But officials are cautious on whether such rapid growth will continue this year, citing uncertainties in the Chinese economy and major destinations such as Tokyo and Osaka having nearly reached their capacities for accommodating the influx. “For 2016, we expect the arrivals to top 20 million, but it’s hard to think that we will keep seeing the kind of unprecedented growth experienced in 2015,” tourism minister Keiichi Ishii told a news conference. “I think the growth in 2016 will be moderate.”

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, travelers from China topped the list for 2015, accounting for 4.99 million, more than twice as many from the year before. They were followed by 4 million from South Korea, 3.67 million from Taiwan and 1.52 million from Hong Kong. The growth record is attributed to a number of factors; the burgeoning middle-class in China is one, with its growing appetite for overseas travel. For such people, Japan, due to the depreciation of the yen, has become a bargain destination. A series of domestic measures, including eased rules for visas, improved access to airports and expansion of duty-free shopping, have also helped.

Visitors from the United States, the fifth-largest market, surged 15.9 percent to hit 1.03 million, marking the first time that American travelers topped the 1 million mark, the JNTO said. The Chinese were by far the largest spenders. Of the nearly ¥3.5 trillion spent by foreign visitors, Chinese people accounted for 40.8 percent, followed by 15 percent for Taiwanese, 8.7 percent for South Koreans and 7.6 percent for people from Hong Kong. The so-called bakugai “explosive” shopping sprees of Chinese tourists are well documented in the statistics. Such consumption reached ¥808 billion in 2015, by far the biggest spending by nationality, trailed by Taiwanese shoppers, who spent a total of ¥218 billion. Going forward, Japan has a lot of room for improvement to become a truly tourism-oriented nation, Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Akihiko Tamura said. “Japanese ryokan (inns) are not very productive, and their services are not fully tailored to foreign visitors,” Tamura said. “Travel agencies have long been structured around outbound business and there are not many operators making money in inbound business. We have a lot of challenges for tourism to become a key industry, to become a driver of economic growth.” In fact, the decline in outbound travel is a cause of concern. The number of Japanese who traveled overseas in 2015 was 16.2 million, down 690,000 from 2014. Tamura said this is unfavorable, noting that, like trade, tourism should involve a “two-way exchange.” “It’s not healthy for one country to be only exporting and not importing,” he said. “In fact, South Korea is expected to have more outbound travelers than Japan in 2015, even though the country’s population is far smaller than ours. We need to promote an environment where people will travel both ways.”

Located in the northwestern part of Nikko in western Tochigi Prefecture, Oku-Nikko, a part of Nikko National Park, is centered around Lake Chuzenji, the largest in Tochigi and the highest altitude lake in Japan. Described it as “a lake of fortune,” by Emperor Meiji, Satow saw it as being as “beautiful as a painting.” Kojima says the Oku-Nikko area was one of Satow’s favorite places in Japan. Fascinated by its rich nature, he built a lodge to be his summer villa, on the southern shore of the lake in 1896, and frequented the area to go climbing and collect plants. His enthusiasm for Oku-Nikko triggered the construction of various international summer resorts in the area. After Satow left Japan, his lodge became the British Embassy Villa until 2008, after which it was donated to Tochigi Prefecture in 2010. Under renovations now, it is scheduled to be opened to the public in summer 2016 as a new tourist attraction. It wasn’t just Satow who found Lake Chuzenji irresitible. Scottish merchant and Order of the Rising Sun Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911), who loved fly fishing there, also built the Nishi Rokuban lodge in 1893. His lodge was then later purchased by Hansaburo Hunter (1884-1947, known as Hans Hunter), a business executive who founded the Tokyo Angling and Country Club in 1925, many members of which were diplomats of European countries. It was no wonder that people would often joke that Japan’s foreign ministries all moved to Nikko during the summer. Although Kojima explains that Glover’s original building burned down in an accident in 1940, its chimney remains and the space is open to the public as a park, a monument to the international exchanges that took place there. As we pass what was once Nishi Rokuban lodge, we come across the Lake Chuzenji Boathouse, which was formerly used by the members of Tokyo Angling and Country Club. Built as a subsidiary of Chuzenji Kanaya Hotel (formerly known as Nikko Kanko Hotel) in 1927, the leisure facility, we are told, played an important role in the city’s efforts to attract foreign tourists. Now it is a memorial museum exhibiting various boats that were once owned by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium, as well as a display of specimens introducing Lake Chuzenji’s native fish. “While you can see strong European influences in many places of Oku-Nikko, this boathouse was the only one that features American-style architecture,” Kojima explains. “After the war, it’s believed that the members of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers took over and hung out in the area.” Near the Chuzenji Boat House is the luxurious Chuzenji Kanaya Hotel, which was inspired by the Kanaya Hotel History House, a historical building we had already visited earlier in the day. Kanaya Hotel History House was Japan’s first hotel that aimed to specifically attract non-Japanese visitors and, as a former residence building, it was built in the architectural style of a samurai home of the Heian and Kamakura periods (794-1333). The house became a hotel after its then-owner, the performer Zenichiro Kanaya, offered American missionary Dr. James C. Hepburn a room there on his first visit to Nikko in 1870. Hepburn suggested that Kanaya open a hotel and Kanaya decided to use his own home. Built in the late Edo Period (1780-1867), the building is now a designated Tangible Cultural Property and though not used as a hotel any more, it is open to the public as a rare opportunity to see Japanese traditional architecture up close. Having heard so much about the attraction of Lake Chuzenji, it becomes the inevitable next destination. With ferries that stop at four wharfs — Fune no Eki Chuzenji, Shobugahama, Senjugahama and Tachiki Kannon — we take a boat tour to make sure we get to see the best views from the lake. This includes the mystical Kozuke Island, which is about 100 meters from the lake’s shore. To the north we also spot Mount Nantai, a volcano that is one of the 100 famous Japanese mountains. We alight at Tachiki Kannon, which is near the British Embassy Villa. Then after just a 10-minute walk, we find ourselves in front of the former Italian Embassy Villa, a building designed by Czech American architect Antonin Raymond (1888-1976), who arrived in Japan in 1919 as an assistant of Frank Lloyd Wright when they came to design the renowned Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. An unusual work, the villa’s outer walls are made of cedar bark to match its natural surroundings, and although it is relatively modernist in its concept, the structure’s lake-facing large sliding windows and a wide wooden passage, resemble a Japanese engawa (veranda). Open for viewing, it’s still furnished with European-style items and its annex building now houses the Nikko International Summer Resort Historical Exhibit of photographs, video footage and documents telling the history of the lake and its surrounding social clubs. This tour may have missed the autumnal beauty of Oku-Nikko, which we’re told reveals a beautiful gradation of red orange and yellow, but having instead enjoyed so much of the history of the area, I consider returning for the winter snow. Designated by the tourism promotion group Yakei Convention and Visitors Bureau as a Night View Inheritance of Japan, the Oku-Nikko Yumoto Onsen Snow Festival, a series of events that takes place from the end of January through February, is enticing. In the evening, 800 yukiakari snow domes will be lit in blue, green and purple, a display that the Yakei Convention and Visitors Bureau ranks 10th in its Illumination Awards. But it is the festival’s National Ice Sculpture Competition, featuring 10 sculptors, including professionals and chefs from famous hotels, that draws crowds. Entrants prepare sculptures more than 2 meters tall for a show that starts from Jan. 30 and ends when they all melt into nothing.

Getting there: The Oku-Nikko area is a two-hour train ride on the Tobu Line from Tokyo’s Asakusa Station to Tobu Nikko Station, followed by a 40-minute bus ride to Chuzenji Onsen Bus Terminal. For a round trip, it costs ¥5,020 (excluding seat charge). The upcoming Oku-Nikko Yumoto Onsen Snow Festival runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 27. For tourist information in English, visit www.nikko-travel.jp/english.

The drama erupted in response to a plan by Mitsubishi Pencil — one of the nation’s oldest stationery makers — to stop producing a line of a dozen colored pencils, sparing only the red version from the chopping block.

The company, which traces its roots back to the 19th century, earlier said the move was in response to weak demand. But that failed to satisfy pencil-loving architects and the animators behind Japan’s well-known manga cartoons. In a dramatic turnaround this week, Mitsubishi Pencil said it would keep churning out three key colors — light blue, yellow-green and orange — in addition to its coveted red pencil. But “we will end production of the other colors by the end of the current year as scheduled”, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday. Worries over the colored pencil line — first produced in 1971 — saw buyers rush to scoop up existing stock this week. Major art supply chain Ito-ya’s location in Tokyo’s busy Ginza shopping district had already sold out of eight of the dozen colors on Wednesday, with only brown, pink, white and dark blue still on offer. Mitsubishi Pencil’s reversal didn’t stop the Japan Animation Creators Association from airing its concerns over a looming supply crunch.

“The inventory of colored pencils is already gone,” it warned on its website.

The exhibits were originally used for the Senshoku Matsuri, a Kyoto textile festival that was held to promote local dyeing and weaving businesses. When Kyoto’s textile industry was at its peak, the Senshoku Matsuri, the first of which was in 1931, was considered one of the most important Kyoto festivals. From 1932, it included a parade of spectacular historical costumes. However, in 1937, when a mood of self-restraint took hold after the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the parade was discontinued. The whole festival eventually saw its last celebration in 1951. The reproductions on display are therefore more than 80 years old, making them a part of Japanese textile history in their own right. A part that vividly illustrates the social awareness and significance of the genealogy of Japanese traditional textiles and customs at that time — something that has sadly waned in the industry today.

“Kimono: From the Kofun to the Edo Period” at the Kobe Fashion Museum runs until Jan. 12; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Closed Wed. (except Dec. 23), Dec. 24, Dec. 29-Jan. 3. ¥500. www.fashionmuseum.or.jp