Travel restrictions are slowly being easing, at least in terms of how many tourists can enter each day. from the current 20,000, 50,000 are expected to be allowed in each day. Travel will still be limited to tour groups but unescorted, giving some freedom to people wanting to wander. And with these incremental changes comes the hope that tourism can benefit more quickly. In Otsu next to Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture, 'Shisei-an' is busy preparing Funa-zushi for the new year. The fermented delicacy is made from carp, or ni-goro-buna, that come from the lake. The dish is said to ward off ailments, even boost the immune system.

Amid rumors of bribe-taking sponsorship for last year's Olympic Games, hospitals fighting COVID-19 infection and a shortage of hospital beds and Ukrainians fleeing Russian invasion hoping to make Japan a permanent home, the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel north of Tokyo in the city of Kasukabe, Saitama helps protect the local area and bolster Tokyo's defenses from local rivers and the Edogawa from bursting their banks at a time of worsening climate change.

Colliding cargo ships and tankers off the Wakayama coastline and new infections in the capitol holding steady around 25,000 offer an overview of current concern. But on Nakano-doru, just north of Shinjuku, plan-B, the alternative art space that may be the first of its kind in Japan, returns after several years in hibernation. Founded in 1982 by dancer Min Tanaka, the late Kazue Kobata and a group of others, the space “not owned by anyone, but managed by volunteers" has survived by asking one simple question: What is freedom?

Fireballs are seen over the skies of Kanto Japan and the Hitoboshi fire-spinning festival spins wheat over the Nanmoku River for the first time in three years. Elsewhere, a memorial archive in Ikebukuro dedicated to the mystery novelist Edogawa Ranpo is open to the public. It is where he lived until his death in 1965, and the studio includes all of his writings and personal effects, shedding light on this important mystery novelist responsible for classics like 'D-zaka no satsujin jiken' (The Case of the Murder on D. Hill), about about a woman killed in the throws of a sadomasochistic affair, and 'Ningen isu' (The Human Chair) about a man who hides within a chair to feel the bodies seated on top.

Kana Satomi aims to become the first female professional player of shogi, the Japanese board game of strategy and patience. 9 year-old Reo Fujita also turns pro but this time for Go, another board game of territorial possession and capture played throughout East Asia. In Niigata, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2022 is currently underway having been delayed a year and features Ongoing Village based in Sansho House a 150 year-old wooden school found in the region's ‘satoyama’ — a zone bordering both mountain and farm land.

The Corpse flower, known for its foul smell, blooms for the first time in Niigata. In Tokyo, Digital Minister Kono Taro emulates Taiwan's own Digital Minister Audrey Tang by advocating for 'radical transparency' within government. But how will openness in government tackle borders into Japan that remain closed for most? With only 140,000 visitors admitted in recent months, the real challenge will be achieving an open border. Finally, the spirit horses made of cucumber and eggplant appear in households across the land, marking the end of the bon festival and the start of late Summer in Japan.

An off-duty policeman looses a file containing 400 names from an ongoing criminal investigation after some heavy drinking, while a warehouse fire rages on unabated in Ibaraki. With the end of summer in sight and the Ibaraki fire still blazing, we look at fashion designer Issey Miyake (1938-2022) who despite his image of glamour took inspiration from the subtly and precision of women like Japanese activist Fusae Ichikawa and Austrian born, British artist Lucie Rie.

Japan remembers Shū-sen kinen-bi, the Day the country remembers the end of the second world war, while people return from the summer Obon holiday. And with nature and nostalgia in mind Studio Ghibli is emblematic of this time of year. The one film which essentially formed the studio is also equally concerned with our relationship with nature and technology and how we yearn for the past, no matter how painful.

Heavy pressure: Typhoon Meari hit Tokyo over the weekend as the PM Kishida received a 4th vaccination, hinting at a broader programme of vaccination. And as one storm leaves, other enters. Amid resigning politicians, church scandals and psychic marketing, the Summer Sonic music festival readies its return with an international line up, only to then leave days later. In contrast, A store Robot in Harajuku is a shop's worth of music, art, and fashion in Tokyo that has been around for far longer than any music festival, weather front, politician or pandemic.

Fire breaks out for the second time this year at Taisho period-built Tanga Market in Kitakyushu destroying many of its shops including the Kokura Showa-kan cinema. And while Prime Minster Kishida reshuffles his cabinet to escape mounting criticism at his handling of political ties to Korean religious group, there are even more calls for him further reopen the country's borders to foreign tourism. Events like the international art fair STILL ALIVE: Aichi Triennale 2022 in Nagoya aim to bridge the gap while the country remains difficult to enter for the great majority of people.

Sunflowers at the Serakogen Farm near Hiroshima and in Kagoshima are in full bloom, showing support for Ukrainian nationals living in Japan. Meanwhile, Nagoya's Daijin, an izakaya in the city since 1907, and Ippachi Honten serving kishimen udon are hidden treasures amid this year's current Aichi Triennale and the World Cosplay Summit, both taking place in and around Nagoya's Aichi Arts Center.

Watermelons are ritually split in Obanazawa while Chrysanthemum flowers in Itoshima City, Fukuoka are readied for the upcoming Bon festival. Meanwhile, works of ‘procedural architecture’ by the duo Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins explore ideas of life and possibility at the Aichi Arts Center for this year's Aichi Triennale in Nagoya. Their model for unbuilt project Bridge of Reversible Destiny from 1973-1989 is a rite of passage. And Reversible Destiny Lofts—Mitaka (In Memory of Helen Keller) from 2005, resonates with splitting fruit and floral tributes in the build up to Obon, a festival that bids one thing farewell, then welcomes something else in its place.

As the world's largest Buddha statue at Todai-ji in Nara is cleaned in readiness for the year ahead, the country remembers Nagasaki 77 years after the second ever atomic bomb used in aggression was dropped on the city. And after pioneering filmmaker Takahiko Iimura passed away last week aged 85, we take a brief look back at a film maker remembered not only for his abstract films but also for his association with groups like Fluxus and fellow artist Yoko Ono.

Captive audiences: Chinese military training exercises near Taiwan run the risk of straying into Japanese territory with islands near Okinawa looking on with bemused, concerned expressions. On the other side of the country, Fujiyama Records has been in Tokyo's Sangenjyaya for almost 40 years. It's caught between several roads and looks out across several pedestrian crossings. It's here that die-hard musicians like Yukio Sato, or members of Non-Band, all play impromptu concerts to passing traffic and a small, assembled crowd of fans who are either going about their daily business and crossing the street or hovering to catch sight of something extraordinary.

As stormy waters gather near Kyushu a group of marine students from the nearby National Fisheries University discover a rare Ryugu-no-tsukai, or giant Oarfish, then promptly eat it. In some small way devouring their rare find makes sense. As the national obon holiday approaches — a chance for family members to catch up and remember past family members — a rare find such as this connects the present with the past, people with the fathomless sea and treat extraordinary sights as an everyday occurrence. At Chiba City's Museum of Art, “Summer Vacation at a Certain Museum” is just that; a museum caught between the everyday and the extraordinary, at a time that’s a little different from normal — a time for smaller, more special experiences.

Crashing thunder, heavy rainfall, and river's bursting banks, the summer exodus has finally begun. Nebuta is in full swing as has been reported several times this week. Yet, amid all these atmospherics, a political storm is brewing too, near the Senkaku islands, a stone's throw from Okinawa and the northern tip of Taiwan. Nancy Pelosi had visited the island in her capacity as Speaker and third in line to the U.S. President. It has sent Beijing officials into a tiswas of acrimony and threatens to spill over into Japanese waters. Perhaps amid the madness, the annual summer festivals sending off dead spirits to welcome in cooler months, some calm can be found in food and song, from the Japanese work songs of 'Soran Bushi' to food made at COOK DAN, a curry shop in Hachiobori by chef and rapper Raita Danjou, providing rhythm and beats that bind work, the environment and nature to cool the mind and ultimately dispel conflict.

With the Morioka Sansa Odori summer festival in Iwate prefecture taking place along with Sendai's Tanabata festival in Miyagi prefecture, traditions from both of these festival converge on this week's Aomori Nebuta, a festival of giant mobile lanterns in Aomori city committed to bidding old spirits farewell and ideas of "sleep" passed along 6 generations of Nebuta-shi craftsmen.

August the 6th this weekend marks 77 years since the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. To mark the occasion, the 1983 documentary "Tokyo Saiban" is being re-screened throughout Tokyo. Directed by Masaki Kobayashi, it was sourced from extensive film shot during the Tokyo Trials. However, this week also marks the beginning of the annual Obon holiday season along with Aomori's Nebuta festival, the first time in three years, all gearing up for the annual exodus to and from the capitol.

With old train stock on the JR Ube line in Yamaguchi revived amid a surge of new COVID-19 cases throughout the country, second-hand book stores nearest to stations remain a constant, dependable presence. Take Bohemian's Guild in Jimbocho for example, or Totodo in Shibuya. There is also Flotsam Books near Daitabashi station, SO BOOKS close to Yoyogi-Hachiman, Honk Books in between Kanamecho and Ikebukuro and Kongen Shobo near Ekoda on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line. After all, knowledge is power.

As a massive earthquake strikes the Philippines and Typhoon Songda blows itself out in the Philippine sea not far from Amami, Kyushu, and Okinawa, the second part of exhibition "Everywhere Gather Yourself Stand" continues at Yutaka Kikutake Gallery in Roppongi.

Mie Prefecture is hit by lightning, setting one house ablaze, while economic trade with Indonesia reconvenes. All the while, Lavender Opener Chair and the co-run diner Tohmei, both in Tokyo's Arakawa, present the latest farmed produce from Yamagata, north of Tokyo, riding out both economic and atmospheric storms.

As monkeypox reaches Japan and a rouge band of nihon-zaru, wild Japanese macaque, patrol the streets of Yamagata, the Tō-ji Buddhist Temple in Kyoto, built in the late 700s, marks its 1,200 year anniversary with a mandala painted by the artist Miwa Komatsu, currently on show at the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art in Kawasaki.

Sakurajima volcano blows on the island of Kyushu as independent cinema Iwanami Hall in Tokyo is days away from its final screening. Meanwhile, the National Film Archive of Japan celebrates 90 years of Toho Studios with “Yowa mushi chin-sen-gumi” (1938), “Kimi no namae wa” (2016), Ishirō Honda’s “Gojira” (1954) and Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” (1954) as well as “Nihon chin-botsu” (1973) based on Sakyo Komatsu's disaster novel Japan Sinks which pictures the country as it falls into the sea, beginning with an erupting volcano!

Japanese composer and musician Seigen Ono engineered early records by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yasuaki Shimizu. His first album 'Seigen' was released on the ambient label Music Interior in 1984 and has since worked with theatre and ballet companies around the world. Yet it was one of his first jobs on arriving in Tokyo from Fukushima that introduced him to film and cinema. This week sees the Japanese release of 'BOX III', a box set of remastered films by film director Wim Wenders, containing Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989), Until the End of the World (1992), Faraway, So Close! (1993), and Buena Vista Social Club (1999). The man responsible for mixing sound for each film: Seigen Ono!

Consumer prices go up once more as Chinese naval vessels sail around the Amami Archipelago, just south of Kagoshima in southern Japan. Meanwhile, the exhibition "Everywhere Gather Yourself Stand” at SCAI PIRAMIDE in Roppongi, one part of a wider exhibition, presents differing personal histories through found objects, heirlooms, paintings and short film.