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Tsuwano, in Japan’s Shimane Prefecture in western Honshu, is a small mountain town with the faint remains of a ruined castle, two Shinto shrines, a street of restored samurai houses, and a chapel memorializing Catholics martyred there in the last period of the persecution of Christians in Japan. It is a pretty, quiet little town, often visited by day-tripping Japanese tour groups from nearby Yamaguchi, the capital of the adjacent Yamaguchi prefecture.

It is also visited by travelers from Hagi on the north coast, although Hagi has plenty of sights of its own, and from Iwakuni on the south coast, which has a restored samurai quarter, a reconstructed castle and the famous Brocade Sash Bridge (Kintai-kyo). For all of these tourists, Tsuwano has enough attractions for a day trip.

We spent three days in Tsuwano in April ’08, but we didn’t go for the sights. We went for the yabusame, a ceremony of horseback archery practiced on the only remaining original yabusame course in Japan.

Making arrangements

Access to Tsuwano was easy. Using our 21-day Japan Rail Passes (¥57,700, or about $534, for an ordinary pass) purchased from JALPAK International in New York (888/352-5725), we traveled from Iwakuni via Yamaguchi.

We were able to choose our route and our schedule easily by accessing the Japan Rail website and going through their Quick Search option to Hyperdia, a self-explanatory search engine. Just enter a town of departure, a town of arrival and an approximate hour of travel and it provides travel times, train changes, prices and all relevant options.

Finding accommodations in Tsuwano is easy, too. There is one hotel in the center of town and others on the outskirts, plus a surprising number of Japanese inns (ryokans and minshukus). Apparently, Tsuwano is not just a day-tripper’s town; it’s a destination for summer weekends in the hills.

Several of the ryokans are quite fancy, their prices reflecting their quality. Many are in the center of town, within a 10-minute walk of the train station.

We chose an inexpensive inn, the Hoshi Ryokan, partly on the basis of price but mostly because it was the lodging nearest to the train station, no more than a 3-minute walk away. As with a great many Japanese ryokans, we had to make arrangements by fax (011 81 08567 2 0241); for some reason, the Internet and e-mail have not yet taken hold in the Japanese hotel industry.

We signed up for a double room and were surprised to be given two large rooms separated by a sliding shoji screen, allowing our futons to be left set up all day. The price per person per night with breakfast was ¥5,800, or about $58. Dinner could be included in the room price for a total of ¥7,000 ($64).

Finding the website for the Hoshi Ryokan (listed as Tsuwano Star Hotel) was a bit tricky, as it is with many small Japanese hotels whose websites exist only in Japanese. Rather than directly visiting the site, enter the URL into the Google search bar. This will bring up the entry in Japanese. Click “Translate this page” to get a passable English translation.

Note that the prices are somewhat outdated; be sure to verify the price when you make a reservation by fax. The phone number is incorrect on the website; the correct number is 011 81 08567 2 0136.

The inn experience

Many ryokans are run by a mother-and-daughter (or -daughter-in-law) team, as was the case at the Hoshi Ryokan. The mother spoke no English, but the daughter, who also claimed not to know English, in fact turned out to be perfectly conversant. With patience and an occasional rephrasing of our questions, we were able to communicate with her easily. In any case, she spoke a whole heck of a lot more English than we speak Japanese, to our undying shame.

We wanted to sample the restaurants of Tsuwano that we’d found on the Internet, so we opted to have only breakfast at the inn. This proved to be a mistake on several counts. We couldn’t find many of the restaurants on our list, and others had gone out of business. Those we did find were adequate but not special, and communication was difficult.

On the other hand, when finally we chose to have dinner at the ryokan, we were presented with a remarkable spread of excellent food. It was clear why ryokans have the reputation for producing fine meals and why most travelers dine in.

Tsuwano sights

Tsuwano is a pretty sophisticated little place; it just hasn’t caught up with the end of the 20th century yet, much less the 21st. This castle town has a long block of old samurai buildings, tarted up to a degree of cleanliness that makes it sufficiently antiseptic for the tour bus groups that come in waves to see the town.

The castle was destroyed after the Meiji restoration, but Tsuwano has a major Inari shrine, Taikodani-Inari-jinja, with rows and rows of torii (although much smaller than the ones at Fushimi Inari in Kyoto) climbing a steep hill. Somewhere up in the hills is a shrine to Christians martyred at a time when Christianity was illegal in Japan.

The canals of the town are supposed to have been filled with thousands upon thousands of koi, said to have been put there originally as a potential food source in anticipation of a siege. In truth, this proves to be tourist hype. There is a lot of mountain water rushing noisily through the town in deep concrete channels, but it’s far too fast for these decorative carp.

In a very few places, particularly around the slow samurai moats, there are quite a lot of gigantic carp in the most amazing colors, maybe the survivors of the siege that never came.

Understanding yabusame

The annual horseback archery ceremony, yabusame, is held several kilometers outside the center of town on the grounds of the Washibara Hachiman-gu shrine, which has what is said to be the last original yabusame course in Japan.

A yabusame course is a pretty simple thing. There’s a straight path a couple of hundred yards long for the horses to run on. Along one side is a berm about eight feet high which serves as a backstop for the arrows.

Horsemen (and a few horsewomen) dressed in Kamakura-period costumes ride like blue blazes down the course yelling the most alarming war cries. They control their mounts only with their legs; their hands are busy nocking blunt-headed arrows and firing them at the targets.

Obviously, this business of shooting arrows from atop 1,200 pounds of speeding horse is not some trivial “Hey, guys, let’s put on a show!” whimsy. It is, in fact, part of a tradition dating to the sixth century.

The riders are not merely honing their skills as warriors, either. Their success at hitting targets (which are supposed to symbolize three ancient Korean countries, of all things) is taken as a marker of how good the harvest will be for the year and how well the world will run. Nor is it merely an exercise in horseback archery. In the manner of Eastern martial arts, as much attention is paid to mental discipline and religious transcendence as to riding and shooting.

The ceremony at Tsuwano is carried out by members of the Ogasawara School, one of the two principal schools codified by the 12th century. Order is kept by men and women standing about in Kamakura costume, with contemporary windbreakers thrown on against the chill.

The experience

Our first few exposures to the event were pretty much a sensory shock — all terrifying yells and thundering hooves, and then something really, really big would hurtle by involving, perhaps, a man in a bizarre getup — but it’s all over before you can draw a breath.

As we got accustomed to it, though, we began to appreciate the Zen-like union of man and animal engaged in this warlike endeavor. (We also sympathized with the poor devil who couldn’t get the damned arrow to seat properly on the bowstring while a bazillion pounds of raw energy propelled him right past the target.)

I tried to imagine what it would be like to be up on one of those beasts, trying to bring off what is, at heart, a dry run for a bloodthirsty act: sticking an arrow into another guy’s gut before he sticks one into yours.

This being Japan, blood lust is combined with beauty. The entire course was lined with cherry trees whose blossoms had just achieved their final perfection, threatening to begin to shed.

Tsuwano’s yabusame is held on the second Sunday in April (never mind if your Lonely Planet says the second of every April), which means it will be held sometime from the eighth through the 14th — at the peak of the blossoms in this mountain town.

A horseman rockets down the course and amazingly hits a target, shivering the plank, and the crowd lets loose with a great “Hey!” Between horses, the breeze comes up and there’s a blizzard of delicate petals, the crowd exhaling a communal “Ooooh!”

Keep in mind, this really is a Shinto ceremony, though I suspect most of the spectators pay no attention to that. Before the riding, the horsemen and their retainers, an assortment of grooms, pages and soldiers all in full Edo kit, parade to the shrine. The horsemen and important officials enter the shrine for a service, while the lesser ranks stand at attention (for a very long time) outside. Then the horsemen and officials emerge and everyone parades to the end of the yabusame course, where the mounts await.

The course is blessed by a Shinto priest before the horsemen mount and parade solemnly down the length of the course to the start. And then all hell breaks loose.

Part of the crowd

There were so many spectators at the event that it was sometimes unpleasant, especially when we couldn’t take photographs easily because so many other photographers kept getting in the way. There were rope lines defining the running path and another line meant to hold the crowds well back to avoid spooking the horses.

This being a nation of photographers — not to mention all the gaijin (foreigners) hoping to capture the event on film — everyone was trying to find the best angle, pressing against the rope and getting in each other’s way.

Luckily, a shopkeeper in town had alerted Jane and me to the possibility of going to the dress rehearsal the day before, where we were able to have most of the excitement and none of the crowds.

We were surprised by the number of young Americans in attendance. Apparently, a whole lot of young Americans have discovered they can get jobs in Japan teaching conversational English. Aficionados of all things Japanese, they turn up at events like this.

Though things were sometimes unpleasant at the morning running of the yabusame, they were a little better at the afternoon event. To begin with, the weather had grayed up a bit and there were spits of rain, discouraging spectators. New people arrived, of course, and quite a number of us oldsters stuck around, buying lunch from the booths set up just outside the grounds.

Most of the photographers were less frantic, and we settled pretty comfortably at the ropes.

After the event, the town tourism bureau laid on a dance festival on the stage off to the side of the shrine, and we were able to watch a considerable hunk of kagura, a theatrical Shinto dance.

It was a worthwhile stay.

Tube cleaners’ strike called off

Union leaders hailed the deal as a “massive breakthrough”

Hundreds of Tube cleaners due to strike on Thursday in a row over pay and conditions have suspended their action following an improved deal.

More than 700 Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Union members working for four subcontractors were to start a 48-hour industrial walk out.

But managers promised to pay workers the London Living Wage of £7.45 an hour, up from £5.50 an hour.

Union leaders described the last minute deal as a “massive breakthrough”.

Workers on Metronet contracts will receive the London Living Wage from the beginning of September.

Employees working for Tubelines will get an initial 60p an hour increase from 1 September, and a further £1.30 hourly increase from 1 April 2009.

RMT leader Bob Crow said: “That is a massive improvement on the prospect presented by the mayor of having to wait for contracts to be re-negotiated, which would have left some of our members waiting until 2012.”

Airport strike action called off

Baggage handlers at three airports have called off two 24-hour strikes

Baggage handlers and check-in staff at Stansted, Gatwick and Manchester airports have called off a series of 24-hour strikes.

Walkouts at Gatwick and Stansted on bank holiday Monday and 29 August were halted after talks between the GMB and Unite unions and employers Swissport.

Strikes at Manchester on 27 August and 1 September have also been called off.

A separate GMB strike involving more than 30 security scanners at Stansted is still due to take place on Monday.

The staff, who work for Airfield Services screening baggage for Ryanair and Easyjet, have rejected a 1.5% pay offer.

‘Better offer’

Union members were unhappy with a 3% pay offer from Swissport which they branded “paltry”, as well as new sick pay arrangements.

Gary Pearce, of the GMB, said “we have a new improved offer to put to our members” as a result of talks at conciliation service Acas.

He said: “Because of the improved offer all planned industrial action is suspended until we get the reaction of the members.

“This does not affect the industrial action for the scanner workers who are employed by Airport Services.”

The strikes would have affected services at airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Monarch, Thomson Fly and First Choice during one of the busiest periods of the year.

A spokesman for Unite said: “We have suspended the industrial action. After 12 hours of talks at Acas we now have a revised offer in which improvements have been made and we will now ballot our members.”

Swissport had said it felt its initial pay offer was “fair… in the light of the current economic climate”.

Mersey project costs rise by £40m

The council says the price increase is down to changes in design

The cost of the Mersey Gateway Project, that will see a second road bridge built across the River Mersey, has gone up by £40m.

The increase was revealed by Halton Council as the scheme was given unanimous approval by councillors.

The new crossing will link Runcorn and Widnes, Cheshire, to ease congestion on the existing Runcorn Bridge.

The council says the increase, which takes the total cost to £431m, is due to the scale of the project.

The council said that a funding agreement in place with the government is sufficient to cover the increase.

Steve Nicholson, Mersey Gateway project director, said that the project “remains good value”.

“The economic benefits it will bring to Halton and the surrounding area are almost four times greater than the cost of the project,” he said.

Due to the size of the project it is almost inevitable that there will be a public inquiry. If all goes to plan construction could start in 2011.

Motorists heading to the event have been asked to patient

Tens of thousands of people heading to the V Festival in Staffordshire have been warned to expect traffic congestion.

Up to 15,000 spent the night at Weston Park near Stafford after the gates opened a day earlier in a bid to avoid traffic chaos seen last year.

Supt David Holdway, of Staffordshire Police, said road conditions were still expected to be “difficult”.

Amy Winehouse and Lenny Kravitz are among acts at the two-day event.

‘Very, very difficult’

Last year traffic problems forced the closure of the M54 for a time and people queued for hours to get into the site.

Supt Holdway said: “It’s very, very difficult with the roads that are here and the number of people trying to get here.

“The day early opening has taken a lot of those vehicles away – they are already here and they have already had a good night and avoid sitting in any queues.

“So hopefully next year more people will take us up on that.”

He advised drivers to be patient and considerate of local people.

The festival begins on Saturday while the annual V Festival is also taking place at Hylands Park in Chelmsford.

Careless drivers set to face jail

Drivers are being warned against distractions such as receiving text messages, eating, and fiddling with satellite navigation systems, ahead of new tougher laws.

A new offense of causing death by careless driving comes into force across the UK next week.

It means motorists who kill while avoidably distracted could for the first time face prison.

Historically, careless driving has only been punishable with a fine, whatever the consequences.

Careless distractions?

The new offense means UK motorists, who kill after allowing themselves to lose concentration, can be imprisoned for up to five years.

So what sort of distractions might count against a driver who causes a fatal crash?

The Ministry of Justice gives these examples: reading a text message, glancing at a map, eating, drinking, tuning a radio, putting on make up.

The Transport Research Laboratory in Berkshire has a wealth of experience in analyzing driver behavior.

I was invited by government officials to visit the laboratory for a test to see how various distractions would affect my driving.

To summarise the results: my driving got worse. But was it dangerous?

Jason Ness was killed by a careless driver who was fined £575

According to Dr Nick Reed, who analysed my test, it depends when the distraction occurs:

“If it happens at the wrong time, it could cause a serious accident and the fact that you were distracted at the time could mean the difference between serious injury and a fatal accident. “

Last year the number of people killed fell below 3,000 for the first time since records began in 1926. But, still, eight people die on the roads each day.

Alongside careless drivers, the new laws will also penalise uninsured, disqualified and unlicensed motorists who kill.

According to Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick, it is hoped the number of deaths will be reduced even further.

“The government is committed to continually improving safety on Britain’s roads,” he said.

“Under the Road Safety Act we have already brought in tougher penalties for drivers who use hand-held mobile phones at the wheel and the introduction of these new offences today is the latest step to tackle bad driving and further improve safety on our roads.”

To the distress of many families of victims, fatal crashes caused by careless driving have tended to lead to penalties no more severe than a fine.

Only offences where the higher threshold of dangerous driving can be applied have carried a potential prison sentence.

From next week careless driving in the UK could lead to prison too.
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Five killed as two planes collide

Police and the fire service are involved in the investigation into the crash

Five people have been killed in a mid-air collision between two light aircraft in Warwickshire.

The pilot of one plane, described as like a microlight, crashed into a field close to Coombe Abbey, Brinklow, near Coventry Airport at around 1130 BST.

A Cessna, carrying four people, came down a mile away in Brandon Woods.

Police believe the planes were returning to Coventry airport when the incident happened and the bodies of the victims are still being recovered.

Det Supt Adrian McGee said: “How they collided and how they came to the collision we still do not know.”

The first aircraft landed in a field near Coventry Road, between Brinklow and Coventry.

The Cessna aircraft was owned by Reconnaissance Ventures Ltd (RVL), which is based at Coventry Airport and carried out survey work for government agencies and private firms.

One of the planes that crashed was a Cessna 402

Colin Dennis, RVL’s managing director, said the aircraft had been taking an “entirely routine flight” and was on a “perfectly normal” approach to Coventry Airport at the time of the crash.

“It was approximately two miles from the runway,” he said.

“We believe it had been cleared to land by Coventry Airport air traffic control when it was in collision with a smaller, single-engine light aircraft.”

Debris from the collision stretched across several miles. No-one on the ground was reported to have been injured.

Commander Mick Leach, of Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “At the moment our thoughts are really on getting the task done.

“Clearly there are a lot of people who are going to get some very distressing news. Our priority is that we can retrieve the bodies as quickly as possible and that those relatives can be notified and can have time and privacy to mourn their loss.”

Murray MacGregor, spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service, said crews had found “a scene of devastation” and air accident investigators had launched an inquiry.

“Thankfully nobody was nearby when the debris came down,” he said.”

Eyewitness Malcolm Collins, from Daventry, Northamptonshire, was at Coombe Abbey children’s playground with his family when the collision occurred.

“We noticed the twin-engined aircraft coming over the top of us. It was about 300 metres away from us, flying away from us as we watched it, and it struck another aircraft that had been coming across. As it hit it, the smaller aircraft just completely disintegrated.”

Paul Harwood, head of human resources at Coventry Airport, told BBC News he knew those who died in the crash.

“They are known to us all. They’ve been around for some time, most of us have been around for some time,” he said.

“It is a small community, and our sympathies don’t just go out to our families, it’s all those who are affected by today.”

Det Supt McGee said 30 officers were working at the scene.

“There are two scenes and they are difficult to get to. We are appealing for anyone who witnessed the crash to get in touch.”

Coventry Airport was closed for a short time after the crash, but has since reopened.

Middle Eastern airline Emirates has taken delivery of its first Airbus A380 and so signalled the beginning of the superjumbo era.

The airline received the plane at a ceremony on 28 July at Airbus’ new A380 Delivery Centre named in honour of superjumbo creator, Jürgen Thomas.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Emirates chairman and chief executive, attended the ceremony at the Hamburg-based facility alongside 2,000 Airbus staff.

Emirates was not the first operator to receive a superjumbo, but eight years ago it was the first to place an order for an A380.

As of November 2007, the Dubai-based carrier had ordered 58 of the huge aircraft to service long-haul routes all around the world.

Sheikh Ahmed said that “we have stood firm on our commitment to the A380. Our investment in the aircraft, including engines and in-flight features, exceeds €32 billion (£25.3 billion), with €12 billion spent in Germany alone”.

He also congratulated Airbus for creating a “greener, cleaner, quieter, smarter aircraft” which reportedly offers the same relative fuel economy as some hybrid cars.

Airbus has assured that the GP7200 engines in the A380s can achieve a 500,000 litre saving in fuel per aircraft compared to comparative planes.

Therefore each superjumbo can achieve 3.1 litres for every 100 passenger kilometres, as well as meeting US aviation noise regulations comfortably.

Inside the Emirates A380 there are 14 first-class seats, alongside 76 business-class and 399 economy seats.

There are also some incredible facilities including the first-class shower spa which features two fully equipped bathroom areas.

Business-class customers can enjoy the onboard lounge and economy passengers can also benefit from a more spacious cabin and mood lighting designed to combat jetlag.

The debut, fully booked Emirates A380 flight will depart tomorrow from Dubai destined for New York’s John F Kennedy Airport.