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Japan Today
31 minutes ago
- Japan Today
Tadami Line: One of Tohoku's most scenic railways
By Kerri King Known as 'the most romantic railway in the world,' the Tadami Line (只見線) winds through Japan's mountainous heartland, connecting Fukushima and Niigata Prefectures. This slow local train takes you across dramatic valleys, misty rivers and snow-covered bridges, showcasing the beauty of Japan's lesser-visited countryside across all four seasons. The Tadami Line offers a chance to experience the Tohoku region at its quietest and most scenic. Whether you ride the full route or hop on and off to explore, it's a journey that reveals something new each season. Seasonal Highlights See something new every season. Image: PIXTA/ くまちゃん In spring, cherry blossoms bloom along the tracks while snow still lingers on the distant mountain peaks. The contrast between the subtle pink flowers and icy summits is stunning. Between June and August, early mornings bring a soft mist over the Tadami River, creating an atmospheric start to the day if you catch the first train. Summer also deepens the greenery of the surrounding forests and farmlands. From mid-October to mid-November, the mountains of Oku-Aizu turn brilliant shades of red and gold. The Daiichi (No.1) Tadami River Bridge, surrounded by fall colors, is one of the most photographed spots along the route. This area is one of Japan's snowiest regions. From December to March, expect heavy snowfall, snow-covered bridges and villages blanketed in white. The train's slow pace allows you to truly take in the beauty of the winter landscape. Highlights Along the Tadami Line Click here to read more. External Link © GaijinPot
Japan Today
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Japan Today
Pacers roll past Thunder 108-91 to send the NBA Finals to a deciding Game 7
Indiana Pacers guard Ben Sheppard (26) and forward Obi Toppin (1) celebrate during the second half of Game 6 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Thursday, June 19, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) basketball By TIM REYNOLDS Obi Toppin scored 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17 and the resilient Indiana Pacers sent the NBA Finals to a winner-take-all Game 7 by rolling past the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 on Thursday night. Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, while Tyrese Haliburton — playing through a strained calf — scored 14 points for the Pacers, who started slowly and then turned things into a blowout. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 points for the Thunder, who pulled their starters after getting down by 30 going into the fourth. Jalen Williams added 16. Game 7, the first one in the NBA Finals since 2016, will be Sunday night in Oklahoma City. Good news for the Thunder: home teams are 15-4 in the ultimate game to decide a title. Bad news for the Thunder: Cleveland won at Golden State in the most recent NBA Finals Game 7 and one of the three other home-team losses was in 1978 — by Seattle, the franchise that would move to Oklahoma City three decades later. Indiana missed its first eight shots and got down 10-2. The arena, roaring just a few minutes before at the start, quieted quickly. Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, sitting courtside in a Jalen Rose Pacers jersey, was pacing, kneeling, generally acting more nervous than he ever seemed as a player. No need. After the slow start, the Pacers outscored the Thunder 68-32 over the next 24 minutes. An Indiana team that hadn't led by more than 10 points at any time in the first five games — and that double-digit lead was brief — led by 28 early in the third quarter. The margin eventually got to 31, which was Oklahoma City's second-biggest deficit of the season. The worst also came in these playoffs: a 45-point hole against Minnesota in the Western Conference finals. The Thunder came back to win that series, obviously, and now will need that bounce-back ability one more time. The Thunder, desperate for a spark, put Alex Caruso in the starting lineup in place of Isaiah Hartenstein to open the second half. There was no spark. In fact, there was nothing whatsoever — neither team scored in the first 3:53 after halftime, the sides combining to miss their first 13 shots of the third quarter. TJ McConnell, the spark off the bench again, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Indiana. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
Appeals court lets Trump keep control of National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles
California National Guard stand in formation guarding the federal building in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) An appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids. The decision halts a ruling from a lower court judge who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The deployment was the first by a president of a state National Guard without the governor's permission since 1965. In its decision, the court concluded that 'it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority' in federalizing control of the guard. It also found that even if the federal government failed to notify the governor of California before federalizing the National Guard as required by law, Newsom had no power to veto the president's order. The court case could have wider implications on the president's power to deploy soldiers within the United States after Trump directed immigration officials to prioritize deportations from other Democratic-run cities. Trump, a Republican, argued that the troops were necessary to restore order. Newsom, a Democrat, said the move inflamed tensions, usurped local authority and wasted resources. The protests have since appeared to be winding down. The ruling comes from a panel of three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, two of whom were appointed by Trump during his first term. During oral arguments Tuesday, all three judges suggested that presidents have wide latitude under the federal law at issue and that courts should be reluctant to step in. The case started when Newsom sued to block Trump's command, and he won an early victory from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which only allows presidents can take control during times of 'rebellion or danger of a rebellion.' 'The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of 'rebellion,'' wrote Breyer, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton and is brother to retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. The Trump administration, though, argued that courts can't second guess the president's decisions and quickly secured a temporary halt from the appeals court. The ruling means control of the California National Guard will stay in federal hands as the lawsuit continues to unfold. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
The world may be rethinking the American dream
By LAURIE KELLMAN A staff member walks past a message to students that hangs on the wall at Place Bridge Academy in Denver on May 25. For centuries, people in other countries saw the United States as place of welcome and opportunity. Now, President Donald Trump's drive for mass deportations of migrants is riling the streets of Los Angeles, college campuses, even churches — and fueling a global rethinking about the virtues and promise of coming to America. 'The message coming from Washington is that you are not welcome in the United States,' said Edwin van Rest, CEO of Studyportals, which tracks real-time searches by international students considering studying in other countries. Student interest in studying in America has dropped to its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, it found. 'The fact is, there are great opportunities elsewhere.' There has long been a romanticized notion about immigration and America. The reality has always been different, with race and ethnicity playing undeniable roles in the tension over who can be an American. The U.S. still beckons to the "huddled masses' from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The strong economy has helped draw millions more every year, with the inflow driving the U.S. population over 340 million. Early clues across industries — like tourism, trade, entertainment and education — suggest the American dream is fading for foreigners who have historically flooded to the U.S. Polling by Pew Research Center from January through April found that opinions of the U.S. have worsened over the past year in 15 of the 24 countries it surveyed. Trump and many of his supporters maintain that migrants in the country illegally threaten American safety, jobs and culture. But people in the country legally also have been caught in Trump's dragnet. And that makes prospective visitors to the U.S., even as tourists, leery. Trump's global tariff war and his campaign against international students who have expressed pro-Palestinian sympathies stick especially stubbornly in the minds of people across American borders who for decades clamored to participate in the land of free speech and opportunity. 'The chances of something truly horrific happening are almost certainly tiny,' Duncan Greaves, 62, of Queensland, Australia, advised a Reddit user asking whether to risk a vacation to the land of barbeques, big sky country and July 4 fireworks. 'Basically it's like the Dirty Harry quote: 'Do you feel lucky?'" For much of its history, America had encouraged immigration as the country sought intellectual and economic fuel to spur its growth. But from the beginning, the United States has wrestled with the question of who is allowed to be an American. The new country was built on land brutally swiped from Native Americans. It was later populated by millions of enslaved Africans. The American Civil War ignited in part over the same subject. The federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for a decade. During World War II, the U.S. government incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in 10 concentration camps. About two-thirds were U.S. citizens. Still, the United States has always been a nation of immigrants, steered by the 'American Creed' developed by Thomas Jefferson, which posits that the tenets of equality, hard work and freedom are inherently American. Everyone, after all, comes from somewhere — a fact underscored on-camera in the Oval Office this month when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave the president the framed birth certificate of Trump's grandfather, also named Friedrich, who emigrated from Germany in 1885. He was one of millions of Germans who fled war and economic strife to move to the United States in the late 19th Century. There's a story there, too, that suggests the Trump family knows both the triumphs of immigration and the struggle and shame of being expelled. After marrying and making a fortune in America, the elder Trump attained U.S. citizenship and tried return to Germany. He was expelled for failing to complete his military service — and wrote about the experience. 'Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family,' Friedrich Trump wrote to Luitpold, prince regent of Bavaria in 1905, according to a translation in Harper's magazine. 'What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree — not to mention the great material losses it would incur.' Trump himself has married two immigrant women: the late Ivana Zelníčková Trump, of what's now the Czech Republic, and his current wife, Melania Knauss Trump of Slovenia. It's hard to overstate the degree to which immigration has changed the face and culture of America — and divided it. Immigration in 2024 drove U.S. population growth to its fastest rate in 23 years as the nation surpassed 340 million residents, the U.S. Census Bureau said in December. Almost 2.8 million more people immigrated to the United States last year than in 2023, partly because of a new method of counting that adds people who were admitted for humanitarian reasons. Net international migration accounted for 84% of the nation's 3.3 million-person increase in the most recent data reported. Immigration accounted for all of the growth in 16 states that otherwise would have lost population, according to the Brookings Institution. But where some Americans see immigration largely as an influx of workers and brain power, Trump sees an 'invasion,' a longstanding view. Since returning to the White House, Trump has initiated an far-reaching campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him over his invocation of special powers to deport people, cancel visas and deposit deportees in third countries. In his second term, unlike his first, he's not retreating from some unpopular positions on immigration. Instead, the subject has emerged as Trump's strongest issue in public polling, reflecting both his grip on the Republican base and a broader shift in public sentiment. A June survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of immigration, which is nearly 10 percentage points higher than his approval rating on the economy and trade. The poll was conducted at the beginning of the Los Angeles protests and did not include questions about Trump's military deployment to the city. The U.S. is still viewed as an economic powerhouse, though people in more countries consider China to be the world's top economy, according to the Pew poll, and it's unclear whether Trump's policies could cause a meaningful drain of international students and others who feel under siege in the United States. Netherlands-based Studyportals, which analyzes the searches for international schools by millions of students worldwide, reported that weekly pageviews for degrees in the U.S, collapsed by half between Jan. 5 and the end of April. It predicted that if the trend continues, the demand for programs in the U.S. could plummet further, with U.S. programs losing ground to countries like the United Kingdom and Australia. 'International students and their families seek predictability and security when choosing which country to trust with their future,' said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, which represents international educators. 'The U.S. government's recent actions have naturally shaken their confidence in the United States.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Bruce Springsteen takes seven 'Lost Albums' off the shelf for a new box set
FILE - Bruce Springsteen speaks to the audience during a concert with the E Street Band at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, on June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File) By DAVID BAUDER Bruce Springsteen's new project, 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums,' is entirely about that age-old question: What if? The box set, out June 27, comprises seven albums encompassing the period between 1983 and 2018, all but one he prepared to release in its time but ultimately shelved. Now that he's decided to drop them simultaneously, they offer a fascinating alternative story of his musical life. Building on its predecessor 'Tracks,' 1998's four-disc, 66-song collection of unreleased material, there are 83 songs here. While some slipped out on other projects — 'My Hometown' and 'Secret Garden' among them — the vast majority hadn't been heard publicly. This is all fully completed material, not half-baked or half-finished outtakes. It's not unusual for artists to leave songs — or even full-lengths — on the cutting-room floor, but multiple entire albums? Springsteen explains that he's taken care releasing albums, looking to build a narrative arc for his career, and believes this approach has served him well. Perhaps as a result, the most interesting work on 'Tracks II' comes when he stretches out and explores pathways not in his wheelhouse: countrypolitan Bruce, border-town Bruce, Burt Bacharach-inspired Bruce and a set of synthesizer-based songs modeled after his Oscar-winning 'Streets of Philadelphia.' Oddly, the one disc of strays cobbled together that feels most like an E Street Band record is the least compelling. Since these are seven distinct albums, it's worth evaluating them that way. 'LA Garage Sessions '83' captures Springsteen working virtually alone at a home in the Hollywood Hills. It was squarely in between his 'Nebraska' and 'Born in the USA' albums, and he seems torn between those two approaches. There are character studies here, and more lighthearted fare like 'Little Girl Like You,' with a single man yearning to settle down. The most striking cut is 'The Klansman,' about a boy and his racist father, yet it cries out for more development. Ultimately, Springsteen chose the right albums to release at the time. The song 'Streets of Philadelphia' was a genuine departure musically, and Springsteen decided to make an album in the same vein, with synthesizers and drum loops the dominant elements. If released in the early 1990s, this would have been the most contemporary-sounding disc of his career, with atmospherics that occasionally recall U2. Springsteen pulled it at the last minute, reasoning that the stories of doomed relationships — sample lyric: 'We loved each other like a disease' — was too much like 'Tunnel of Love.' At the same time he recorded 'The Ghost of Tom Joad' in 1995, Springsteen also convened a country band steered by pedal steel player Marty Rifkin. Their work was terrific, led by the one-two punch of 'Repo Man' and the Johnny Rivers cover, 'Poor Side of Town.' The title cut to a disc he calls 'Somewhere North of Nashville' escaped into the public some two decades later. Since the somber 'Joad' won a Grammy, who are we to second-guess his choice of what to put out? 'Nashville,' though, is a rollicking good time. 'Inyo' is similar to 'Joad' and 'Devils & Dust,' mostly acoustic-based narratives, here many of them stories of the Southwest. Springsteen even appropriately brings in mariachi bands for 'Adelita' and 'The Lost Charro.' Soozie Tyrell's violin is notable, particularly on the majestic 'When I Build My Beautiful House.' We're guessing that Springsteen may have considered 'Inyo' one album too many in the same style, but it's still strong work. At one point Springsteen considered making 'Western Stars,' his salute to early 1970s California songwriting, a double album. When he didn't, the songs on 'Twilight Hours' were left behind. Here Bacharach is the primary influence, and this almost feels like Elvis Costello's collaboration with Burt, only without him (and is the lyric 'God give me strength' a hat-tip to that project?). The crooning Bruce of 'Sunday Love' is spellbinding, maybe the box's best song. 'Lonely Town' sits at the intersection of Bacharach and Roy Orbison, while 'Dinner at Eight' is a lovely sum-up. 'Twilight Hours' may startle Springsteen fans — and impress them, too. The workmanlike songs on 'Faithless' were written on commission in two weeks, the soundtrack to a movie that was never made. It's a good bet it would have been a moody Western. When Springsteen duels with Tom Morello on the song 'Another Thin Line,' you realize how little you've heard his electric guitar on 'Tracks II.' The album 'Perfect World' is the one here made up of leftovers from different periods, with the greatest E Street Band participation. Here's the deal, though: Most good E Street Band material has already been released. The best left behind for this disc is 'You Lifted Me Up,' with minimalist lyrics and a vocal collaboration with Patti Scialfa and Steve Van Zandt. The box gives Springsteen completists plenty to mull over, and you can question whether these 'lost discs' would get more attention released separately instead of together. If it's too much, he's releasing a 20-song set of its highlights. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
