of the two strategies we explain the conceptual basis of our article The Section 2 describes the Shimizu–Morioka system with chaotic dynamical behavior we originate the theory and formulation for the active control procedure of the Shimizu–Morioka system with known parameters Section 4 presents the backstepping synchronization of the identical Shimizu–Morioka chaotic systems with known parameters A comparison of the outcomes of numerical simulations is covered in Section 5 which deals with a comparison of the numerical simulation results The key results of this article are summarized in Section 6 The Shimizu–Morioka chaotic system (Equation 1) is a novel system that we examine in this article, in which chaotic dynamical behavior is described by Shil'nikov [27]: b are constant parameters around state variables x The Shimizu–Morioka autonomous three-dimensional system exhibits a chaotic behavior with considered parameters a = 0.81 and b = 0.375 Three separated equilibrium points, (0,0,0),(b,0,1), and (-b,0,1), exist in the system (Equation 1) if b ≥ 0. There is only one individual equilibrium point. (0, 0, 0) for b < 0 [46] For numerical simulations, we use the chaotic system's initial values of Equation (1) which are Xi(0) = (0.1, 0.2, 0.1);∀(X = (x, y, z), i = 1) And Xj(0) = (−0.5, 0.4, 0.5);∀(X = (x, y, z), j = 2). Figures 1, 2 clarify the two-dimensional projections of the Shimizu–Morioka Systems (Equation 1) on (x x) space projections for various initial values As the behavior of a chaotic system depends strongly on its initial conditions the systems (Equation 1) illustrate significantly different trajectories for MS and DS chaotic autonomous systems Although MS and DS began with approximately the same values in phase space Notwithstanding the fact that every MS–DS system has a unique attractor in phase space The chaotic attractor of the Shimizu–Morioka dynamical system on the x − y which are shown in the 2D phase portrait for the Master system which are shown in the 2D phase portrait for the Drive system The times gone by before reaching synchronization states for the Master system (x1, y1, z1) and the Drive system (x2, y2, z2) are shown in Figure 3 z before synchronization in dynamical change x2 in MS-DS system with deactivated control function y2 in MS-DS system with deactivated control function z2 in MS-DS system with deactivated control function Figure 4 represents the error complexities in the uncontrolled state, while Figures 5, 9 portray the error state behavior in the controlled state ez) before synchronization in dynamical change ez) after synchronization in dynamical change When MS–DS systems have identical parameters synchronization via active control is effective Assume the existence of an (MS–DS) system as Where x=(x1,y1,...,z1)T∈Rn and y=(x2,y2,...,z2)T∈Rn are the state vectors of the two systems (M1,M2)∈Rn×Rn are constant matrix which designated the coefficient matrix with negative eigenvalues and g(x) g(y) is a sequential nonlinear function and the control function u(t)=(ui(t))∈Rn which depends on state variables and needs to be calculated where i = (1 the two equivalent chaotic system (Equations 2 3) are globally asymptotically synchronized If a suitable controller u(t) fulfills the condition limt→ ∞‖Y(t)-X(t)‖ = limt→ ∞‖ei‖= 0 3) are calculated using the error function defined by ei = yi − xi the synchronization error is stated as follows Where M2 − M1 = M3 is the coefficient matrix of order (n × n) of the error system (Equation 4) and Γ(x, y) = g(y)−g(x) [47] Controller u(t) may get rid of the nonlinear section Control function formulation is defined as follows: Where M2-M1=M3∈Rn×n is the coefficient matrix of system (Equation 4) [47] Where the linear proposed controller matrix M4∈Rn×n controls the strength of the master system's controller which is defined by the subcontroller function v(t) Since v(t) = −M4e(t) is a scalar matrix with error variables When v(t) is a scalar matrix with error variables and v(t) = −M4e(t) is a constant matrix λi < 0 is the condition for diagonal matrix (M3 + M4) where λi is the eigenvalue of matrix (M3 + M4) state vectors of system (Equation 7) asymptotically converge to zero and as a result of which MS (Equation 2) tracks the DS (Equation 3) x(t) and y(t) are demonstrated to show the states of two identical and nonidentical chaotic systems The chaotic synchronization problem can be assumed to be a suitable controller u ∈ Rn stabilizing the synchronization error at the origin This indicates that for all t ≥ t0 ≥ 0 where t0 is the time of control activation the controller sends the synchronization error trajectories back to the origin The MS and DS of Shimizu–Morioka systems are defined as follows in this context: The MS of the Shimizu–Morioka system is designated by The DS of the Shimizu–Morioka system is designated by we characterize sequential controllers: ui(t); ∀ui = (1 we have to calculate the error state (ex; ∀x = x z) by combining the DS (Equation 8) and MS systems (Equation 9) using Let us derive the error dynamics equations for applying the active control design methods: the control functions are re-described as (vi; ∀i = 1 The error dynamics system (Equation 11) changes state z) are defined by linearizing error system (Equation 11) with control effort (vi; ∀i = 1 If the control function follows the instructions (ex; ∀x = x z) → 0 as time (∀ t → ∞) then the system's stabilization is complete To control the error dynamics (Equation 11) following the active control approach for the control functions (vi; ∀i = 1 one can use a variety of arbitrary scalar sets to create a constant matrix A Where A is a constant matrix. Here, it is examined how the chaotic system's coefficient matrix's eigenvalues [43] influence the results which are modifiable to get the required synchronization time To stabilize the error system's state the matrix A must all have eigenvalues following conditions (λi < o) The selection of the matrix is Ai where (i = 1,2,3) With the corresponding eigenvalues being λ1 = (−1 With the corresponding eigenvalues being λ2 = (−a With the corresponding eigenvalues bing λ3 = (−b Finally, we chose the A1 matrix for reduced synchronization time in the comparative analysis. Because when we chose A2 and A3 matrix for chaos control of Shimizu–Morioka, it takes longer time than A1 matrix, which is shown in Figures 6A–C The dynamical change of the synchronized average error when we chose arbitrary matrix (A1 (A) To carry out the zoom of the dynamical change of the synchronized average error for constant matrix A1 (B) Zoom of the dynamical change of the synchronized average error for constant matrix A2 (C) Zoom of the dynamical change of the synchronized average error for constant matrix A3 we prove the control system (Equation 16): we can construct the matrix B from the system (Equation 13) If we fix (Equation 15) into Equation (14) Where W = (B + A1) is a diagonal matrix For this specific selection of constant matrix (A1; ∀λ1 = −1 according to the linearity system's stability theory two systems are synchronized under the control system (Equation 20) if all the eigenvalues λi of the matrix W satisfy the condition (λi < o) From the system (Equation 15) by operating A1 matrix The MatLab Simulink is applied to the RK-4 algorithm to generate numerical results with a 0.01-time grid We proceed with the MS (Equation 8) and DS (Equation 9) procedures under the following initial circumstances: (A) The dynamical change of the synchronized states (x1 (B) The dynamical change of the synchronized states (y1 (C) The dynamical change of the synchronized states (z1 The dynamical change of the synchronized states of control effort ui Where ζ1 ∈ R and x ∈ Rn are the control input and state of the system, and the nonlinear functions are gathered in (f, g). The BC scheme is given as follows to stabilize systems (Equation 24), using the strict feedback form recursively [53]: Where ex, ζ1, ζ2, ..., ζk are error of state variables and u is the final control function [5] The stable process of the first of one system (Equation 24) is described as follows: we originate the dynamics state of variable κ1 which is regulated by κ1 = e1 for creating virtual controller ζ1 under the consideration of Lyapunov functions The virtual control ζ1 = α1(κ1) ensures that the system (Equation 25) becomes asymptotically stable by estimating α1(κ1), while κ2 is a controller because of V1>0⇒V1˙<0 [44] The stable process of the second of one system (Equation 24) is described as follows: The new virtual variable κ2 is defined by ζ1 and α1(z1) as: let us consider that the κ1˙,κ2˙ are subordinate coordinates of a new error subsystem: V2˙=-Qκ1T-Qκ2T<0 in Rn the virtual control ζ2 = α2(κ1 κ2) ensures that the system labeled (Equation 26) is asymptotically stable by estimating α2(κ1 The ongoing dimensional step defines the error variable κn: The new virtual variable subsystems are given as follows: V1˙=-Q1κ1T-Q2κ2T-...-QnκnT<0 in Rn where Qi=T-1,∀(i=1,⋯,n)>0 According to the Lyapunov stability theory the subsystem (Equation 29) is asymptotically stable when V2˙=-Qκ1T-Qκ2T<0 the virtual control αn−1(κ1 κn) ensures that the whole system (Equation 24) is asymptotically stable by estimating αn−1(κ1 which generally depends on x and ζ1 the system (Equation 23) is enormously stable worldwide for all initial conditions xi(0)∈Rn The MS of the Shimizu–Morioka systems: u is a single control input to be identified subsequently We originated the error system concerning time for applying the backstepping control strategy using the error states explanation (Equation 10) by combining (Equations 31 Following the sequence of the entire systems (Equation 24) the error system (Equation 33) is mentioned previously as: This project designated as control input u to ensure the stability of the error system (Equation 34) the 3D nonlinear chaotic system will be governed by a three-step recursive strategy each of which included a single virtual control function and a virtual variable The formulation continues following the sequential equation of the system (Equation 34) from the first to the last subsystem until the transformation of the coordinates from (ex˙,ey˙,ez˙) to (κ1˙,κ2˙,κ3˙) When ez is a controller and the first Lyapunov function is defined by a new virtual variable κ1 = ez, for creating the virtual control α1, which ensures that the first equation of Equation (34) is asymptotically stable by estimating the virtual control α1. The purpose of controller ez is to drive (ex, ey, ez) = (0, 0, 0) i.e. (x1; y1; z1) = (x2; y2; z2). Lyapunov function [44]-1: V1˙ is regulated by κ1˙ in the following ways: When ex = α1(ez) is used to define the second new virtual variable κ2 = ex − α1 the term κ1κ2(x2 + x1) in Equation (37) will be eliminated The second virtual variable is governed by the system's (Equation 34) second equation When ey is a controller and the second Lyapunov function is defined by the new virtual variable κ3 = ey − α2 We derived stabilization function α2 which ensures that the second of Equation (34) is asymptotically stable When we use the time derivative of κ2 in V2˙ then the dynamical change of V2 takes place as follows:: The stabilization function α2 is chosen as: Furthermore by substituting α2,V2˙ gets converted into: the term κ2κ3 from Equation (41) will be eliminated If we follow the sequence of Equation (30) and the control effort exists in the third equation The third virtual variable is governed by the third equation of systems (Equation 34) in which α2 = −κ2−κ1(x2 + x1) exists V3˙ is regulated by κ3˙ in the following ways: If the following preference for the control variable u: (i.e., V3<0˙, since a, b > 0) and according to the LaSalle-Yoshizawa theorem [16, 54] it is necessary to make it clear that all solutions of Equation (34) satisfy the conditions (ex; ∀x = x 32) are globally synchronized with the control function u the set of new virtual variables is a new error model shown in (κ1 and now let us analyze the entire space of (κ1˙,κ2˙,κ3˙) : The MatLab Simulink is applied to the RK-4 algorithm to generate numerical results with a 0.01-time grid. We proceed with the system (Equation 34) for completing the backstepping design simulation procedures under controller (Equation 45). Now, we proceed with fixing the parameter values of a = 0.81, b = 0.375, as shown in Figures 9–14 The error model with a virtual variable for backstepping without activated control The error model with the virtual variable for backstepping with activated control The dynamical change of error state (ex, ey, ez) and new subsystem (κ1, κ2, κ3) with activated control function is shown in Figures 9–14 The validity of a new subsystem under backstepping control with system equilibrium (0, 0, 0) is examined in Figure 12 along with the magnitude of system synchronization (Equation 34) the average error propagation is calculated as follows: The MS–DS system is globally synchronized following an initial momentary time period of approximately t = 2.5s. This is also supported by Figure 15B where the exponential convergence of the synchronization superiority is determined by the error propagation on average error states: Effectiveness of the synchronization times for (A) the AC approach and (B) the BC approach with the controller turned on for (0 ≤ t ≤ 100) Figure 15 shows the time response of the control law Figure 14 shows the synchronized states of MS–DS of the Shimizu–Morioka system devastating BC process by the activated controller it is necessary the effectiveness of the DS is necessary to track the MS with similar characteristics for all future states the BC formula reduces the number of controllers from 3 to 1 backstepping control outperforms the active control thereby reducing controller complexity and cost • The active control design includes sequential controllers and the backstepping design creates one controller by defining the Lyapunov function the error dynamic is the tendency toward zero as time goes to infinity hence the chaos synchronization of the Shimizu-Morioka chaotic system is asymptotically stable • The states of MS (master system) and DS (drive system) exhibit similar activities in both instructions • The results demonstrated that tracking the backstepping strategy takes much less time than the active control method for detecting the dynamics of transitory errors it reaches global stability and asymptotic synchronization Backstepping outperforms other strategies and is simpler to design The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author MA: overview of the article and methodology All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of nterest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Google Scholar Variable structure based robust backstepping controller design for nonlinear systems Global chaos synchronization for four-scroll attractor by nonlinear control Google Scholar Synchronization of chaotic behavior in nonlinear Bloch equations CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Nonlinear modeling and dynamic analysis of hydro-turbine governing system in the process of load rejection transient Tracking control and synchronization of the new hyperchaotic Liu system via backstepping techniques CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chaos Q-S synchronization between Rössler system and the new unified chaotic system CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A new chaotic system with fractional order and its projective synchronization PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The function cascade synchronization method and applications CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Fractional Order Control and Synchronization of Chaotic Systems Google Scholar Control of double gimbal control moment gyro systems using the backstepping control method and a nonlinear disturbance observer CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Control and synchronization of chaos in biological systems via backsteping design PubMed Abstract | Google Scholar The generalized backstepping control method for stabilizing and solving systems of multiple delay differential equations CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Distributed cooperative learning for a group of uncertain systems via output feedback and neural networks CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Synchronization of second-order chaotic systems with uncertainties and disturbances using fixed-time adaptive sliding mode control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Control and synchronization of chaotic and hyperchaotic Lorenz systems via extended backstepping techniques CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Controlling chaos and synchronization for new chaotic system using linear feedback control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Locally optimal controllers and globally inverse optimal controllers CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Passive and impulsive synchronization of a new four-dimensional chaotic system PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar doi: 10.1175/1520-0469(1963)020<0130:DNF>2.0.CO;2 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Exploring chaotic dynamics by partition of bifurcation diagram In: Workshop on Advance in Nonlinear Complex Systems and Applications (WANCSA) PubMed Abstract | Google Scholar Multistability and its annihilation in the chua's oscillator with piecewise-linear nonlinearity Google Scholar Nonlinear dynamics of three-neurons-based Hopfield neural networks (HNNs): Remerging Feigenbaum trees coexisting bifurcations and multiple attractors CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar On bifurcations of the Lorenz attractor in the Shimizu-Morioka model CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Bifurcation analysis and chaos control in Shimizu-Morioka chaotic system with delayed feedback CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Control of Shimizu-Morioka chaotic system with passive control sliding mode control and backstepping design methods: a comparative analysis Advances and Applications in Chaotic Systems Google Scholar Synchronization of spatiotemporal nonlinear dynamical systems by an active control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Synchronization of two Lorenz systems using active control PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Synchronization for delayed memristive BAM neural networks using impulsive control with random nonlinearities CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Non-fragile H∞ synchronization of memristor-based neural networks using passivity theory Pinning impulsive synchronization of stochastic memristor-based neural networks with time-varying delays CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chaos synchronization using active control and backstepping control: a comparative analysis CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chaos control of chaotic dynamical systems using backstepping design CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Synchronizing chaotic systems using backstepping design CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Adaptive anti-synchronization of Cai chaotic systems with fully unknown parameters In: 2010 International Workshop on Chaos-Fractal Theories and Applications Google Scholar Adaptive anti-synchronization of chaotic systems with fully unknown parameters CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Robust nonlinear real-time control strategy to stabilize a PVTOL aircraft in crosswind In: 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems Google Scholar Hybrid synchronization of lu and bhalekar-gejji chaotic systems using nonlinear active control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Phase and anti-phase synchronization of two chaotic systems by using active control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Constructive Lyapunov stabilization of nonlinear cascade systems CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Synchronization Analysis Chaos of Fractional Derivatives Chaotic Satellite Systems via Feedback Active Control Methods CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The stability analysis of the shimizu-morioka system with Hopf bifurcation CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Synchronization of two chaotic four-dimensional systems using active control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A research on active control to synchronize a new 3D chaotic system Synchronization of identical and non-identical 4-D chaotic systems using active control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chaos synchronization between single and double wells Duffing-Van der Pol oscillators using active control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Adaptive output feedback control of nonlinear systems represented by input-output models PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chaotic synchronization using backstepping method with application to the Chua's circuit and Lorenz system In: Proceedings of the 2001 American Control Conference.(Cat Google Scholar Backstepping Control of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Google Scholar Robust synchronization of unified chaotic systems via sliding mode control CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Design of sampled-data control for multiple-time delayed generalised neural networks based on delay-partitioning approach CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Sampled-data state estimation for neural networks with additive time-varying delays CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Synchronization of coupled reaction-diffusion neural networks with time-varying delays via pinning-impulsive controller CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A comparative study of synchronization methods of rucklidge chaotic systems with design of active control and backstepping methods CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Citation: Tarammim A and Akter MT (2023) Shimizu–Morioka's chaos synchronization: An efficacy analysis of active control and backstepping methods Received: 16 November 2022; Accepted: 10 March 2023; Published: 04 April 2023 Copyright © 2023 Tarammim and Akter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Absana Tarammim, YWJzYW5hLnRhcmFtbWltQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish MIAMI — FIU volleyball's Mandi Morioka was honored by Conference USA (CUSA) as a member of its 2024 All-Academic Team majoring in International Business and Marketing She is having a standout season on the court as well sitting first in CUSA In total digs and 16th-nationally (498) and second in digs per set (4.37) native earned the CUSA Defensive Player of the Week on Oct She has matched her career-high of 24 total digs twice this season Morioka also has the most service aces (28) and second-most assists (101) among all liberos in CUSA She has racked up 20-plus digs in 9-of-16 CUSA matches this season This is the first career CUSA All-Academic honor for Morioka Thanks for visiting Privacy Policy | About Our Ads Hawaiʻi State Federal Credit Union (Hawaiʻi State FCU) announced that Brennon Morioka dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa executive vice president and chief financial officer at UHA Health Insurance have been elected to serve on its volunteer board of directors has been reelected to the board for her third and final term Nakao and Toguchi Ryan will all serve new three-years terms “We’re pleased to welcome Brennon Morioka and Darren Nakao to our esteemed board of directors Their wealth of knowledge and commitment to our community will be instrumental as we continue to enhance the financial well-being of our members,” said Andrew Rosen “I also want to congratulate Monica Toguchi Ryan on her reelection to our board Her commitment and strategic insight over the last six years have been pivotal in driving the growth and success of Hawaiʻi State FCU.”  Brennon Morioka, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa A member of Hawaiʻi State FCU for more than 30 years Morioka is currently the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa he has also served as the director for the State Department of Transportation deputy director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and an executive with Hawaiian Electric Company Darren Nakao, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at UHA Health Insurance Nakao has more than 25 years of leadership experience in finance and healthcare operations currently serving as the executive vice president and chief financial officer at UHA Health Insurance where he oversees revenues exceeding $345 million He has extensive experience in financial reporting and risk management within a heavily regulated sector Nakao received his bachelor’s degree in mathematical economics from Brown University Monica Toguchi Ryan, Owner and President of Highway Inn Toguchi Ryan is a third-generation owner of Highway Inn a Hawaiian food establishment that is one of the largest woman-owned businesses in Hawaiʻi and the largest Hawaiian food restaurant in the state She has extensive experience operating and developing growth opportunities for small businesses Toguchi Ryan is a former recipient of Hawaiʻi State FCU’s annual scholarship program and had been a member of the credit union for more than 25 years She has served on the Hawaiʻi State FCU board of directors since 2018 and is the current vice chairman The nine-member board of directors serve on a voluntary basis and work to ensure the success and prosperity of the not-for-profit financial cooperative and its members Nakao and Toguchi Ryan will join Marion Higa and Mark Yamakawa who are currently serving three-years terms on the Hawaiʻi State FCU board For a list of Hawaiʻi State FCU branch locations or for more information, please visit www.HawaiiStateFCU.com Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Hawaii — A key player in the yearslong effort to construct a new stadium in Halawa is subbing himself off the field the four-year manager of shuttered Aloha Stadium has accepted the position of director of student recreation services at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Andrews announced during Thursday’s Stadium Authority board meeting His move comes before a paradigm shift for his position from one of stadium operations to likely one of land and contract management for the expansive mixed-use New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District “I knew that once this became a construction project it wouldn’t be something I was really interested in doing,” Andrews told Spectrum News Once we shut the stadium down (in December 2020) I’ve been hanging in there doing my best helping with the transition but my intention was always to leave once it became a construction project.” Andrews held a similar recreational director position in the University of California system before he moved to Hawaii Deputy manager Chris Sadayasu was confirmed by the Stadium Authority as interim manager starting next week He takes over at a pivotal time; there is a five-month period to achieve full contract execution with bidder Aloha Halawa District Partners The June window must be hit to maintain a schedule — often described as “aggressive” — for the new stadium to be ready for the UH football season in the fall of 2028 Stadium Authority chair Brennon Morioka expressed sadness that Andrews in some ways his co-pilot at the head of the table during Stadium Authority meetings But Morioka said the 2028 timetable remains intact pledged to remain available through June as a resource to help with contract execution “I think we’re still very comfortable with the expertise that we have,” Morioka told Spectrum News Andrews said he hired Sadayasu 18 months ago for just such an eventuality has a background in housing and project management two key aspects of NASED in the months ahead ‘this can be the guy who leads it into that next phase,’” Andrews said “I think he’s going to be the right guy moving forward.” The position could go through some changes has been commissioned to determine how the job should evolve Morioka said that process could be as fast as four to six months “We have the opportunity without someone in the position … to really step back and make the decisions we need to make about what the future of the stadium authority management team looks like and what the head of the entity is responsible for,” Morioka said “Because we’re no longer a stadium manager Andrews was presented with a framed certificate from the Hawaii Senate from Sen Board member Eric Fujimoto praised Andrews for his sound money management “You can look back at how he built the reserves of a non-functioning stadium from $1 million to $7 million,” Fujimoto said Andrews noted that three big events in February — two concerts and the Great Aloha Run — will mark the end of such happenings on the 98-acre site Relocation of the Swap Meet to a different area of the parking lot is due to take place shortly thereafter Andrews took over the stadium manager job in October of 2021 when his boss He’d been deputy stadium manager since 2016 Andrews shrugged at the prospect of public criticism that he is leaving an embattled “People are going to say what they’re going to say he’s leaving now because it’s getting hard.’ It’s been hard the whole way through.” He noted that when he came on at the stadium he was told there would be a new one within five years We’re still working at it and I hope they can get it over that goal line,” he said he expressed frustration that Hawaii government still has not aligned behind NASED which calls for the Halawa project to be scrapped and restarted as a permanent stadium on the UH Manoa campus “When we don’t have full government support it’s really hard for outsiders who are considering investing in this project “I think we’re really lucky that we actually have Stanford Carr as one of the lead partners of that development team because he understands local politics But people from the mainland that are looking at sinking a lot of money into a project like this they question if they should put in their time and energy into this project.” Sadayasu left immediately for the Capitol to give testimony on House Bill 1494 Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information The nation’s first freight-only Shinkansen bullet train is expected to go into service between Tokyo and Morioka this autumn plans to convert an E3 series Shinkansen by removing all passenger seats from its seven cars and installing apparatus to prevent load shifting The company is expecting demand for precision equipment and high-end fresh fish as the new service will be faster and smoother than conventional cargo trains some Shinkansen trains carry cargo in spaces outside seating areas The new service will be able to handle larger goods and dramatically increase transport volume The remodeled train will be hooked up to another Shinkansen that carries passengers It will be the first bullet train dedicated to freight transport since the Tokaido Shinkansen Line started operations in 1964 The company plans to develop a dedicated freight-only Shinkansen that will feature larger doors to allow for smoother loading and unloading operations The retrofit E3 series is being introduced because it takes time to design an entirely new train The E3 series currently runs as the Tsubasa on the Yamagata Shinkansen Line JR East began replacing the E3 series with the E8 latest series JR East to design first freight-only bullet train car to boost deliveries Curtain closing on contemporary art-themed bullet train in Niigata Deliveries via Hokuriku bullet train to include fresh food Metal shavings believed to have caused bullet train decoupling Hokkaido bullet train extension stirs fears about food distribution Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission We mentioned last week that Cedric Toussaint had teed up a move outside of the Canadian Premier League with the defensive midfielder now officially landing with Japanese fourth division side Iwate Grulla Morioka The 23-year-old Haiti international made 106 appearances split between Pacific FC and York United before his move to Japan’s largest island where he will don the number six for his new club Iwate Grulla Morioka suffered relegation from J3 League last year with Toussaint’s arrival is a signal of ambition that Morioka can restore itself back to professional league status once again “I intend to do my best to return to the J-League and achieve even greater results,” said Cedric “I’m ready to contribute defensively for the club.” Northern Tribune has confirmed that his move to Japan comes in the form of a one-year deal Toussaint’s last season in the CPL saw the Drummondville Quebec native make 23 appearances for a playoff-bound Pacific side having also featured in both of the club’s Canadian Championship semi-final matches against the Vancouver Whitecaps His debut for Haiti came last spring in a friendly match against French Guiana though head coach Sebastien Migne hasn’t called on the deep-lying midfielder for subsequent national windows “It’s a challenge that I welcome with open arms,” Toussaint tells Northern Tribune “I’ll try my hardest to promote the team back into the third division and get more exposure to the Asian football market.” Like Independent Football Coverage? Support Northern Tribune on Patreon It’s fair to say his offseason must have had an unexpected twist or two for the midfielder to now touch down in the Iwate Prefecture with a club looking to bounce back from relegation from the professional J-League tiered structure Header Image Photo Credit: Canadian Premier League About Our Group Index Business & Products Index Investor Relations Index Sustainability Index Seiko and Sports Index Seiko and Music Index situated on the grounds of Morioka Seiko Instruments Inc (President: Yukinori Kato; head office: Shizukuishi-cho Iwate; hereinafter referred to as "Morioka Seiko") which manufactures watches for Seiko Watch Corporation a group company of Seiko Group Corporation (Chairman & Group CEO Japan; hereinafter referred to as "Seiko Group") has been certified as a Natural Symbiosis Site by the Ministry of the Environment Natural Symbiosis Sites are areas where the government recognizes that biodiversity is being preserved through private sector initiatives and are one of the initiatives being taken to achieve the 30by30*1 goal.Morioka Seiko has a forest on its grounds that is rich in nature and the forest forms part of the local ecosystem network the company has been steadily improving biodiversity through its biodiversity conservation activities conservation activities are being carried out while promoting communication with the local community such as the maintenance of the Waku-Waku (Exciting) Forest by employees and their families and holding the Seiko Exciting Environment School environmental education for children with the cooperation of Iwate Prefectural University we established the Waku-Waku (Exciting) Biotope which utilizes rainwater while adjusting its quality with the power of the natural environment These efforts were evaluated in the certification process.We have identified "harmony with nature" as a key materiality issue With the goal of achieving "nature-positive" status—halting biodiversity loss and promoting recovery—we will continue collaborating with our stakeholders to implement biodiversity conservation activities tailored to the unique characteristics of each business location part of the 2030 global goals within the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework was adopted at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in December 2022 It aims to conserve at least 30% of land and sea as healthy ecosystems by 2030 30by30 is a key target for achieving nature positivity—halting and reversing biodiversity loss to place nature on a recovery path by 2030 Morioka Seiko is participating in the 30by30 Alliance for Biodiversity Morioka Seiko was established in 1970 as a watch manufacturing facility of Seiko Watch Corporation and is responsible for the manufacture of high-end mechanical watches and analog quartz movements Beyond managing the greenery on its factory grounds the company actively supports forest preservation in Nanatsumori It also promotes local biodiversity conservation through initiatives such as a Corporate Forestation agreement with Iwate Prefecture and Shizukuishi-cho highlighting its commitment to environmental conservation Morioka Seiko Instruments Inc. Official Website Seiko Group CorporationPublic Relations Department 2025 2024 2023 Business & Products Copyright © document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) We travel north with Chef Watanabe to the historic and beautiful city of Morioka where we taste several noodle dishes and learn how to cook a meal that has long been enjoyed by local families Let's explore Japanese cuisine in greater depth Japan is a chain of islands approximately 3,000 km long from North to South and the terrain of each region has given rise to a diverse culture of food It's a treasure trove for delicious ingredients we'll be exploring Iwate with Chef Watanabe Yasuhiro He attracts a large following for his simple he encounters noodles dishes born from the cold winters of Tohoku Welcome to Cook Around Japan: Morioka - The Great Noodle Expedition Many different styles have been created over the ages Let's begin with a look at a special dish that has long been eaten on festive occasions And this is "Wanko Soba," a local specialty of Iwate Prefecture "Wanko Soba" used to be served at banquets Noodles made from buckwheat are served together with a variety of side dishes The "soba" is served a little at a time in small The idea was to allow guests at a banquet to eat their fill It was only possible to boil enough "soba" for about 10 people at a time the "soba" was divided into small bowls and served a little at a time But the unusual way it's served has made "Wanko Soba" one of Morioka's major tourist attractions The noodles come seasoned with "dashi" and soy sauce There are a wide variety of other condiments including wasabi and "Naganegi" long onions The "nameko" mushrooms and grated daikon radish are quite refreshing the server refills the bowl as soon as it's emptied It's a style of serving born out of the spirit of hospitality The idea is to encourage the customer to eat up I'll refill the bowl whenever you give me a chance Local residents love to celebrate with "Wanko Soba." It remains a favorite among people of all ages It must be nice to see the same children eating more bowls as they grow "Wanko Soba" is reserved for special occasions Flat and thick wheat noodles are topped with meaty miso It's a local dish that's a popular choice for lunch It's inspired by a dish my grandfather had in Manchuria He adapted it to suit the tastes of the people of Morioka Morioka "Jajamen" was created about 70 years ago What makes it so special is the spicy miso sauce shiitake mushrooms and other ingredients are mixed into the miso to make the special sauce The chewy noodles are slowly boiled for about 13 minutes then topped with the meat miso and other ingredients We've been in business for nearly 70 years The proper way to eat Morioka "Jajamen," according to the locals mix it all up to enjoy the synergy of flavors I think you'll know what works best for you You mix it up with the remaining ingredients so you can savor every last drop of the delicious miso My regulars always finish up with the soup The "Jajamen" and soup is a set meal that's eaten all year round Morioka "Jajamen" is very much a part of the everyday diet Iwate has a long history of wet rice cultivation and there are times when the rice harvest is poor So farmers cultivate buckwheat and other grains resilient to cold This led to the creation of many noodle dishes using wheat and buckwheat flour The most famous ones have come to be known as the Three Great Noodles of Morioka We've looked at "Wanko Soba" and Morioka "Jajamen." Now for the last of the Three Great Noodles Morioka "Reimen" features semi-translucent noodles with a uniquely chewy texture Many Korean barbecue restaurants in Morioka serve "reimen." Let's visit the restaurant that was instrumental in making Morioka "Reimen" a sensation across Japan We've come to a workshop run by a "reimen" restaurant where you get to try your hand at making the noodles starchy noodles served chilled in a rich beef broth It was introduced to Morioka from Pyongyang Morioka "Reimen" noodles are made by kneading wheat flour and potato starch together with boiling water It tastes better if you knead the dough quickly The dough is immediately placed in a noodle machine which presses the dough into thin noodles the noodles have a much smoother and even texture than noodles that have been cut from rolled-out dough The pressed-out noodles are cut into a pot of boiling water then left to cook for two and a half minutes a unique characteristic of Morioka "Reimen." Another characteristic is the stylish way the noodles are served Typical toppings include a hard-boiled egg and a seasonal fruit like Japanese pears to refresh the palate Morioka "Reimen" is served with a side of kimchi I've never eaten freshly made Morioka "Reimen" noodles before I can tell how chewy they are just by picking them up The workshop offers a rare opportunity to make Morioka "Reimen" from scratch No wonder it's popular with tourists from home and abroad This is a hands-on experience for both tourists and local families It's also a good way to promote Morioka "Reimen" across Japan The "Reimen" you've made yourself is extra special You can enjoy a historic and traditional atmosphere while admiring beautiful Japanese structures and gardens Several buildings are national important cultural properties Historic structures stand alongside Western-influenced architecture from the recent past A popular local bakery offers a wide choice of over 50 spreads and fillings you can eat your fill of local specialties while enjoying a calm atmosphere and beautiful scenery The Three Great Noodles of Morioka are well known you need to try another dish: a comfort food that warms body and soul We've come to a restaurant where you can try "hittsumi," a local home-cooked dish Dumplings made with flour and water are cooked in a savory "dashi" This region was frequently struck by famine wheat was ground into flour to prepare for emergencies they used the flour to make dishes like this people needed to prepare for times of shortage This dish was a way of making do with what was available "Hittsumi" has long been a staple in local homes This restaurant began serving it over 50 years ago when the business was run by the current owner's mother the "niboshi" are simmered in a bag for five hours The heads of the dried small sardines are removed by hand to prevent any unwanted flavors from seeping out After being simmered for five to six hours used to reconstitute dried shiitake mushrooms - a specialty of Iwate "Mirin" and soy sauce are added to the resulting "dashi," which is used to simmer the ingredients and you reconstituted the shiitake earlier We use all-purpose flour and a little vegetable oil to make it stretchy But the dough needs to undergo several stages of kneading The dumplings are parboiled along with carrots the dumplings are of different sizes and shapes The name "Hittsumi" comes from the local word "hittsumu" which means to tear apart Tearing the dough results in dumplings of different shapes and textures sometimes we have to ask customers to wait The hand-pulled dumplings are boiled for five minutes Once the dumplings and soup are topped with "Naganegi" long onions "Itadakimasu!" I'll try the freshly pulled "hittsumi" first and the shapes will vary according to who makes them Each family has its own way of making them We're just trying to keep the tradition going It's important to show people what "hittsumi" is really like "Hittsumi" is a long-time favorite in many homes But it's now recognized as one of Morioka's specialties It's a simple dish that showcases the inherent flavor of local ingredients Morioka offers a variety of delicious dishes including "Wanko Soba," "Jajamen," Morioka "Reimen," and "Hittsumi." a 45-minute drive from the nearest airport Chagu Chagu Umakko is a vibrant horse festival celebrated annually in Iwate Prefecture workhorses adorned with colorful accessories and garments parade through both rural and urban areas The festival is renowned for the distinctive sounds of the bells on the horses On June 8 in Morioka City, around 70 horses, each carrying children dressed in kimonos, departed from Onikoshi Sozen Shrine in Takizawa City They slowly marched approximately 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) to Morioka Hachimangu Shrine.  A 12-year-old student from Morioka City was among the children riding the horses I got to see a lot of interesting things." "Chagu Chagu," is an onomatopoeia for the sound of the bells This tradition began as a way for farmers to express gratitude and pray for the health and safety of their workhorses the Japanese government designated the festival as an intangible folk cultural asset (Read the article in Japanese.)Author: The Sankei Shimbun You must be logged in to post a comment ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " who appears on local programs in Iwate Prefecture has been appointed as a “Morioka promotion ambassador” to tell people about the attractions of the prefecture’s capital city of Morioka please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent “I want to inform people a lot about how charming Morioka is,” Kawai said at an appointment ceremony held at Morioka city hall in late January is a former member of the idol group A.B.C-Z in addition to his activities with his music group he appeared on a number of TV variety shows he has served as the host of a daily life information program on the Morioka-based broadcaster Iwate Menkoi Television Co. “I’m honestly really happy because I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time,” Kawai said with a smile during the ceremony Talking about his own impressions of Iwate “This prefecture is a place where I am as comfortable as if I were back at my family home I feel refreshed and healed.” He said he likes Morioka Reimen noodles Morioka Mayor Shigeru Uchidate expressed high expectations saying: “He has already made a great contribution by advertising the attractions of Morioka through events and other occasions I hope taking this position will lead to him further promoting the city going forward.” who is a “friendship ambassador” between the city and Uruma and comedian Takuhiro Kimura who is an ambassador promoting the attractions of the city Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun National Report (JR East) suspended operations of coupled Shinkansen following a decoupling mishap on March 6 in Tokyo inconveniencing passengers on those routes and adding runs to alleviate congestion JR East announced on the evening of March 6 that it was suspending the coupled operations of Tohoku Akita and Yamagata bullet trains until the company determines what went wrong and takes measures to prevent a recurrence The decoupling occurred at around 11:30 a.m on March 6 as an outbound Tohoku Shinkansen made an emergency stop while traveling at about 60 kph in Tokyo’s Arakawa Ward The automatic brakes were activated on the Hayabusa-Komachi No which had left Tokyo Station and was bound for Shin-Aomori and Akita stations The driver discovered that the coupling between the seven Komachi cars and the 10 Hayabusa cars had separated and the distance between the two Shinkansen was about eight meters JR East director-general of the Shinkansen general management department “We take this extremely seriously and will do everything we can to find out the cause,” he said JR East announced on March 7 that it will operate extra Shinkansen between Tokyo and Sendai stations as well as between Tokyo and Morioka stations to ease expected congestion due to the suspension of the coupled operations A total of five special Tohoku Shinkansen will be operated between 8 a.m Two Tohoku Shinkansen will leave Tokyo Station bound for Sendai Station and one bound for Morioka Station there will be two Tohoku Shinkansen departing from Sendai Station bound for Tokyo Station All trains will have seven cars and open seating The Akita Shinkansen currently runs between Akita and Morioka and the Yamagata Shinkansen operates between Shinjo and Fukushima stations and between Yamagata and Fukushima stations Because there will no longer be direct service passengers will need to transfer at Morioka Station and Yamagata Station Customers who have reserved tickets for the Komachi Shinkansen between Morioka and Tokyo stations or the Tsubasa Shinkansen between Fukushima and Tokyo stations will need to get a refund or change their boarding plans A similar decoupling mishap occurred in Sept 19 last year when two carriages of a Shinkansen running between Furukawa and Sendai stations in Miyagi Prefecture suddenly decoupled It was later determined that metal shavings may have triggered a switch and caused the decoupling The Japan Transport Safety Board recognized the latest decoupling as a serious incident and will dispatch three railway accident investigators but there are signs that an abnormality occurred in the electrical system on the Komachi bullet train JR East said that no injuries were reported among the 201 passengers on the Komachi and 441 on the Hayabusa bullet trains both Shinkansen traveled onward to Omiya Station where the passengers were dropped off and the operation of the bullet trains terminated Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen lines were suspended for about three hours on March 6 there were no abnormalities reported on the Komachi during the coupling process with the Hayabusa at Morioka Station or during the inbound train operation before turning at Tokyo Station (This article was written by Ayateru Hosozawa and Fumi Yada.) Decoupling at 315 kph latest in series of bullet train troubles Tohoku bullet trains resume operation with fewer trains Bullet train services reopen between Tokyo and Fukushima Suspected leaked chemical injures 6 passengers on Shinkansen Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. Japanese version Copyright THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Volume 16 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.837496 This article is part of the Research TopicBody Illusions for Clinical ApplicationsView all 5 articles The appearance of the self-body influences the feeling that one’s body belongs to oneself a sense of ownership (SoO) and pain perception This can be identified by measuring the SoO and pain thresholds after performing the rubber hand illusion (RHI) with an injured rubber hand The generation of SoO is thought to be caused by multisensory integration of bottom-up factors (vision The appearance is one of the context effects which may become more effective when used simultaneously with other context effects (e.g. when appearance and other context effects are used simultaneously we attempted to identify the influence of verbal suggestion on the SoO and heat pain threshold (HPT) the “normal” rubber hand and “penetrated nail” as injured rubber hand were used to clarify the context effect with appearance alone during RHI (synchronous/asynchronous) we only used the “penetrated nail” rubber hand to clarify the context effect with verbal suggestion and appearance during RHI We randomly classified participants into two suggestion groups (“fear” and “no-fear”) The RHI (synchronous/asynchronous) was conducted for each group the effect of each condition was assessed by subjective measures of SoO such as proprioceptive drift and electrodermal activity the “penetrated nail” appearance with “fear” verbal suggestion modulated questionnaire and HPT We conclude that the context-included multisensory integration affected the subjective factors because it contains a higher cognitive process by verbal suggestion such as the appearance of one’s own body have been shown to affect SoO and pain perception in response to nociceptive stimuli many disorders need to control the degree of illusion to benefit from body illusion if useful verbal suggestions can modulate the degree of illusion The present study aimed to determine the effect of the appearance of a rubber hand with verbal suggestion on SoO and pain threshold in RHI for healthy humans by conducting two experiments we examined the effects of the “penetrated nail” appearance (nail) on SoO and heat pain threshold (HPT) relative to the “normal” appearance (normal) we examined the effects of the nail rubber hand with verbal suggestions on SoO and HPT which was the main objective of the experiment together with verbal information that causes a fear and pain context will decrease the SoO and pain threshold during the illusion compared to the control condition in which verbal suggestions that did not cause fear and pain contexts were used We recruited healthy Japanese volunteers aged 20–39 years at Fukuchiyama City Hospital and medical students living in Fukuchiyama City The exclusion criteria were having a history of psychiatric conditions we excluded participants taking analgesic medication at the time of the experiment participants were informed about the experimental procedure Participants were not informed about the purpose to avoid biased results participants provided written consent to participate The Kio University ethics committee (approval No.: R3-05) and Fukuchiyama City Hospital ethics committee (approval No.: 3-2) approved the study procedures and the protocol was registered with the UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000044233) The experiment was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki we used the nail rubber hand as the appearance that affects pain perception Experimental setting (A) and rubber hand (B) used in the experiments We used a normal rubber hand and a nail rubber hand in Experiment 1 the time of this experiment was between 8:00 and 8:00 p.m A footswitch was placed at the participant’s right foot to measure the onset time of the illusion (i.e. the time at which participants perceived the rubber hand as their left arm) the stimulation site was from the radial-carpal joint on the dorsal side of the left index/middle fingertip Before the experiment, participants reported their age, sex, educational background (years), handedness [the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971)], and psychological factors [Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983)] (Supplementary Table 1) participants practiced the HPT measurement method and the method of using the footswitch a total of four conditions (normal × synchronous nail) and two tactile stimuli (synchronous and asynchronous) we designed a within-subjects experiment using the within-subjects factor × within-subjects factor The experimental order was counterbalanced during which the participants were instructed to move their left upper limb so that the proprioceptive drift and numbness caused by the RHI would not affect the next condition participants were instructed to keep both upper limbs still throughout the experiments and to concentrate on the rubber hand The Experiment 1 sequence was based on a previous study (Osumi et al., 2014). It was designed to include the following steps: (1) proprioceptive drift (pre-RHI) measurement (1 min); (2) RHI and EDA measurement (3 min); (3) proprioceptive drift (post-RHI) measurement (1 min); (4) HPT measurement (4 min); and (5) questionnaire and unpleasantness measurement (< 3 min) (Figure 2) Experiment 1 procedure: (1) proprioceptive drift measurement (pre-RHI); (2) RHI and EDA; (3) proprioceptive drift measurement (post-RHI); (4) HPT measurement; and (5) questionnaire and unpleasantness measurement HPT and the unpleasantness toward rubber hand were measured This is the objective and spatial measure of SoO (Chancel and Ehrsson, 2020). The participant was examined in the position of the participant’s left index finger. Based on a previous study (Osumi et al., 2014) it was conducted in the following order: (1) the top of the box was covered with a dark curtain so that the rubber and real hands were not visible; (2) the experimenter moved the ruler slowly toward the midline from 20 cm to the left of the participant’s left index finger; and (3) when the participant felt that the ruler was located at a certain position of the left index finger of the real hand the participant verbally informed the experimenter The experimenter then recorded the position the position of the index finger of the real hand was set at 0 cm and the displacements toward and opposite the rubber hand were defined as “+” and “–,” respectively Heat pain threshold (HPT) was measured using a thermal stimulator (UDH-105; Unique Medical, Tokyo, Japan). Using the method of limits (Osumi et al., 2014) the thermal stimulus started at 32°C Participants were instructed to press the remote control (to stop the temperature increment) by their right hand immediately when they felt pain as a subjective experience HPT was measured repeatedly four times (every 1 min) and the average value was used for statistical analysis This is a subjective measure of SoO (Chancel and Ehrsson, 2020). The questionnaire comprised ownership (SoO of rubber hand), disownership (sense of disowning the real hand), and control (items unaffected by ILLUSION, namely dummy items) (Guterstam et al., 2011; Lane et al., 2017) (Table 1) The questionnaire was translated into Japanese Each item was rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from -3 (strongly disagree) to + 3 (strongly agree) The mean value in each category was used for statistical analysis The questionnaire consists of nine statements divided into three different categories (ownership We evaluated the unpleasantness toward the rubber hand only in the synchronous condition using a numeric rating scale (NRS): 0 (no unpleasantness) to 10 (worst possible unpleasantness) (Osumi et al., 2014) This measured how participants perceived the rubber hand Heat pain threshold (HPT) had a normal distribution (Shapiro–Wilk test: p > 0.05) but the sphericity assumption was unmet (Mendoza‘s Multisample Sphericity Test: p = 0.028); therefore we corrected using the Greenhouse-Geisser ε a 2 (APPEARANCE: normal or nail) × 2 (ILLUSION: synchronous or asynchronous) repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for HPT In the SoO outcomes, because the questionnaire (each sub-item), proprioceptive drift, and onset time did not have a normal distribution (Shapiro–Wilk test: p < 0.05), a 2 (APPEARANCE: normal or nail) × 2 (ILLUSION: synchronous or asynchronous) repeated measures ANOVA was used with aligned rank transform (ART) (Wobbrock et al., 2011) the EDA had a normal distribution (Shapiro–Wilk test: p > 0.05) and the sphericity assumption was met (Mendoza’s Multisample Sphericity Test: p > 0.05); therefore a 2 (APPEARANCE: normal or nail) × 2 (ILLUSION: synchronous or asynchronous) repeated measures ANOVA was used participants (n = 5) had an onset time of <30 s; thus Because unpleasantness did not have a normal distribution (Shapiro–Wilk test: p < 0.05) the association between HPT and questionnaire ownership was analyzed using Spearman’s rank correlation To help with the interaction of the results from this study, effect sizes were calculated based on Cliff’s δ [< 0.147 = negligible, < 0.33 = small, < 0.474 = medium, otherwise = large (Romano et al., 2006)] The significance level was set at p < 0.05 and R (ver.4.0.0) was used for statistical analysis Concerning ownership, ANOVA using ART showed no interaction between ILLUSION and APPEARANCE (F1,42 = 1.26, p = 0.27, ηp2 = 0.029). There was also a significant main effect of ILLUSION (F1,42 = 42.78, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.51), which was higher during synchronous tactile stimuli than during asynchronous tactile stimuli, but not main effect of APPEARANCE (F1,42 = 1.25, p = 0.29, ηp2 = 0.027) (Figure 3B) Regarding disownership, ANOVA using ART showed no interaction between ILLUSION and APPEARANCE (F1,42 = 0.016, p = 0.90, ηp2 < 0.001). There was also a significant main effect of ILLUSION (F1,42 = 33.42, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.44), which was higher during synchronous tactile stimuli than during asynchronous tactile stimuli, but not the main effect of APPEARANCE (F1,42 = 0.10, p = 0.75, ηp2 = 0.0024) (Figure 3B) Concerning the control, ANOVA using ART showed no interaction between ILLUSION and APPEARANCE (F1,42 = 0.61, p = 0.44, ηp2 = 0.014). In addition, there was a significant main effect of ILLUSION (F1,42 = 9.21, p = 0.0041, ηp2 = 0.18; see Limitations in Discussion), which was higher during synchronous tactile stimuli than during asynchronous tactile stimuli, but not the main effect of APPEARANCE (F1,42 = 1.64, p = 0.21, ηp2 = 0.038) (Figure 3B) Regarding EDA, there was no interaction between ILLUSION and APPEARANCE (F1,27 = 1.72, p = 0.20, ηp2 = 0.060). There was a significant main effect of APPEARANCE (F1,27 = 10.33, p = 0.0034, ηp2 = 0.28) that was lower (i.e., increasing activity of sympathetic nerve) on the nail rubber hand than the normal rubber hand, but there was no main effect of ILLUSION (F1,27 = 0.73, p = 0.40, ηp2 = 0.026) (Figure 3C) the onset time was used for this EDA analysis and there was a significant main effect of ILLUSION (p < 0.001) There was no main effect for APPEARANCE and no interaction between ILLUSION and APPEARANCE There was no interaction between ILLUSION and APPEARANCE (F1,42 = 0.35, p = 0.56, ηp2 = 0.0082) (Figure 3D). There was a significant main effect of ILLUSION (F1,42 = 60.21, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.59), which was longer during synchronous tactile stimuli than asynchronous tactile stimuli and APPEARANCE (F1,42 = 4.34, p = 0.043, ηp2 = 0.094), which was as longer on the nail rubber hand than the normal rubber hand (Figure 3D) There was no significant difference between the normal and nail conditions [V = 54, p = 0.071, Cliff’s δ = 0.34; normal, 2.3 ± 0.64 (mean ± SE); nail, 3.4 ± 0.48] (Figure 3E) The data showed no significant correlation between HPT and ownership in normal × synchronous (rs = 0.16, p = 0.57), normal × asynchronous (rs = –0.092, p = 0.74), nail × synchronous (rs = –0.17, p = 0.55), and nail × asynchronous (rs = –0.17, p = 0.55) (Figure 4) Relationship between ownership of questionnaire and HPT in Experiment 1 (A,B) we examined the conditions of SoO and HPT when only the nail rubber hand was used relative to the normal rubber hand The results showed that the questionnaire and HPT for the nail rubber hand might be no different than those for the normal rubber hand the EDA increased with the appearance of the nail rubber hand regardless of the RHI This result may reflect the emotional response to nail appearance we believe that the spatial consistency of the blood and thermal probes increased the proprioceptive drift we examined the effect of adding verbal information to the nail rubber hand Experiment 2 included 30 healthy participants different from those in Experiment 1. Because there was no proper previous study, the effect size was estimated to be moderate (Cohen, 1992). The sample size was calculated using G*Power: effect size f = 0.25 as medium effect size (Cohen, 1992) and ethical statements are identical to Experiment 1 We employed an identical setup to Experiment 1 we used only the nail rubber hand and excluded the normal rubber hand we modified four points of the experimental procedure from Experiment 1 All other procedures were identical to Experiment 1 Second, before the RHI, participants were provided verbal information (i.e., verbal suggestion) that either caused or did not cause a fear context (Figure 5) A fear verbal suggestion (fear) and no fear verbal suggestion (no fear) were used to create or avoid feelings of fear toward the nail rubber hand Verbal suggestions that described a nail rubber hand scenario using everyday words were created by the author (TT) and consisted of approximately 280 Japanese characters each we conducted a pilot survey to determine whether the suggestions caused feelings of fear in another 20 healthy participants [12 men 27.8 ± 4.2 years (mean ± SD)] When reading and imagining the verbal suggestions on the paper they answered the degree of fear using an NRS: 0 (no fear) to 10 (worst fear imaginable) The result showed that the fear verbal suggestion was significantly more fearful [Wilcoxon signed-rank test: p < 0.001 the verbal suggestion was read aloud by the experimenter participants were also presented with written text After being presented with either verbal suggestion (fear or no-fear) participants were presented with a nail rubber hand and informed that “This (the rubber hand) is a reproduction of the left arm” Therefore Experiment 2 procedure: (1) verbal suggestion; (2) RHI and EDA measurement; (3) HPT measurement; (4) questionnaire and unpleasantness measurement [(B) Top] Verbal suggestion: fear verbal suggestion (fear) and no-fear verbal suggestion (no-fear) comprised approximately 280 Japanese characters each [(B) Bottom] Third, we were interested in subjective measures of SoO (i.e., questionnaires) and HPT; thus, proprioceptive drift was not conducted in Experiment 2. This is because we contend that measuring the proprioceptive drift would reduce the degree of illusion (Perepelkina et al., 2018; Pfister et al., 2021) and might affect the evaluation of the HPT Fourth, the RHI was extended from 3 to 5 min. RHI reportedly increases with time (Perepelkina et al., 2018; Pfister et al., 2021) to measure the HPT under the condition of heightened illusion Therefore, the experimental sequence was designed to include the following steps: (1) verbal suggestion (3 min), (2) RHI and EDA measurement (5 min), (3) HPT measurement (4 min), and (5) questionnaire and unpleasantness measurement (< 3 min) (Figure 5) The measurements were based on Experiment 1 we used raw ΔEDA for statistical analysis This is because the same participant was measured twice and standardization by z-score between conditions was not possible The HPT was normally distributed (Shapiro–Wilk test: p > 0.05) and met the sphericity assumption (Mendoza’s Multisample Sphericity Test: p = 0.69) a 2 (VERBAL: no-fear or fear) × 2 (ILLUSION: synchronous or asynchronous) between-subjects factor × within-subjects factor two-way ANOVA was used The questionnaire (each sub-item) and EDA (and onset time) did not have a normal distribution (Shapiro–Wilk test: p < 0.05); therefore we used 2 (VERBAL: no-fear or fear) × 2 (ILLUSION: synchronous or asynchronous) ANOVA using ART the Mann–Whitney U test (Bonferroni adjusted) was performed as a post hoc test n = 3) had an onset time of < 30 s; thus EDA analysis was performed with n = 12 (no-fear group) and n = 11 (fear group) To clarify the interaction of the results from this study, effect sizes were calculated based on Cliff’s δ [< 0.147 = negligible, < 0.33 = small, < 0.474 = medium, otherwise = large (Romano et al., 2006)] Regarding ownership, two-way ANOVA using ART showed no interaction between ILLUSION and VERBAL (F1,28 = 2.56, p = 0.12, ηp2 = 0.084). There was also a significant main effect of ILLUSION (F1,28 = 48.40, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.63), which was higher during synchronous tactile stimuli than during asynchronous tactile stimuli, but not the main effect of VERBAL (F1,28 = 0.78, p = 0.39, ηp2 = 0.027) (Figure 6B) Concerning the control, two-way ANOVA using ART showed no interaction between ILLUSION and VERBAL (F1,28 = 0.91, p = 0.35, ηp2 = 0.032). In addition, there was no main effect of ILLUSION (F1,28 = 2.01, p = 0.17, ηp2 = 0.067) or VERBAL (F1,28 = 0.20, p = 0.66, ηp2 = 0.0072) (Figure 6B) There was no interaction between ILLUSION and VERBAL (F1,21 = 0.31, p = 0.59, ηp2 = 0.014). There was a significant main effect of ILLUSION (F1,21 = 9.55, p = 0.0056, ηp2 = 0.24), which was lower (i.e., increasing activity of sympathetic nerve) on synchronous tactile stimuli than asynchronous tactile stimuli, but not the main effect of VERBAL (F1,21 = 0.16, p = 0.69, ηp2 = 0.0078) (Figure 6C) There was no main effect for VERBAL and no interaction between ILLUSION and VERBAL in Experiment 2 There was no significant difference between no-fear and fear [U = 83.5, p-value = 0.2338, Cliff’s δ = 0.26; no-fear, 3.2 ± 0.60 (mean ± SE); fear, 4.5 ± 0.87] (Figure 6D) The data showed a significant negative correlation between HPT and ownership in fear × synchronous (rs = –0.57, p = 0.025), but not for fear × asynchronous (rs = –0.38, p = 0.17), no-fear × synchronous (rs = –0.23, p = 0.41), and no-fear × asynchronous (rs = 0.032, p = 0.91) (Figure 7) Relationship between ownership of questionnaire and HPT in Experiment 2 (A,B) This study aimed to determine the effect of rubber hand appearance with verbal suggestion on SoO and pain threshold in RHI We hypothesized that the nail appearance with the fear verbal suggestion during the synchronous condition would reduce SoO and HPT relative to the no-fear verbal suggestion the presentation of fear verbal suggestions did not decrease SoO and HPT during the synchronous condition fear verbal suggestions during the synchronous condition produced higher disownership in the questionnaire that when presenting the fear verbal suggestion during the synchronous condition the higher the SoO toward the nail rubber hand These correlations and higher disownership may show that context effect by fear verbal suggestion as a higher cognitive process modulates multisensory integration; “context-included multisensory integration (CIMI)” by verbal suggestion may affect the subjective measures such as questionnaire and HPT it can be interpreted that the fear context by a fear verbal suggestion influenced subjective measures in body illusion and the degree of influence was individually different The participants who were more sensitive to the fear context by a fear verbal suggestion showed a higher SoO toward the nail rubber hand and had lower HPT the less sensitive participants showed lower SoO and higher HPT there may be individual differences in CIMI by verbal suggestion and the effect may appear in the subjective measures However, no effect of verbal suggestion was found in the EDA results. The inconsistency between the subjective measures and objective measures was reported in body illusion studies (Riemer et al., 2015; Chancel and Ehrsson, 2020; Ma et al., 2021). Additionally, the context has been reported to affect only subjective measures, not objective ones (Benedetti et al., 2003; Peerdeman et al., 2015) the effect of adding context by verbal suggestion which is a higher cognitive process during RHI CIMI may be more likely to affect subjective measures of SoO we believe that the contextual congruence between appearance and verbal suggestion may promote self-consciousness-related multisensory integration This was consistent with our results and did not cause major problems in interpreting the results In clinical studies, pain (Hirakawa et al., 2014; Ten Brink et al., 2021) and mental disorders (Ataria, 2015) have been reported to have lower SoO persistently decreasing SoO may interfere with recovery patient–practitioner communication) to such disorders may be able to increase their SoO it remains unclear whether a fear context-specific verbal suggestion or verbal suggestion that generates the same context as body appearance is responsible for this effect In recent years, the rehabilitation of pain disorders using VR has been produced. Moreover, the use of VR that depicts a positive context for the body, such as muscular appearance (Nishigami et al., 2019), boxers (Harvie et al., 2020), and American comic characters (Harvie et al., 2020), can reduce pain. However, SoO is not sufficiently induced in the body in such VR (Themelis et al., 2021) adding verbal information to explain the situation and creating a narrative may facilitate multisensory integration and improve SoO The context effect using fear verbal suggestion modulated subjective measure of SoO and HPT during RHI with the nail rubber hand Because it is the multisensory integration included context as a higher cognitive process These findings provide fundamental insight into the fact that verbal information which is used casually in clinical settings and further research should be conducted in the future The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Kio University Ethics Committee (R3-05) and the Fukuchiyama City Hospital Ethics Committee (3-2) The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study KH critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content This research was supported by the Graduate School of Health Sciences at Kio University The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.837496/full#supplementary-material Sense of ownership and sense of agency during trauma CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Order does matter: the combined effects of classical conditioning and verbal suggestions on placebo hypoalgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia Role of conditioning and verbal suggestion in placebo and nocebo effects on itch Conscious expectation and unconscious conditioning in analgesic PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The placebo and nocebo effects on peak minute power during incremental arm crank ergometry Rubber hands ‘feel’ touch that eyes see PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Heidelberg: Springer Science & Business Media CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Autonomic emotional responses to the induction of the rubber-hand illusion in those that report anomalous bodily experiences: evidence for specific psychophysiological components associated with illusory body representations Contextual information resolves uncertainty about ambiguous facial emotions: Behavioral and magnetoencephalographic correlates Reversing threat to safety: incongruence of facial emotions and instructed threat modulates conscious perception but not physiological responding The toolish hand illusion: embodiment of a tool based on similarity with the hand discriminating body ownership perception in a two-alternative forced-choice task CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The role of learning in nocebo and placebo effects Synchronous stimulation with light and heat induces body ownership and reduces pain perception Placebo and Nocebo Effects: The advantage of measuring expectations and psychological factors Influence of context effects on health outcomes: a systematic review CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The effect of partner-directed emotion in social exchange decision-making Affective vocalizations influence body ownership as measured in the rubber hand illusion Impairment of the rubber hand illusion in focal hand dystonia Philosophical conceptions of the self: implications for cognitive science CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Feeling the burn: when it looks like it hurts The invisible hand illusion: multisensory integration leads to the embodiment of a discrete volume of empty space PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Virtual reality body image training for chronic low back pain: a single case report The relationship among psychological factors neglect-like symptoms and postoperative pain after total knee arthroplasty Harnessing the placebo effect: exploring the influence of physician characteristics on placebo response Rubber hands in space: the role of distance and relative position in the rubber hand illusion The influence of personality traits on the placebo/nocebo response: a systematic review Over my fake body: body ownership illusions for studying the multisensory basis of own-body perception Timing disownership experiences in the rubber hand illusion Precision control for a flexible body representation PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The efficacy of pain neuroscience education on musculoskeletal pain: a systematic review of the literature Explicit and implicit measures of body ownership and agency: affected by the same manipulations and yet independent The body fades away: investigating the effects of transparency of an embodied virtual body on pain threshold and body ownership changes in skin color of an embodied virtual arm modulates pain threshold Decreasing pain ratings in chronic arm pain through changing a virtual body: different strategies for different pain types Manipulating the perceived shape and color of a virtual limb can modulate pain responses Neural measures of the role of affective prosody in empathy for pain Seeing an embodied virtual hand is analgesic contingent on colocation fit back in people with chronic low back pain Congruency of information rather than body ownership enhances motor performance in highly embodied virtual reality Inner experience of pain: imagination of pain while viewing images showing painful events forms subjective pain representation in human brain The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Super placebos: a feasibility study combining contextual factors to promote placebo effects Negative body image associated with changes in the visual body appearance increases pain perception Inducing expectations for health: effects of verbal suggestion and imagery on pain and fatigue as indicators of physical sensitivity Artificial hand illusions dynamics: onset and fading of static rubber and virtual moving hand illusions How to lose a hand: sensory updating drives disembodiment Defensive activation during the rubber hand illusion: ownership versus proprioceptive drift “Appropriate statistics for ordinal level data: should we really be using t-test and cohen’sd for evaluating group differences on the NSSE and other surveys?,” in proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Florida Association of Institutional Research Context matters: the psychoneurobiological determinants of placebo nocebo and context-related effects in physiotherapy Clinical relevance of contextual factors as triggers of placebo and nocebo effects in musculoskeletal pain Double dissociation of neural responses supporting perceptual and cognitive components of social cognition: evidence from processing of others’ pain Towards a digital body: the virtual arm illusion therefore I am: a new theoretical framework to investigate agency and ownership Validation of the bath crps body perception disturbance scale The effect of visually manipulating back size and morphology on back perception and attitudes towards self-capacity during a lifting task doi: 10.1007/s00426-021-01609-z [Epub ahead of print] Interactions between brain and spinal cord mediate value effects in nocebo hyperalgesia The rubber hand illusion induced by visual-thermal stimulation Looking for myself: current multisensory input alters self-face recognition PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar My body in the brain: a neurocognitive model of body-ownership doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.09.034 PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Hands only illusion: multisensory integration elicits sense of ownership for body parts but not for non-corporeal objects The rubber hand illusion revisited: visuotactile integration and self-attribution and needs of Japanese people with knee osteoarthritis during conservative care: a qualitative study “The aligned rank transform for nonparametric factorial analyses using only anova procedures,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’11) A systematic review and meta-analysis of pain neuroscience education for chronic low back pain: short-and long-term outcomes of pain and disability Examination of overall treatment effect and the proportion attributable to contextual effect in osteoarthritis: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials Hayashida K and Morioka S (2022) Verbal Suggestion Modulates the Sense of Ownership and Heat Pain Threshold During the “Injured” Rubber Hand Illusion Copyright © 2022 Tanaka, Hayashida and Morioka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Tomoya Tanaka, VG9tb3lhMTIxMjAyNjRAZ21haWwuY29t; Shu Morioka, cy5tb3Jpb2thQGtpby5hYy5qcA== Akita and Yamagata Shinkansen lines resumed on the morning of March 14 after being halted due to a malfunction in Tokyo An Akita Shinkansen Komachi and Tohoku Shinkansen Hayabusa decoupled while in operation on March 6 had suspended the operation of coupled bullet trains which was the first coupled train after the malfunction to run on the outbound line on March 14 After passengers disembarked from or boarded the train cars the coupled bullet trains left for Morioka Station without any problems Although some Shinkansen services are still suspended JR East plans to resume the normal timetables on March 15 Coupling operations on the Tohoku Shinkansen line were suspended after the outbound Hayabusa-Komachi No 21 bound for Shin-Aomori and Akita stations decoupled while running in Tokyo on March 6 the Akita Shinkansen Komachi continued running between Akita and Morioka stations and the Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa continued operating between Shinjo and Yamagata and Fukushima stations JR East has fabricated metal parts to fix the air compressor switch in the driver’s cab so that the coupler will not inadvertently unlock even if an electrical signal to unlock is accidentally sent The company said the metal parts will be installed during the coupling operations The company conducted a test run with the metal parts installed and confirmed that the coupling operation was made without any problem on March 12 JR East adds runs on March 7 after Shinkansen decouple again Tohoku bullet trains to resume coupled runs after decoupling Copyright © The Asahi Shimbun Company. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission. The investigation of dynamical behaviors for fractional-order chaotic systems is a new trend recently. This article is numerically concerned with the Shimizu-Morioka model with a fractional order. We find that chaos exists in the fractional-order model with order less than three by utilizing the fractional calculus techniques, and some phase diagrams are also constructed. Volume 9 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2021.636173 The investigation of dynamical behaviors for fractional-order chaotic systems is a new trend recently This article is numerically concerned with the Shimizu-Morioka model with a fractional order We find that chaos exists in the fractional-order model with order less than three by utilizing the fractional calculus techniques and some phase diagrams are also constructed The original Shimizu-Morioka model [6] is described by the following ordinary differential equation: FIGURE 1. Phase portraits of system Eq. 1.1 Intrigued by the above interesting work, many researchers [9, 10] focused their study on the dynamical behavior analysis of the Shimizu-Morioka model. In particular, articles [11, 12] use feedback control laws and the delay feedback control method [13, 14] to study the local and global stabilization and bifurcation of the Shimizu-Morioka chaotic model If the dynamical system of Eq. 1.1 follows then the system is known to be a dissipative one In 1992, British scholar Rucklideg studied two-dimensional convection problems of solute gradients and magnetic fields, and introduced the following chaotic system [15]: where (x⌣,y⌣,z⌣)∈ℝ3 are the state variables and a,b are the positive real parameters transformed system Eq. 1.1 to Therefore, system Eq. 1.5 and system Eq. 1.3 are equivalent when a=−β˜α˜−1 Section 2 provides a brief review of the fractional-order operator and discretization fractional-order Shimizu-Morioka model using numerical algorithm the complex dynamical behaviors of the Shimizu-Morioka model with a fractional order are studied numerically in four cases we first give out the fractional-order differential operator and the Shimizu-Morioka model with a fractional order we use the predictor–correctors scheme to discrete the fractional-order Shimizu-Morioka model we discuss the necessary condition for the existence of chaotic attractors There are several definitions of the fractional differential and integral operator, including Grünwald-Letnikov operator, Riemann-Liouville operator, and Caputo operator [16–18]. In this study, we use the following Caputo-type fractional derivative [19] where m=[α] is the first integer which is not less than α Jβ is the β-order Riemann-Liouville integral operator defined by where Γ(β) is the gamma function The classical Riemann-Liouville fractional derivative is defined by which requires the homogeneous initial conditions The main reason why we chose the Caputo-type fractional derivative is that the inhomogeneous initial conditions are also permitted The integer-order Shimizu-Morioka model Eq. 1.1 has been extended to the fractional-order Shimizu-Morioka model which could describe the memory and hereditary properties of the model better The fractional-order Shimizu-Morioka model is described as follows—in which the standard derivative will be replaced by the fractional-order derivative where 0<q1,q2,q3≤1 and the order is denoted by q=(q1,q2,q3) As for model Eq. 2.9, we derive the predictor–correctors scheme which is the generation of Adamas-Bashforth-Moulton one [16, 20] The following fractional-order differential equation is equivalent to the Volterra integral equation and n=0,1,…,N∈ℤ+ The error estimate is maxj=0,1,…,N|y(tj)−yh(tj)|=O(hp),p=min(2,1+α) Applying the above formula, system Eq. 2.9 can be discretized as follows: The fractional-order Shimizu-Morioka model of system Eq. 2.9 discretes to system Eq. 2.12 Now, we discuss the necessary condition for the existence of chaotic attractors in the fractional-order Shimizu-Morioka model. Set dq1x/dtq1=0,dq2y/dtq2=0,dq3z/dtq3=0, we get the following equilibrium points of system Eq. 2.9 The Jacobian matrices at the equilibrium points E0 and E1 are The eigenvalues at E0 are λ1=−0.45 and the eigenvalues at E1 are λ1=0.1061+0.7912i and λ3=0.1061+0.7912i Suppose λ is the unstable eigenvalue of the saddle points, then the necessary condition for the fractional-order system Eq. 2.9 to remain chaotic is keeping the eigenvalue λ in the unstable region. By [21] if the eigenvalue λ is in the unstable region where |arg λi| denotes the argument of the eigenvalue λ So, the necessary condition for the existence of chaotic attractors in the fractional-order system Eq. 2.9 is which implied that when qi(i=1,2,3)>0.9151, system Eq. 2.9 has chaos, and when qi(i=1,2,3)<0.9151, system Eq. 2.9 has no chaos In what follows, some numerical simulations of system Eq. 2.12 will be studied. We chose the parameters α˜=0.45, β˜=0.75, and the initial value (x0,y0,z0)=(1,1,2). The phase portraits and time histories are used to research the dynamical behaviors of system Eq. 2.9 the chaotic motions disappear and the system stabilizes to the fixed point The numerical simulation results coincide with the necessary conditions for the existence of chaotic attractors that were observed in the last section FIGURE 2. Phase portraits of model Eq. 2.9 with qi(i=1,2,3)=α FIGURE 3. Phase portraits of model Eq. 2.9 with q1=q3=1 FIGURE 4. Phase portraits of model Eq. 2.9 with q1=q2=1 FIGURE 5. Phase portraits of model Eq. 2.9 with q2=q3=1 The following three-dimensional fractional-order system is considered: where q∈(0,1). The Jacobian matrix of system Eq. 4.13 at the equilibrium is The corresponding characteristic equation is Lemma 4.1. Fractional-order system Eq. 4.13 is locally asymptotically stable if and only if any eigenvalue λ of the Jacobian matrix at the equilibrium satisfies |arg(λ)|>qπ2 Lemma 4.2. The Routh-Hurwitz criterion [22] of system Eq. 4.13 is as follows: (i) if D(P)>0, then equilibrium of system Eq. 4.13 is locally asymptotic stability if and only if a1>0,a3>0,a1a2>a3; (ii) if D(P)<0, a1≥0,a2≥0,a3>0, then system Eq. 4.13 is locally asymptotic stability when the order q<2/3; if D(P)<0,a1<0,a2<0,q>2/3, then all the eigenvalues of Eq. 4.15 satisfy |arg(λ)|<qπ2; (iii) if D(P)<0,a1>0,a2>0,a1a2=a3 system (4.15) is locally asymptotically stable; (iv) the necessary condition for the local asymptotic stability of the equilibrium of system Eq. 4.13 is a3>0 We will apply feedback control and the fractional Routh-Hurwitz criterion to suppress the three-dimensional fractional Shimizu-Morioka chaotic system The three-dimensional fractional Shimizu-Morioka chaotic controlled system is described as follows: where q∈(0,1), k1,k2,k3 are control parameters. E=(x¯,y¯,z¯) is the equilibrium of system Eq. 4.13. We will apply linear feedback to stabilize the equilibrium E0=(0,0,0) of system Eq. 4.13. When α˜=0.45,β˜=0.75, the Jacobian matrix of system Eq. 4.17 at E0 is The corresponding characteristic equation at E0 is Theorem 4.3. For system Eq. 4.13 the equilibrium E0 is locally asymptotic stability This article mainly discussed the dynamical behaviors of the fractional-order Shimizu-Morioka model. We find that chaos does exist in the fractional-order model with order less than 3. Future work that requires further consideration regarding this topic includes theoretical analysis of system Eq. 2.9 the largest Lyapunov exponent in the state space the linear and nonlinear feedback controller and in-depth studies on chaos control for the fractional state The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material; further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s All authors contributed to manuscript revision and approved the submitted version This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No Provincial Natural Science Research Project of Anhui Colleges (Grant No Program for Excellent Young Talents in University of Anhui Province (Grant No Teaching Research Project of Anhui Province (Grant No Political Construction of Public Basic Course-Taking Linear Algebra as an Example (Grant No Chaos in fractional-order Genesio-Tesi system and its synchronization Commun Nonlinear Sci Numer Simulation (2012) 17(2):731–41 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A new fractional order hyperchaotic rabinovich system and its dynamical behaviors Int J Non Linear Mech (2017) 95:73–81 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar State feedback with fractional pi λ d λ control structure for fractional lü chaos stabilization in: 2016 8th International Conference on Modelling identification and control (ICMIC); 2016 Nov 15-17; Algiers Google Scholar Chaos in the Newton-Leipnik system with fractional order Solitons and Fractals (2008) 36(1):98–103 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chaos in Chen’s system with a fractional order Solitons and Fractals (2004) 22(2):443–50 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar On the bifurcation of a symmetric limit cycle to an asymmetric one in a simple model Phys Lett A (1980) 76(3-4):201–204 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1963)020<0130:dnf>2.0.co;2 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar On bifurcations of the lorenz attractor in the shimizu-morioka model Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena (1993) 62(1-4):338–46 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Dynamics at infinity and other global dynamical aspects of Shimizu-Morioka equations CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Analytical search for homoclinic bifurcations in the shimizu-morioka model Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena (2011) 240(12):985–9 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Appl Math Comput (2014) 243:283–97 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Chaos control and synchronization for a special generalized Lorenz canonical system - the SM system Solitons & Fractals (2009) 39(5):2491–508 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Experimental control of chaos by delayed self-controlling feedback Phys Lett A (1993) 180(1-2):99–102 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Continuous control of chaos by self-controlling feedback CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Analysis of fractional differential equations J Math Anal Appl (2002) 265(2):229–48 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Fractional differential equations: an introduction to fractional derivatives to methods of their solution and some of their applications Linear models of dissipation whose Q is almost frequency independent--II CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar An algorithm for the numerical solution of differential equations of fractional order Electron Trans Numer Anal (1997) 5(1):1–6 Google Scholar Stability properties for generalized fractional differential systems CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Stability results for fractional differential equations with applications to control processing Comput Eng Syst Appl (1996) 2:963–8 Google Scholar Citation: Wei Z and Zhang X (2021) Chaos in the Shimizu-Morioka Model With Fractional Order Received: 01 December 2020; Accepted: 15 January 2021;Published: 14 April 2021 Copyright © 2021 Wei and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use *Correspondence: Xin Zhang, OTEyMDE5MTA2MkBudWZlLmVkdS5jbg== orcid.org/0000-0001-8475-6662 Japanese version Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Leave a rating/comment#Illustration#For FamiliesBack to ArticlesSHARE Today's print edition Home Delivery Iwate Prefecture will ask the central government for continued assistance after the second-phase reconstruction period expires at the end of fiscal 2025 following the massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 "Reviving sources of livelihood is important to enrich the lives of affected people," the governor said The prefectural government will promote cooperation between producers processors and distributors in the fisheries industry he said.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); The mental health care system is very fragile in coastal areas of the prefecture Iwate will ask the central government for continued assistance beyond fiscal 2025 as part of reconstruction support to help it secure necessary personnel The prefectural government will train mental health care experts A proposed central government agency in charge of disaster prevention could be set up outside of Tokyo which experts say could be hit by a disaster Setting up the agency in Iwate could be possible The agency "will work well if it accumulates past disaster experiences trains personnel and oversees personnel in disaster prevention from the public and private sectors as well as research institutes," Tasso said In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division (JR East) resumed the Tohoku Shinkansen services at around 6:10 p.m The Tohoku Shinkansen line between Tokyo and Morioka stations had been suspended since 10:30 a.m An anemometer installed between Sendai and Shiroishi Zao stations recorded wind speed exceeding the permissible limit for train operations According to the Japan Meteorological Agency Shiroishi in Miyagi Prefecture recorded a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 34 meters per second at 10 a.m. the strongest ever recorded there in March over 24 Academy students and faculty members gathered in the Wo International Center for a luncheon with distinguished alumna Leslie Morioka ’64 Morioka shared insights from her extensive career spanning over three decades in law and regulatory matters at White & Case LLP in New York City she pursued and obtained a JD and MPA from Pace leading to a successful 25-year tenure as a patent attorney in a prestigious law firm.  Morioka is known for her global pro bono work She emphasized the importance of curiosity who also worked as an Assistant Attorney General in the NY State Attorney General’s Environmental Protection Bureau beautifully designed and comes with everything you need to engage your visitors and increase conversions JP EN FR 简体中文 繁體中文 Richer living through mindfulness of the traditional Japanese seasons Discovering a richer life in the traditional seasons of Japan Place × Season × Time=Unforgettable experiencesThrilling experiences born of the right place Discovering the hidden stories in everyday lifeUntold stories from just around the corner in Japan Unique brand stories combining tradition with revolutionRevolutionary traditionalism: Brand stories like no other Interviews with the people of the momentMeetings with the women and men who make Japan tick Weaving a lifestyle from Japanese sensibilities and aestheticsBring the Japanese sense of beauty into your life Online salons led by individual hostsThought-provoking discussion led by fascinating figures Premium Japan Members When Morioka—a city rarely mentioned as a tourist destination even within Japan—was ranked second only to London in The New York Times' popular annual feature "2023 Places to Go" in January 1 an American writer from Connecticut who now lives in Japan According to calculations by Iwagin Research & Consulting in 20 the economic impact of this article on Morioka amounted to 2024 billion yen (approximately $98 million) Following the "Morioka shock," Yamaguchi City was ranked third in "52 Places to Go in 2024," and in this year's "2024 Places to Go in 52," published on January 2025 Toyama City and Osaka were featured at 7th and 52th places respectively who recommended and wrote the articles for all these cities except Osaka "Being listed is what matters—the ranking itself isn't really important people can't help but pay attention to the rankings it created quite a stir both in Japan and internationally." The list is compiled annually from numerous recommendations submitted by hundreds of journalists and photographers associated with The New York Times worldwide He has become instrumental in raising the global profile of Japan's core cities for three consecutive years who dreamed of becoming a writer since childhood worked at an independent publishing house during his studies at Waseda University He later worked at an IT company in Silicon Valley but eventually grew disillusioned with the environment and returned to Japan but says he's recently been drawn to negative film A significant turning point came for him in 2013 when an Australian friend invited him to walk the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route This experience sparked his passion for walking journeys leading him to traverse Japan on foot and adopt the title "Walker" (walking journey explorer) Though he previously had little interest in Japanese food culture and didn’t even really know the difference between temples and shrines his perspective transformed dramatically through over a decade of walking journeys I've covered thousands of kilometers across the Kii Peninsula While the Nakahechi route of Kumano Kodo is famous due to good promotion including the Iseji and Omine Okugakedo—I've walked almost all of them I've also covered the Rokujurigoe Kaido in Yamagata Matsuo Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North He lists these historical routes that even many Japanese are unfamiliar with he published "Koya Bound," a photo book of the Kumano Kodo in collaboration with Leica Mod considers his masterpiece to be "Kissa by Kissa," published in 2020 which chronicles his over 1,000-kilometer journey along the Nakasendo and the nostalgic coffee shops he encountered along the way became an expensive volume at 1 yen (approximately $5000) due to his commitment to beautiful printing While he was initially uncertain whether such a niche work would attract funding it surprisingly raised nearly 1500 million yen (approximately $XNUMX) in just a few days The Japanese-translated book "Kissa by Kissa: Streets and Coffee Shops - Why I Travel on Foot Through Japan." the Japanese translation of the book was finally published as "Kissa by Kissa: Streets and Coffee Shops—Why I Walk Japan" (translated by Eiichi Imai) Supporting Mod's activities is his global fan community of tens of thousands these supporters receive his discoveries from his journeys through newsletters and YouTube broadcasts His visit to Morioka was also prompted by this community Mod frequently seeks hints and permission for coverage from community members often pursuing stories that mainstream magazines would never consider Morioka particularly captivated him with its vitality "The people were friendly and approachable The tourist destinations Mod recommends—Morioka and Toyama—differ distinctly from typical Japanese tourist spots While there seem to be countless other tourist destinations worth visiting in Japan what criteria does he use to select these cities He chose Toyama this year not only because he likes the city itself but also because The New York Times wanted to support the Noto Peninsula earthquake recovery efforts and he saw an opportunity to help distribute tourists away from the somewhat overtouristed Kanazawa nearby His selections thus reflect a delicate balance between his personal preferences and the social responsibility that comes with such an influential list Mod discovers the charm of Japan's B-side and spreads it to the world "I've always liked the B-side of records," Mod says laughing He points out that the A-side travel that most people pursue "has become twisted from its original purpose with Instagram-worthiness becoming the primary concern." He observes "People are so focused on taking selfies without any consideration for local residents' feelings that it's becoming somewhat grotesque." should be about "interacting with local people bringing those experiences back to your own country and contemplating what makes a city so peaceful and wonderful." most first-time visitors to Japan will visit Tokyo and Kyoto regardless of this list and anime fans will visit places like the Kamakura High School crossing (the beautiful coastal spot often depicted in manga and anime)," he notes there's been a significant increase in sophisticated tourists who frequently visit Japan and show respect for Japanese culture." "I recently met a Taiwanese man who was visiting Japan for the 25th time many visitors have already been to Kyoto and Kanazawa multiple times I met a couple who were spending a month traveling around Tohoku This is exactly the kind of development I was hoping for." Perhaps this is why advanced travelers are drawn to local culture and history that reveal more depth with each encounter Mod tries to communicate actively with the local people in fluent Japanese when travelling Overtourism has become a significant issue in Japanese tourism recently Japan actually receives far fewer tourists than the UK or Italy is that many Japanese regions aren't good at promoting themselves about XNUMX% of visitors concentrate in limited cities like Tokyo leading to overcrowded trains and streets becoming police matters bringing hundreds of people to the same tourist spots daily." "Measures like increasing Mount Fuji's climbing fees can help combat overtourism — it reminds visitors that these places have value Another interesting example is how the new bathhouse in Harajuku's Harakado initially limited access to Shibuya Ward residents during its pre-opening period to build a local regular customer base the continued increase in tourists isn't just a tourism issue—it's a capitalism issue that can't be fully controlled Rather than focusing on explicitly deterring visits Japan should concentrate on attracting more repeat tourists who understand the value of quality experiences and introducing them to attractive regions that are still unknown." many regions are aiming to become tourist destinations While many regional cities require cars to get around very few tourists are willing to drive rental cars with international licenses in unfamiliar territory he consciously recommends destinations that can be enjoyed on foot "Actually walking around is the best way to get to know a place," he says often recommending castle towns because their complex street layouts make them interesting to explore "The proximity of the Shinkansen station to the city center is also crucial," Mod notes stations whose names begin with "Shin-" (new) are often far from city centers and don't contribute much to tourism "Shin-Aomori and Yamaguchi are borderline cases." He emphasizes that tourism development requires a long-term perspective "While Naoshima is now a popular tourist destination Benesse's art site development began in the 1980s and it took over 30 years to gain popularity The Shimanami Kaido cycling road was built just over 20 years ago and stylish hotels like LOG have helped boost its popularity One factor in this success is the abundance of slopes allowing young people to buy and start interesting projects Mod briefly worked in Silicon Valley during the 2010s to experience cutting-edge technology he didn't fully understand why he was drawn to Japan But after walking the Kumano Kodo in 2013 and traversing other historical routes on foot Mod's fans worldwide always look forward to listen to what he has to say "This is going to sound rediculous: But one of the key elements that makes Japan wonderful is its comprehensive insurance system people with families couldn't continue running small independent shops This sense of yoyu (emotional margin) ultimately contributes to the vitality and charm of Japan's regional cities." many regions in Japan have lost such independent shops and Toyama where such charming shops remain he can help restore local pride and create conditions that make former residents want to return to their hometowns While Mod has self-published his English books until now he will soon release a book through a prestigious American publisher His upcoming work focuses on this sense of yoyu (emotional margin) found in Japan's regional cities His books include Things Become Other Things (forthcoming in May 2023) Koya Bound: 8 Days on the Kumano Kodo (2016) Craig runs the membership program "SPECIAL PROJECTS" and publishes the newsletters "Roden" and "Ridgeline," which together reach over 2010 subscribers he has been a monthly guest on J-Wave's "People's Roastery" radio show In addition to informing you of the latest information via newsletter we also plan to inform you of exclusive events and give away special gifts Yoshiyuki Morioka came up with the idea for Morioka Shoten when he was running another more conventional bookstore at a different location where he organised regular readings and signings with authors and publishers Yoshiyuki Morioka – proprietor of the recently opened Morioka Shoten (Morioka Bookstore) in Ginza, Tokyo – just made bookstore browsing a whole lot easier by only carrying one book at any given time, his tiny boutique has eliminated the whole idea altogether.Morioka's featured book changes weekly and is occasionally accompanied by art works photographs or other related items; an exhibition of ceramic jewellery and objects by Mayumi Kogoma inspired by one of Kenji Miyazawa’s novels (1934's Porano no hiroba) is currently on show Sometimes the shop appears more like a gallery than an actual bookstore – but it’s always the book that takes centre stage.To call the space minimal would be an overstatement; the raw concrete walls and ceiling have been given a coat of white paint and the concrete floor left as is The only furniture is a vintage chest of drawers that now doubles as a counter Morioka’s personal work desk and a flimsy table displaying the single book.Morioka came up with the idea for Morioka Shoten when he was running another These were always well recieved – why not launch a dedicated shop where the focus was always on just one special book?The boutique is on the ground floor of the Suzuki Building bult in 1929 and one of Tokyo’s few listed structures From the early 1930s to the end of the Second World War it was home to Japan’s propaganda publisher Nippon Kobo Morioka used to have a rather large collection of Japanese wartime propaganda (he likes the quirky strong graphics) that he sold in order to finance the opening of the store.It might not be a place to lose a couple of hours browsing for that perfect read or birthday present – but perhaps it's actually rather nice to have someone choose for you sometimes Morioka ShotenSusuzki Building 1F1-28-15 Ginza,Chuo-kuTokyo VIEW GOOGLE MAPS escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox Jensen has been calling Japan his home for almost two decades Since 2014 he has worked with Wallpaper* as the Japan Editor he consults numerous business in Japan and beyond and designs and build retail residential and moving (read: vans) interiors A strong winter air pressure pattern continued through Japan on Wednesday prolonging snowfall on the Sea of Japan side and other areas It was extremely cold on Wednesday morning The Japan Meteorological Agency is warning of heavy snowfall over a wide area the lowest temperature on Wednesday was minus 21.2 C in Morioka The lowest temperature in Chiyoda Ward in central Tokyo was 3.6 C saw 42 cm of snowfall in the 12 hours through 9 a.m the largest amount ever recorded there in February the Sukayu district in Aomori City and Minakami also recorded 46 cm for the same 24-hour period Japanese version Investigative stories and local news updates Coverage of the Hawaiʻi State legislature in 2025 Award winning in-depth reports and featured on-going series Get the week’s news delivered straight to your inbox UH Provost Michael Bruno said he will meet with engineering faculty members in the coming weeks to continue discussing complaints about Dean Brennon Morioka’s leadership The faculty of the University of Hawaii engineering school issued a public rebuke of their dean last month with a vote of no confidence in his leadership At a meeting of the College of Engineering Faculty Senate on Jan. 14, faculty members passed a no confidence resolution citing “serious concerns” about the administration of finances and personnel in the college over the past two years under Dean Brennon Morioka The vote was 39 to six with nine people abstaining or not voting The resolution stated that faculty members had previously communicated their concerns to both the College of Engineering administration and the upper administration of the university but that a “lack of timely progress” on the issues had created “a general sense of discontent and anger among many faculty members.” In an interview on Monday, Morioka – who was a general manager for the Hawaiian Electric Co. prior to being named dean of the College of Engineering in 2019 acknowledged the faculty’s concerns but said he had inherited problems in the college’s business office that had lingered for years before he joined the university Morika said he believes that the no confidence vote “doesn’t touch upon some of the real issues” and that there is a need for better communication within the college “We all need to communicate a little better and we need to figure out how to communicate on a path forward with the faculty,” Morioka said “But those lines of communication have always been open.” Late last year, the Faculty Executive Committee of the engineering college conducted a survey to gauge the faculty’s assessment of management of the college A cover note to the survey stated that the College of Engineering Faculty Senate had received complaints from faculty regarding a wide range of leadership issues the college’s Senate Executive Committee determined it was “imperative” that those concerns be documented and presented to high-level UH administrators “so that proper actions can be taken in response.” indicated that Morioka “has not demonstrated satisfactory understanding of academic and research requirements needed for effective leadership” of the college The survey also found that 30 out of 41 respondents indicated they “are not comfortable with expressing their opinions” to Morioka indicated they do not support continued employment of the dean The executive committee reported that there is a general consensus among faculty that there are “many serious problems” in the college including “concerns about a hostile work environment.” The executive committee also reported that a “small number” of respondents believe that the current problems in the college are “the fault of the previous interim dean.” president of the Engineering Faculty Senate said he and other faculty leaders presented the findings of the survey to UH Manoa Provost Michael Bruno in mid-January Brown said he and his colleagues do not feel that the administration has done enough in response Bruno said he has met with faculty members five times in the last several weeks and that he will be meeting with them again in the coming weeks for further discussion “I understand the frustration coming from the faculty,” Bruno said “I understand the need to act as quickly as we can.” Bruno said there had been problems with oversight of fiscal matters that began before Morioka was hired Faculty representatives said that if they have not received a response from Bruno by the end of the spring semester in May they could take the complaints to the university’s Office of Human Resources The engineering faculty also presented the no confidence resolution and the findings of the survey to the Manoa Faculty Senate last month Morioka previously served as director for the state’s Department of Transportation under former governor Linda Lingle. He also worked for 4-1/2 years as deputy director at the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation focusing much of his time there on the utility relocation issues that persist at the transit project to this day Morioka then left HART in 2017 to join Hawaiian Electric, where as general manager for “electrification of transportation” he helped push for more charging stations and infrastructure that might support more electric vehicle-use Unfortunately, being named a finalist for a Pulitzer prize doesn’t make us immune to financial pressures. The fact is, our revenue hasn’t kept pace with our need to grow, and we need your help Civil Beat is a nonprofit, reader-supported newsroom based in Hawaiʻi. We’re looking to build a more resilient, diverse and deeply impactful media landscape, and we hope you’ll help by supporting our essential journalism Cassie Ordonio was a reporter for Honolulu Civil Beat Civil Beat has been named the best overall news site in Hawaii for the 14th year in a row by the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter MORIOKA--With a population of under 300,000 people this city has found itself suddenly in the global spotlight after placing second in this year’s “52 Places to Go” list from The New York Times the owners of restaurants and cafes featured in the article say they don’t plan on changing how they approach their businesses even as more people from abroad are visiting the capital of Iwate Prefecture in the northern Tohoku region of Japan Reporters and writers for the Times annually nominate 52 cities from around the globe for the honor Fukuoka city came in 19th in addition to Morioka The article gave unreserved praise to Morioka The city is “a walkable gem without the crowds (of other big cities),” the Times said The city is surrounded by mountains and offers several winding rivers Morioka also has the ruins of Morioka Castle and is filled with traditional buildings that mix Western and Japanese architectural aesthetics including the red brick building that was used as the Bank of Iwate’s head office The city lies about two hours north from Tokyo by Shinkansen recommended Morioka to the Times and wrote the information about the city for the article He has been in Japan for about 23 years and has traveled to many places in the country Mod visited Morioka for the first time in 2020 and was attracted to the city the food is delicious and the historic city is easy to walk around," Mod said 7 after writing the article and talked with Mayor Hiroaki Tanifuji Morioka placing second on the list was a surprise to him “I guess it’s my passion (that got it second place),” he said with a grin “We have to focus on not only big cities but also the core cities so we are confident in the order of that list,” he said I would like them to explore not only Kyoto and Hiroshima but also the Tohoku region.” 8 were downing small bowls of soba noodles at Azumaya The restaurant serves all-you-can-eat "wanko" soba or bowls that only contain about one mouthful of soba each a restaurant will continue giving bowls of soba until diners say they’ve had enough The tourists burst into laughter after eating more than 100 bowls each and put the lids on the last bowls He learned about the restaurant after reading the Times’ article featuring the restaurant After another restaurant owner assured him of the quality of the restaurant He said Morioka has nice people and nature and that the food was delicious said he is seeing more customers from outside the prefecture and from Western countries “(The Times’ article) gave us a great opportunity,” he said “Many tourists used to leave the city after eating our wanko soba but we would like to make this into an opportunity for them to spend more time in Morioka.” Mod’s article featured a jazz cafe called "Kaiunbashi no Johnny" near Morioka Station The cafe has a phonograph with a large speaker and is filled with records The cafe is known as a “beacon for Japanese jazz” as Toshiko Akiyoshi a Japanese jazz pianist who lives overseas plays jazz every time she comes to her home country and the cafe carries mainly records from Japanese jazz artists People from around the world were drawn to the cafe following the article including a young man from New York who visited after reading about it Nagasawa Coffee near Iwate University is always filled with the wonderful aroma of coffee The store purchases and roasts green coffee beans there “People in Morioka are not good at business but there are many mom-and-pop stores with their own policies,” said the owner We don’t get carried away just because we are on the list; we want to maintain the style and quality we’ve always had.” Only 1.6 percent of foreign visitors to Japan stayed overnight in the Tohoku region in 2019 The Morioka government office said 65,597 people stayed at the city’s facilities in 2019 which was only 0.06 percent of the figure nationwide The city launched a special website on Jan the website had recorded more than 35,000 views The number of inquiries about relocation to the city also rose from around 15 per month to 26 in the first two weeks after the article was posted The number of requests for the city’s sightseeing brochures increased from 19 in January of last year to 65 in the same month this year Forty-one of the 65 inquiries were made after the article was posted on the website Morioka is promoting the use of a digital map of the city--available in seven languages and lists sightseeing spots and restaurants--to foreign visitors to the city A public-private partnership project called “Morioka to iu Hoshi de” (The planet Morioka) which aims to solve the problem of young people moving out of the city including restaurant owners and city officials they are involved in activities to encourage people to settle down and move to Morioka but they see the Times’ article as an opportunity and plan to launch a portal website this spring Popular dining experiences in Japan halted over virus fears Asia travel hotspots quiet as Chinese tourists stay away Hong Kong’s first CBD cafe opens its doors to customers Owner closes 115-year-old ‘soba’ shop because his kids are allergic IWATE COFFEE FESTIVAL 2024″ will be held on June 1 (Sat.) and 2 (Sun.) at Morioka History and Culture Museum Plaza / Morioka Castle Ruins Park in Iwate Prefecture This event will be held for the third time in 2024 It was first held in Hanamaki City in 2019 and Morioka City in 2023 was selected in 2019 by the global coffee media “SPRUDGE” as one of the “20 people who are changing the world through their coffee work but is supporting the operation of the event with his extensive knowledge The venue is a pleasant breezy area along the Nakatsu River where a marché will be held with more than 50 restaurants and sundry stores from all over the prefecture and a “coffee ticket” is required for coffee tasting A limited number of coffee ticket vouchers with demi-cups for coffee tasting are also available with an original design for 2024 by Morioka-based illustrator Yoka Fukushi Demi-cups from the first (2019) and second (2023) editions can also be used for the tasting the Iwate preliminary round of the “Japan AeroPress Championship 2024,” a coffee competition using the AeroPress will be held in the lobby on the 1st floor of TV Iwate across from the venue with the top 3 advancing to the final scheduled for August in Fukuoka The top three will advance to the finals scheduled for August in Fukuoka NiEW Best Music is a playlist featuring artists leading the music scene and offering alternative styles in our rapidly evolving society the NiEW editorial team proudly curates outstanding music that transcends size Between an altered post-lockdown landscape sensational changeovers at 10 Downing Street and the death of Queen Elizabeth II there is no doubt that London is in transition But the city continues to juxtapose old traditions and new possibilities offering something for everyone who loves culture Until this past October, Japan maintained some of the most stringent travel restrictions of any major country travelers are beginning to stream back to popular destinations like Tokyo The city of Morioka, in Iwate Prefecture, however, is often passed over or outright ignored. Circumscribed by mountains, it lies a few hours north of Tokyo by Shinkansen, the Japanese high-speed rail lines. Morioka’s downtown is eminently walkable. The city is filled with Taisho-era buildings that mix Western and Eastern architectural aesthetics as well as modern hotels a few old ryokan (traditional inns) and winding rivers One draw is an ancient castle site turned into a park There’s also fantastic coffee, including one of Japan’s third-wave originators: Nagasawa Coffee, whose owner, Kazuhiro Nagasawa, is so committed to his beans that he uses a vintage German-made Probat roaster, which he personally imported and restored. Azumaya serves up all-you-can-eat wanko soba which comes served in dozens of tiny bowls; Booknerd offers classic Japanese art books; and Johnny’s An hour west by car: Lake Tazawa and dozens of world-class hot springs Americans have been flocking to national parks, many of which were overrun with visitors during the peak of pandemic-related international border closures peacefully taking in the majesty of nature can be a challenge Monument Valley offers a less crowded alternative has been a popular insignia for the American West ever since John Wayne rode in to film “Stagecoach” in 1939 and the grandeur of its cinematic sandstone buttes towering above a copper-red desert vastness is open to visitors under the stewardship of the Navajo Nation Its relatively basic infrastructure — in contrast to sites governed by the National Park Service — and its out-of-the-way location on the Arizona-Utah state line help create a more serene experience compared with other awe-inspiring U.S The sun rises over Kilmartin Glen as it has for thousands of years illuminating an ancient landscape of more than 800 archaeological monuments sprouting in the mist This verdant valley on Scotland’s wild west coast is one of the most significant prehistoric sites in Britain yet it’s largely off the visitor circuit; imagine Stonehenge without the crowds one of the few remaining raised bogs in Europe above which looms the Iron Age hill fort of Dunadd For full immersion into the Scotland of yore, stay at the moody 16th-century Kilmartin Castle which was recently transformed into a boutique hotel Auckland is usually considered the entry point for the rest of New Zealand’s natural attractions but travelers just passing through can miss that it’s also the culinary capital (sorry a longtime staple of the residential neighborhood Mt serves local game in its restaurant and house-cured meats in its delicatessen The city’s famous multiculturalism also plays a part: Omni, which opened in 2020 and whose head chef worked at Hong Kong’s Yardbird, makes high-end yakitori, and Little French Pastry’s founders serve up mille-feuille rivaling Paris’s best Yes, this is the land of midcentury nostalgia, with its low-slung Modernist architecture and the recent return of the 26-foot-tall “Forever Marilyn” statue there’s another headliner: the surrounding desert the nearly 1,700-square-mile Kangaroo Island is known for incredible wildlife breathtaking ocean views and its status as an ecological haven — like a zoo without fences Three years ago, devastating fires consumed the island, wiping out wildlife and destroying a famous luxury hotel, the Southern Ocean Lodge and the island is more compelling than ever to visit New organizations that sprang up to help with the wildlife recovery offer visitors a chance to play a part in funding that regeneration At the Kangaroo Island Koala and Wildlife Rescue Centre, you can book a private tour to see the animal hospital facilities, or bottle-feed a joey (a baby kangaroo). At the long-established Seal Bay Conservation Park you can watch one of Australia’s largest colonies of sea lions frolic on the beach And in 2023 the Southern Ocean Lodge will reopen will establish a global conservation model while preserving the country’s canyon-lined which runs from the Pindus Mountains in Greece to the Adriatic Sea as well as including around 60 miles of tributaries For travelers — on trails like Albania’s new UNESCO Cycling Route (opening January 2023), which runs along the river and visits World Heritage sites like the city of Gjirokastra — safeguarding the Vjosa and its river system encourages responsible discovery of alpine settlements where locals welcome adventurers for coffee raki (local fruit brandy) and a chance to imbibe oft-overlooked Balkan culture Accra’s food scene typically consists of two schools: “chop bars” that serve traditional cheap meals like fufu (made from pounded cassava green plantains or yams) with tomato-based spicy soup and pricier restaurants serving foreign fare Travelers to Accra, Ghana’s capital, can now see a new wave of chefs and entrepreneurs bridging this gap by emphasizing and innovating with local produce. At the Mix, a new restaurant and design hub the West African staple gari (granulated cassava root) is dyed pink with beetroot and accompanies squid in a passion fruit sauce The sustainable food space in Accra is also one to watch; Ghana Food Movement including a signature Dine & Dance series in which underutilized indigenous ingredients like millet eaten by Ghanaians almost exclusively as porridge One of the best places to see the northern lights is more than 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle Travelers can get there either by plane or by a combination of train and bus Cruise ships and ferries are also a possibility offers enough distinct weather zones to make it likely that there will be clear skies most nights — a must for seeing the lights when they do appear Want to feel like you’ve traveled so far that you’re only vaguely tethered to Earth? Welcome to Lençóis Maranhenses blindingly white sand dunes rising into the sun and descending into otherworldly green and blue lagoons filled with rainwater Forget your cell signal or trappings of comfort: There are few if any structures and the park’s location near the Equator means it’s blazingly hot during the day Yet almost all Brazilians will tell you they want to visit this remote area to experience the sensation of playing in a lunar water park Or be mesmerized by its immensity via helicopter tour It’s the antidote to that claustrophobic Covid-era feeling — a vast borderless moonscape where you can roam wild and free After two and a half years of pandemic isolation Bhutan reopened in September with changes to its longstanding “high value Visitors are no longer required to travel on package tours but Bhutan’s mandatory “sustainable development fee” increased to $200 from $65 per day a path used for centuries as a pilgrimage and communications route reopened after a three-year restoration that mended suspension bridges The trail stretches east to west across nearly the entire country trekkers might spy the snowcapped Himalayas scale sacred mountain passes or pass through blooming rhododendron forests Official guides are required, and itineraries range from half a day to more than a month. Accommodations include guesthouses, home stays, luxury hotels and well-appointed campsites on each of the trail’s 28 sections. Proceeds from trips booked with Trans Bhutan Trail In Kumarakom, one of several “responsible tourism destinations” in the state weave rope from coconut fiber and even learn to climb a palm tree visitors can follow a storytelling trail and enjoy village street art before taking in an evening performance of a traditional temple dance Set in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains Greenville has established itself on the culinary scene The quaint city of about 70,000 has more than 200 restaurants — 85 percent of which are local without a tie to a national chain — in its strollable downtown area alone Visitors may come for the access to outdoor adventures but they’ll most likely leave having been introduced to flavors from around the world “The real heartbeat of Greenville is a creative and diverse food community that keeps reinventing itself,” said Sid Evans and the chefs have embraced the global influences shaping the modern South.” is the largest barrio in the United States and exemplifies Tucson’s connection to Mexico with centuries-old Sonoran adobe architecture recognizing the destination’s commitment to sustainable economic and social development Islanders are awaiting yet another decision from UNESCO, which they hope will name the nearly 4,600-foot volcano Mount Pelée and the Pitons du Carbet range to the World Heritage List. The region represents “the diversity of Martinique,” said Alex Dobat, who owns Natiyabel a scuba diving and hiking outfitter (whose name means “nature is beautiful” in Creole) wild begonias and hummingbirds “staring at you quietly.” Tourism officials are counting on the UNESCO certifications to attract ecotourists to its peaks Along the desolate coast of Namibia, 1,000-foot-tall sand dunes descend into the sea. During low tide, intrepid adventurers can drive along the beach, past towering yellow dunes on one side and the South Atlantic’s churning waters on the other. This is the Namib, the world’s oldest desert, and the perfect place for a long road trip After almost three years of Covid-19 restrictions it’s hard to imagine a place where you can feel more free “Namib” means “vast place” in Khoekhoegowab a language spoken in many parts of Namibia It’s astonishingly easy to get lost in this almost entirely uninhabited expanse of sand where you might travel for days without seeing another human being In the Namib-Naukluft National Park, travelers can go back in time at the Deadvlei, where 600-year-old trees stand eerily lifeless, preserved by the dry air; challenge themselves to climb the 100-story Big Daddy Dune; observe desert-adapted wildlife like oryx and springbok; and even see mysterious fairy circles Since 1923, the Alaska Railroad — the last railroad in the United States to carry both people and freight — has connected millions of passengers and trade goods over 470 miles of track This year is the centennial of its operation and a celebration is planned in Nenana Harding drove in the golden spike on July 15 Operational well before Alaska became a state the railroad is an environmentally friendly way for passengers to see wilderness without sacrificing comfort: Glass-domed rail cars make viewing easy It is also the only remaining flag-stop major railroad in the country Passengers can wave a flag to embark or disembark including harder-to-reach areas of the Chugach National Forest History buffs can view a special exhibit at the Anchorage Museum that runs from May to February 2024 a subtropical city perched on the northern shore of Kyushu is one of the few remaining places in Japan where you will see rows of yatai — open-air street-food stalls resembling boxes of neon light but if you stroll along the riverfront on Nakasu a small island that is Fukuoka’s red-light district Yatai were a common sight across Japan in the 1950s the authorities had them removed to project an image of economic recovery Fukuoka is the only city left that’s fighting this bureaucracy The government has acknowledged the cultural significance of yatai by increasing the safety and quality of the food and by offering more licenses in 2022 the number of yatai has fallen drastically to around 100 stalls today from more than 400 in the ’60s Pull up a seat while you can and enjoy rubbing shoulders with strangers over supper again Southeast Asian island with nine-foot Komodo dragons rushing waterfalls and color-shifting crater lakes reputed to house departed spirits Travel has always been a way to experience diversity, and in 2023 you’ll find a variety of sexual expression and shifts in traditional gender roles in Jalisco’s capital. This fall, the city will co-host (with Hong Kong) the 11th annual Gay Games Athletes from around the world — of varying ages sexual orientations and levels of athletic experience — will participate in 20 sports The city is also home to the annual Prohibido festival during which an abandoned theater is transformed into a celebration of sexual diversity through art installations live music and talks about polyamorous and nonbinary culture women take on nontraditional performance roles you can hear one of almost a dozen female mariachi bands from the area at Hotel Riu Plaza Guadalajara or El Patio There are also local performances by female cowboys who present their choreography on horseback The city is considered by some to be Mexico’s drag capital, with numerous performers and shows. Guadalajara has also developed “antiturista” maps that provide a local’s perspective on places to see and stay Algeria — a stone’s throw from Mediterranean Europe and a mere three-hour flight from London — has recently relaxed its visa policies allowing for much easier exploration of the country While most visitors tend to stick to the coastal north which contains some of the region’s best preserved Roman ruins Africa’s largest country also contains its largest national park Tassili n’Ajjer is eight times the size of Yellowstone At the heart of the vast landscape of Saharan sand and stone lie the deep red dunes and pillars of Tadrart Rouge Accessible only by a four-wheel-drive vehicle this astonishingly striking national park is home to thousands of ancient works of rock art stretching back to when the desert was a thriving savanna as well as to a very much living nomadic Tuareg culture For wine lovers, a tasting trip to estates like Vazisubani and Kardanakhi in Kakheti offers a chance to discover new wines in a landscape of tiny hilltop towns and verdant valleys framed by the Caucasus Many wines are made in traditional pointed qvevri clay vessels that are buried in the earth To complement the experience, local chefs have started offering cooking classes where gastronomes can learn how to make the meaty dumplings known as khinkali and other dishes from what Saveur magazine called “Europe’s great unsung cuisine.” Nîmes is that rarest of Gallic delicacies — a sunny southern French city with great charm and fascinating architecture and museums that hasn’t yet become thronged with tourists like Arles or Avignon the restaurant of the elegant new 10-room Margaret-Hôtel Chouleur in a landmarked mansion in the heart of the Écusson two excellent cosmopolitan modern French bistros — a type of restaurant that’s new to Nîmes — are not far away Shed some calories after a meal by taking in the sights of the Rome of France a sobriquet explained by the most spectacular collection of Roman monuments in Europe outside of Italy The several-day loop by motorbike through the Ha Giang highlands in northern Vietnam is not for the timid Getting to the city of Ha Giang takes six hours by road from Hanoi serpentine passes and recurring switchbacks can make the journey both treacherous and exhilarating This remote tableau of soaring peaks and cavernous valleys inspires a deep connection to the landscape and its inhabitants. Veer off the main road onto the narrow ribbons of concrete streaking the mountainsides and into the Hmong and Tay settlements dotting the hillsides and hollows. To learn more about their cultures, you can hire a guide from QT Motorbikes and Tours Road improvement projects and new high-end accommodations have made the loop more accessible and inviting Don’t miss a boat ride through the canyon on the emerald river at Ma Pi Leng Pass With last year’s World Cup drawing attention to the built environment elsewhere in the Persian Gulf states offers visitors a chance to see the region’s natural beauty the area is either lush and green and blanketed in thick fog is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.) Another draw is the collection of historical ports spread along the coast so it’s easy to find oneself alone in the crystal clear waters of the area’s many tranquil beaches white-sand beaches and tobacco-rich valleys Cuba sits tantalizingly close to the United States though it often feels out of reach — especially in recent years when the Trump administration reinstated strict rules for American citizens hoping to visit But a confluence of factors just made travel to the island nation a bit easier President Biden relaxed many of the restrictions imposed by his predecessor American Airlines resumed flights beyond Havana adding departures to the beach town Varadero and the interior city Santa Clara a regional capital steeped in revolutionary history More flights from other carriers are set to begin in the coming months Cuba’s people are as generous with their stories — of history even politics and protest — as they are with their music joyful soundtrack thrumming through the island’s cities and towns Less than two years after historic protests were met with harsh repression and as the country rebuilds from Hurricane Ian travel to Cuba and support of its people may never be more valuable Designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma & Associates, the new Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense featuring labyrinthine gardens that double as a public park The museum explores Andersen’s literary interplay between real and imaginary: You can gaze up at the sky through a glass dome and feel like the Little Mermaid; roam sunken courtyards illuminated by sunlight splintering through trees; and engage with exhibits by contemporary artists in cylindrical spaces wrapped in latticed timber that suggest the city’s traditional thatched-roof houses The museum is as much about telling stories as it is about imagining your own: Creativity is encouraged at the magical Ville Vau children’s center write and play dress-up amid colorful scenes from Andersen’s fairy tales Time your visit with Odense’s summertime H.C. Andersen Festivals, and then find artistic inspiration, as Andersen did, by venturing across his home island of Funen, the “garden of Denmark,” with its storybook castles (the moated Egeskov is the stuff of dreams) heather-coated hillsides and misty coastline At Uluru, time stretches, dissolves. Over 500 million years old, the 1,142-foot sandstone monolith in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is a shape-shifter: aflame in pink orange and violet through the day; its crevices gush with the rain Now, Uluru is a symbol of urgency. In 2017, it was the site of the Uluru Statement From the Heart which calls for an Indigenous “voice to Parliament” to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced there would be a national referendum on the issue in 2023 Uluru is sacred to the Anangu people, who protect and manage the land, and for decades tourists climbed the rock against their wishes. Climbing was banned in 2019 and now visitors can take a 5.8-mile walk around Uluru’s base to experience its splendor The ban was a rare victory for Indigenous rights and cultural respect and evidence that even deep-rooted attitudes can change In Boquete’s town center, which acts as a base for adventure activities like waterfall hikes and white-water rafting, the noted Panama City chef Mario Castrellón has opened a branch of the coffee roaster Café Unido, as well as a restaurant and bar with seasonal menus and Geisha-infused cocktails, in the new Selina hostel with rooms ranging from beds in concrete cylinders to luxe suites Long upstaged by the flash of Barcelona, this unsung waterfront city on the Costa Daurada is a culturally rich alternative, with thriving Catalan traditions, from the famous castells (human towers formed by people standing on one another’s shoulders) to earthy Romesco sauce often served with grilled fish and vegetables But what elevates the Tarragona experience is the past: This is one of the oldest Roman settlements in the Iberian Peninsula. The impressively preserved Tarraco ruins transform the city into an open-air museum from the mighty Roman walls to the amphitheater framed by the Mediterranean the city is in the midst of change: a revitalized port new low-cost fast trains to the region and a growing contemporary arts scene Perhaps the best way to savor it is to partake in a paseo: Stroll the Rambla Nova to the aptly named Balcó del Mediterrani observation point where touching the iron railing is said to bring good luck Charleston’s brutal history of slavery can be overshadowed by a romanticized portrait of a city with charm, award-winning restaurants and plantation gardens. The planned opening of the $100 million International African American Museum this year will help comprehensively display the city’s complicated past where an estimated 30,000 African captives landed during the trans-Atlantic slave trade single-story building floats atop 18 pillars clad in tabby a kind of concrete made from oyster shells a social justice action lab and 10 exhibit galleries that include stories of slavery and the Great Migration A public outdoor space offers an African Ancestors Memorial Garden featuring indigenous plants like Lowcountry sweet grass and Canary Island palm trees the Charleston tourism board will debut a comprehensive guide to Black-owned businesses to elevate the overlooked successes of creative locals Off the northern coast of Honduras, the Cayos Cochinos archipelago part of a marine preserve where commercial fishing is banned with a collective population of about 200 Indigenous Garifuna residents derived much of its funding to study and protect its biodiversity from the fees paid by day-trippers to snorkel there the nongovernmental organization is gently opening itself to tourism allowing visitors to stay in basic cabins (from $45 a night) that previously hosted exclusively scientists Between scuba dives and hikes to see pink boa constrictors and black-chested spiny-tailed iguanas travelers can volunteer to propagate new coral or count sea turtles restaurants and tastings of the local root-infused spirit some of which employ solera barrel systems (like those used to age and blend sherry and Madeira wines) small oak barrels and other tools and techniques most often used by vintners France has been a laggard in the global craft beer revolution running far behind neighboring countries like Spain and Italy The emerging beer trail in Burgundy’s wine region shows how France might soon develop an enviable beer culture of its own the Turkish Republic celebrates its 100th anniversary Istanbul’s local government has invested millions in giving historic structures new life a factory that manufactured the iconic Turkish hats and one of Istanbul’s first steel buildings will become one of its largest art centers; west of the old city a comprehensive restoration of the stone-and-brick Mevlanakapi city walls with their 22 towers dating back to the fifth century will transform them into a four-and-a-half-mile walking path; and the Botter Apartment one of Istanbul’s earliest Art Nouveau buildings whose bottom floor was originally a studio for the sultan’s private tailor will be turned into a fashion design center There’s more. Art museums are planned for the former Yedikule gasworks and the Halic Shipyard, one of the world’s oldest still in operation. And most notably, the newly built Istanbul Modern museum will open its doors along the Bosporus in Karakoy showcasing the works of notable Turkish artists such as Fahrelnissa Zeid and Erol Akyavas Taipei is a glorious assault on the senses and clear air despite its immense urban sprawl From its neon-lit night markets to its Qing Dynasty temples visitors can feel the quiet drum of independent pride it remains an ideal place to gape at the sheer power of human innovation the larger city of Medellín grew to the north and El Poblado became a rural getaway for wealthy Colombians The grid of two- or three-story homes has blossomed with shops and restaurants interspersed with boutique hotels rising above the treetops gushing waterfalls and rainbow-colored macaws add to the lush tropical vibe An afternoon roaming the neighborhood, popping into Mon y Velarde for menswear or Makeno for artisanal home goods, followed by coffee at Pergamino or modern Colombian cuisine at Oci.Mde is a worthy entry on any South American traveler’s bucket list Stay out late enough to see the area transform into the pulsing heart of the city’s nightlife with D.J.s on the rooftops and dance parties in the streets Already blessed with a sublime Lake Geneva location and dramatic mountain views has been adding architectural and artistic beauty to its repertoire as well sits on a peninsula of the same name some 30 miles southwest of the Greek capital in part because of its increasing popularity as a hiking destination In recent years, groups of locals have managed to reopen and map old walking paths, some of which date back to the Mycenaean Era, creating hiking trails that attract visitors from around the world. (So far, more than 18 miles have been cleared and marked.) The Methana Volcano Challenge offers a trail run across the peninsula’s sloping landscape Visitors to this volcanic peninsula can also enjoy several hot springs, the most interesting of which is an ancient (and recently renovated) tub known as the Pausanias Baths near the village of Agios Nikolaos One of the oldest cities west of the Appalachian Mountains, and arguably among the most beautiful, Louisville somehow flies under the radar. This despite its graceful 19th-century park system because the city might not stay below the radar much longer: 2024 will draw the masses for the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby Michelin-starred restaurants in São Paulo use Amazonian ingredients to appear exotic, but in Manaus, where you can sip steamy gourds of tacacá from a stand in front of the Teatro Amazonas or wander past plastic bottles of tucupi At the Indigenous-owned Biatüwi a restaurant that pays homage to ancestral recipes and cooking techniques drinks are made from fermented purple yams and chiles are used to purify river fish in piquant stews like quinhampira Lithuania’s cobblestoned capital has a long history of bootstrap survival Occupied once by the Nazis and twice by the Soviets Vilnius has a story that is complex and fascinating to explore Its architectural riches span from Gothic to Renaissance to Baroque; grand churches rub shoulders with quaint timber homes on leafy streets when viewed through the long lens of history The area around Macon has been home to multiple Native American tribes for 12,000 years. That history will be acknowledged this year, when Georgia is expected to get its first national park: The Ocmulgee Mounds, some of the most significant prehistoric Indigenous mounds in North America, date to the year 900, and are now a national historical park The national park will include the Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and offer a network of exquisite hiking trails and artifacts from American Indian culture Management will be shared by the Muscogee Nation and the National Park Service Additionally, the city, whose musical roots run deep — Little Richard, the Allman Brothers and Otis Redding all got their start here — is celebrating its 200th anniversary with a new 10,000-seat amphitheater. Visitors can check out the Hotel Forty Five a boutique hotel that opened downtown last year and that was named both for the angle of the street on which it sits and as a nod to musical history Emilio Parra Doiztua for The New York Times If art is a universal language, as travel often reveals, Pablo Picasso’s antiwar “Guernica” may be one of its most potent symbols During Picasso’s anniversary year, it’s worth noting that the city’s artistry isn’t just within its museums, but outside as well: Madrid’s cultural core is an urban masterpiece of art, nature and light, and in 2021, the entire area of the Paseo del Prado and verdant Parque del Buen Retiro, called “Landscape of Light,” was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site On Colorado’s Western Slope, arid Grand Junction offers attractions similar to those of Moab The 2021 opening of the Palisade Plunge adds a 32-mile descent — from the world’s largest flat-topped mountain down to the Colorado River — to the area’s biking challenges All trails lead back to downtown Grand Junction locavore restaurants and wine-tasting rooms from area vineyards straddling Colombia’s border with Venezuela remains largely unknown to international tourists — in spite of its dramatic salt flats flamingo-lined lagoons and orange-sand beaches Terrorist activity made this area mostly off limits until 2016, but eco-minded hotels, including La Casa del Pavo Real and Hotel Waya Guajira Bergamo is distinctive for its ancient, walled Città Alta (Upper Town) and modern Città Bassa (Lower Town), the two connected by ​narrow roads, a funicular and a footpath. Brescia, around 30 miles southeast, is a handsome crossroads of Roman, medieval and Renaissance sites Outstanding food is another draw — it’s Italy, after all — with menus in both areas featuring creamy, nutty polenta taragna and variously stuffed crescents of casoncelli swirled with butter and sage — little pasta miracles that prove how good life can still be With its wide-open skies and boundless horizons, American Prairie is ideal for visitors seeking a respite from the fast pace of modern life. A vast nature preserve founded by a Montana nonprofit, A.P. has been accumulating grasslands since 2004 It currently consists of 455,840 acres — and the preserve continues to expand by acquiring private properties that connect to surrounding public lands three-million-acre reserve and restore a disappearing ecosystem cross-country skiing and expert-level hiking Paved roads lead to Antelope Creek Campground which features an interpretive trail and distant views of the Little Rockies accessible by gravel roads and situated among the reserve’s largest bison herd is a little farther off the beaten path and provides a chance to see a buffalo jump a cliff traditionally used by Indigenous peoples to harvest bison This is slow travel at its best: Pedal across the quiet Quebec countryside Montreal and Quebec City are the stars of the region lake-laced terrain between them is often relegated to fleeting glimpses from the windows of a rental car The Eastern Townships — Canada’s New England, with French flair — deserves a visit all its own, and especially now, with the recent debut of the Véloroute Gourmande The 150-mile cycle route traces the Route Verte and Trans Canada Trail across this charming region dotted with flower-festooned villages and features more than 100 epicurean stops along the way from farmers’ markets to maple groves to fromageries to vineyards Try the lush, sweet vin de glace (ice wine), made from ripe grapes that have frozen naturally on the vine, at Le Cep d’Argent, and the buttery Brise des Vignerons at the family-run Fromagerie des Cantons one of the first in the area to develop cheese exclusively from Jersey cows Connecticut’s third-largest city is a historic mostly walkable and bikeable seaside town with distinctive neighborhoods an encyclopedic collection of great American architecture a thriving cultural life and one of the best food scenes in the country for a city of its size (134,000) Founded in 1638, it’s a place where people have always tinkered with, mused about and challenged the status quo, which is why the New Haven Preservation Trust is now looking at saving the modernist buildings of the 1970s, which many see as disastrous examples of urban renewal. Discover one of the best of these brutalist concrete buildings by checking into the new Hotel Marcel it’s become the first completely solar-powered Check out NXTHVN, a cutting-edge, community-focused arts center founded in 2019 in two abandoned factory buildings in the Dixwell neighborhood that has become the heart of a vibrant African American artists’ community. And then treat yourself to a great meal — maybe crispy artichokes with Parmesan aioli and pork belly with Tuscan cabbage and apple mostarda — at the recently opened Villa Lulu The Lakota people trace their creation to the He Sapa a mountain range of dramatic peaks and pine forests in an area that is South Dakota’s chief tourism attraction The massive sculpture of the Lakota warrior turns 75 next summer, when the biannual Volksmarch will allow hikers to ascend the carving and stand beneath Crazy Horse’s more than 87-foot-tall granite face There are buildings still pockmarked by shells from the siege three decades ago And there is the intricate interplay of empires an Orthodox church and a synagogue all within a few blocks can detonate as easily as they can coexist Bosnia’s multiethnic capital remains on edge and there are the artillery positions built on the grounds of the 1984 Winter Olympics But Sarajevo’s splendor comes from this intrusion of the past It remains a living museum that hints at how a Ukraine or a Syria cannot only survive but perhaps one day flourish anew A photograph with an earlier version of this article misidentified the city shown in the image The photograph depicted the province of Tarragona The article also misstated the size of the Barrio Viejo neighborhood of Tucson A photograph with an earlier version of this article misidentified the location in the image Share full article853853Share full article853853Read 853 CommentsRead 853 CommentsShare full article853853Advertisement MORIOKA — Visitors from Japan and overseas have been flocking to a city in the Tohoku region since its inclusion on a major U.S newspaper’s annual list of recommended tourist destinations Morioka was listed second after London on The New York Times’ list of “52 Places to Go in 2023.” the article has triggered a surge in customers at restaurants and shops featured in the piece a group of 10 foreign tourists surrounded a table at Azumaya which serves the prefecture’s specialty wanko-soba The group said the article was how they learned about the restaurant as servers brought out bowls of soba one after another A diner from Canada hailed the delicious food and the area’s abundant nature The New York Times’ annual “52 Places to Go” list includes destinations from around the world nominated by Times journalists Japanese destinations have frequently appeared on the list Fukuoka also made it onto this year’s list The article highlights Morioka’s “Taisho-era buildings that mix Western and Eastern architectural aesthetics,” and the city’s downtown area is described as “eminently walkable.” who recommended Morioka in the Times article said it is an impressive city but its charms are not well known a popular Morioka cafe that was recommended in the article said it has started getting more than 100 online orders a day “I’ve always been particular about the beans and roasting process hoping people from all over the world would say my coffee tastes great,” said Kazuhiro Nagasawa A jazz cafe mentioned in the article had been temporarily closed when the list was published but the owner said he reopened because of the endorsement so many customers have been coming here,” said Ken Terui the owner of the Kaiunbashi no Johnny cafe “I realized that Iwate Prefecture is in the spotlight.” Described in the article as a destination that is “often passed over,” Morioka has not traditionally been a big draw for foreign visitors 65,597 foreign tourists visited the city in 2019 a small fraction of the number of visitors to cities such as Osaka A municipal government tweet about Morioka’s inclusion on the Times list got around 370,000 views in about a week Hoping to capitalize on the attention triggered by the article the municipality has launched a new website and started posting in English on social media promoting a digital map it created in October in seven languages that features 119 tourist attractions and restaurants “We want to establish a citywide framework of ‘omotenashi’ hospitality,” said city official Shin Sanada Women beat their drums on the first day of the Morioka Sansa Odori dance festival in Morioka on Thursday heralding many summer festivals in the Tohoku region About 25,000 people from 203 groups are taking part in the four-day festival this year Thursday’s parade was led by five dancers chosen as Miss Sansa Odori who were followed by other dancers and drummers all clad in colorful kimono “sakkora choiwayasse,” a call characteristic of the festival