Towada Kankō Electric Railway Line
The Towada Kankō Electric Railway Line was a railway route operated by Towada Kankō Electric Railway. It ran between Towadashi Station in eastern Aomori Prefecture, Japan. On September 5, 1922, the Towada Railway began operating a 762mm gauge line between Furumaki Station and Sanbongi Station (present day Towadashi Station, with intermediate stops at Shichihyaku and Takashizu. Additional stations were added in the 1930s. In 1951, the line was electrified and the track gauge was expanded to 1,067 mm; the line was renamed as Towada Kankō Electric Railway Line on December 30, 1951. A single direction Automatic Block Signal control system was implemented from December 16, 1971; the Towadashi terminus was rebuilt in 1985 to include a shopping complex. All freight operations on the line were suspended from 1986. A new automatic train stop system was implemented from October 1, 2002; the operation of the line was discontinued on April 1, 2012. Length: 14.7 km Track gauge: 3 ft 6 in Number of stations: 11 Electrification: 1500 V DC Tracks: single track Block Signal: Automatic Block Signal As of April 1, 2003, the company had the following equipment: Moha 7200 stock: #7204, 7205 Moha 7700 stock and Kuha 7900 stock: #7701 + 7901–7903 Moha 3400 stock: #3401 Moha 3600 stock: #3603 ED300: #301 ED400: #402 Tora 300: #301, 302 official home page
100 Soundscapes of Japan
In 1996, as part of its efforts to combat noise pollution and to protect and promote the environment, the Ministry of the Environment designated the 100 Soundscapes of Japan. There were 738 submissions received from all over the country and the 100 "best" were selected after examination by the Japan Soundscape Study Group; these soundscapes are intended to function as symbols for local people and to promote the rediscovery of the sounds of everyday life. The follow-up Sixth National Assembly on Soundscape Conservation was held in Matsuyama in 2002. Soundscape ecology Ecoacoustics Biophony World Soundscape Project 100 Landscapes of Japan Ministry of the Environment - 100 Soundscapes of Japan 100 Soundscapes of Japan - List in English with map
Hakkōda Mountains
The Hakkōda Mountains is a volcanic complex that lies to the south of Aomori City in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The range consists of more than a dozen stratovolcanoes and lava domes arranged into two volcanic groups; the Northern Hakkōda Volcanic Group emerges from the rim of an 8-km wide caldera that dates back to the Pleistocene. The Southern Hakkōda Volcanic Group predates the caldera; the highest peak in the range is Mount Ōdake, which can be climbed from Sukayu Onsen in about four hours. Heavy snowfall makes Hakkoda a prime destination for backcountry and mountain skiers, there are two mountain huts for overnight trips; the lower slopes of the mountains are forested interspersed with moorland. Above 1300 meters, the Alpine climate zone starts; the Hakkōda Mountains, along with Lake Towada and the Oirase Valley make up the Towada-Hachimantai National Park. The volcanic peaks are made of non-alkali mafic rock. Although both groups of mountains formed in the Pleistocene, the southern group is older than the northern group.
The southern group is made from rock, 700,000 to 1,700,000 years old, while the northern group is made from rock, 13,000 to 700,000 years old. The following is a list of peaks and their heights: Northern Group: Mount Ōdake 1585 m Mount Takada-Ōdake 1552 m Mount Idodake 1537 m Mount Akakuradake 1521 m Mount Kodake 1478 m Mount Iōdake 1360 m Mount Tamoyachidake 1324 m Mount Maedake 1251.7 m Mount Hinadake 1240.3 m Mount Ishikuradake 1202 m Mount Tsurugi Southern Group: Kushi Summit 1516.5 m Includes Mount Kamidake 1516.5 m and Mount Shimodake 1342 m Mount Norikuradake 1450 m Koma Summit 1416 m Mount Sarukuradake 1353.6 m Mount Yokodake 1339.4 m Mount Akakuradake 1290 m Mount Minamizawadake 1198.8 m Mount Sakasagawadake 1183 m The Hakkōda Mountain are famous for their high-altitude wetlands: Sennin Wetland Kenashi Wetlands Tamo Wetland Suiren Lake Tashiro Plateau Wetland The Hakkōda Mountains incident occurred on January 23, 1902, when a group of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers marched in a blizzard on the Hakkōda Mountains en route to Tashiro Hot Spring located in the Hakkōda Mountains.
The 199 deaths during a single ascent make it the world's largest mountaineering disaster in the modern history of mountain climbing. Hakkōda Ropeway Hakkōda Tunnel Mount Hakkoda Remember 11: The Age of Infinity "Hakkodasan: National catalogue of the active volcanoes in Japan". - Japan Meteorological Agency Hakkodasan - Smithsonian Institution: Global Volcanism Program
Towadashi Station
Towadashi Station was a terminal railway station on the Towada Kankō Electric Railway Line located in the city of Towada, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. It was 13.7 rail kilometers from the opposite terminus of the Towada Kankō Electric Railway Line at Misawa Station. Towadashi Station was opened on September 1922 as the Sanbongi Station, it was renamed to its present name on May 15, 1969. The station was rebuilt on October 28, 1985 with the new station incorporating the headquarters of the Towada Kankō Electric Railway, the former station used for freight operations only. However, the line discontinued its freight operations in 1986 and the old station was demolished in 2005. In March 2007, a new terminal building, including a bank, post office, real estate office and supermarket was inaugurated; the station was closed when the Towada Kankō Electric Railway Line was discontinued on April 1, 2012. Towada Kankō Electric Railway Towada Kankō Electric Railway Line Towadashi Station had one platform serving one track.
List of Railway Stations in Japan Harris and Clarke, Jackie. Jane's World Railways 2008-2009. Jane's Information Group. ISBN 0-7106-2861-7 Totetsu home page location map
Azalea
Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus Rhododendron the former sections Tsutsuji and Pentanthera. Azaleas bloom in the spring, their flowers lasting several weeks. Shade tolerant, they prefer living under trees, they are part of the family Ericaceae. Plant enthusiasts have selectively bred azaleas for hundreds of years; this human selection has produced over 10,000 different cultivars. Azalea seeds can be collected and germinated. Azaleas are slow-growing and do best in well-drained acidic soil. Fertilizer needs are low; some species need regular pruning. Azaleas are native to several continents including Asia and North America, they are planted abundantly as ornamentals in the southeastern US, southern Asia, parts of southwest Europe. According to azalea historian Fred Galle, in the United States, Azalea indica was first introduced to the outdoor landscape in the 1830s at the rice plantation Magnolia-on-the-Ashley in Charleston, South Carolina. From Philadelphia, where they were grown only in greenhouses, John Grimke Drayton imported the plants for use in his estate garden.
With encouragement from Charles Sprague Sargent from Harvard's Arnold Arboretum, Magnolia Gardens was opened to the public in 1871, following the American Civil War. Magnolia is one of the oldest public gardens in America. Since the late 19th century, in late March and early April, thousands visit to see the azaleas bloom in their full glory. Azalea leafy gall can be destructive to azalea leaves during the early spring. Hand picking infected leaves is the recommended method of control, they can be subject to phytophthora root rot in moist, hot conditions. In Chinese culture, the azalea is known as "thinking of home bush", is immortalized in the poetry of Du Fu; the azalea is one of the symbols of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Azaleas and rhododendrons were once so infamous for their toxicity that to receive a bouquet of their flowers in a black vase was a well-known death threat. In addition to being renowned for its beauty, the azalea is highly toxic—it contains andromedotoxins in both its leaves and nectar, including honey from the nectar.
Bees are deliberately fed on Azalea/Rhododendron nectar in some parts of Turkey, producing a mind-altering medicinal, lethal honey known as "mad honey". According to the ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, an army invading Pontus in Turkey was poisoned with such honey, resulting in their defeat. Motoyama, Kōchi has a flower festival in which the blooming of Tsutsuji is celebrated and Tatebayashi, Gunma is famous for its Azalea Hill Park, Tsutsuji-ga-oka. Nezu Shrine in Bunkyo, holds a Tsutsuji Matsuri from early April until early May. Higashi Village has hosted an azalea festival each year since 1976; the village's 50,000 azalea plants draw an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 visitors each year. Sobaeksan, one of the 12 well-known Sobaek Mountains, lying on the border between Chungbuk Province and Gyeongbuk has a royal azalea festival held on May every year. Sobaeksan has an azalea colony dotted around Biro mountaintop and Yonwha early in May; when royal azaleas have turned pink in the end of May, it looks.
The Ma On Shan Azalea Festival is held in Ma On Shan, where six native species are found in the area. The festival has been held since 2004. Many cities in the United States have festivals in the spring celebrating the blooms of the azalea, including Summerville, South Carolina; the Azalea Trail is a designated path, planted with azaleas in private gardens, through Mobile, Alabama. The Azalea Trail Run is an annual road running event held there in late March. Mobile, Alabama is home to the Azalea Trail Maids, fifty women chosen to serve as ambassadors of the city while wearing antebellum dresses, who participated in a three-day festival, but now operate throughout the year; the Azalea Society of America designated Houston, Texas, an "azalea city". The River Oaks Garden Club has conducted the Houston Azalea Trail every spring since 1935. List of Award of Garden Merit rhododendrons List of plants poisonous to equines "Azalea". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911. Azalea Society of America American Rhododendron Society: What is an Azalea?
Azalea Collection of the U. S. National Arboretum Azalea Collection of Botany garten Pruhonice CZ
Lake Towada
Lake Towada is the largest crater lake in Honshū island, Japan. Located on the border between Aomori and Akita prefectures, it lies 400 meters above sea level and is 327 m deep, drained by the Oirase river. With a surface area of 61.1 km², Towada is Japan's 12th largest lake, its bright blue color is due to its great depth. The lake is circular, with two peninsulas extending from its southern shore one-third into the center of the lake; the lake is a popular tourist destination. Lake Towada occupies the caldera of an active volcano, with large scale volcanic eruptions occurring 55,000, 25,000 and 13,000 years ago; the most recent eruption left traces of pyroclastic flows as far away as the modern city of Aomori. The lake is a double caldera in that the inlet between its two peninsulas is the remnant of a secondary caldera which erupted and collapsed 5400 years ago; the mountain continued to erupt well into the historical period, with the last recorded eruption occurring in 915 AD, devastating the surrounding area with pyroclastic flows, covering most of the Tōhoku region of Japan with volcanic ash, leading to crop failures, climate change and famines.
The area around Lake Towada remained wilderness until towards the end of the Edo period, when the Nambu clan of Morioka Domain attempted large scale land reclamation projects at Sanbongihara using the Oirase River for irrigation. In 1903 through the efforts of Wainai Sadayuki, princess trout were introduced into Lake Towada; the lake now has rainbow trout, cherry salmon, Carassius, Japanese eel. The surrounding forests are temperate deciduous, are Erman’s birch and Siebold’s beech; the lake was selected by the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun and Osaka Mainichi Shimbun as one of the Eight Scenic Views of Japan in 1927. In 1936, the lake and surrounding areas became part of Towada National Park. In 1953, in order to popularize the lake and the park, a sculpture of two women titled “The Maiden Statue” by Kōtarō Takamura was dedicated at the lakeshore as part of the park's 15th anniversary celebration, it was the last work by that noted sculptor. A wartime Tachikawa Ki-54 aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force which crashed in 1943 was found at the bottom of Lake Towada on 13 August 2010.
It has been placed on display. Located in the central area of Yasumiya is the lake's symbol, the Otome-no-Zo statue, located. From there excursion boats depart. In Utarube visitors can camp. List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments Tourism in Japan Southerland and Britton, Dorothy; the National Parks of Japan. Kodansha International. ISBN 4-7700-1971-8 Towada - Japan Meteorological Agency "Towada: National catalogue of the active volcanoes in Japan". - Japan Meteorological Agency Towada - Geological Survey of Japan Towada: Global Volcanism Program - Smithsonian Institut
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south; the kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin", it is called the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands; the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one; the population of 127 million is the world's tenth largest. 90.7 % of people live in cities. About 13.8 million people live in the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people. Archaeological research indicates; the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions China, followed by periods of isolation from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism; the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation led by SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the G20, is considered a great power. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity, it is the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Japan benefits from a skilled and educated workforce. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, Japan maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a developed country with a high standard of living and Human Development Index, its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern technology; the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, pronounced Nihon or Nippon and means "the origin of the sun".
The character nichi means "sun" or "day". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun"; the earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the Old Book of Tang. At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country; this name may have its origin in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called himself "the Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises"; the message said: "Here, I, the emperor of the country where the sun rises, send a letter to the emperor of the country where the sun sets. How are you". Prior to the adoption of Nihon, other terms such as Yamato and Wakoku were used; the term Wa is a homophone of Wo 倭, used by the Chinese as a designation for the Japanese as early as the third century Three Kingdoms period.
Another form of Wa, Wei in Chinese) was used for an early state in Japan called Nakoku during the Han dynasty. However, the Japanese disliked some connotation of Wa 倭, it was therefore replaced with the substitute character Wa, meaning "togetherness, harmony"; the English word Japan derives from the historical Chinese pronunciation of 日本. The Old Mandarin or early Wu Chinese pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本; the old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect Fukienese or Ningpo – and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia in the 16th century. These Early Portuguese traders brought the word
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Canada - Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, sister city since 2002 [7]
