The symbol of last year's expo will not entirely become scrap. Following an October 28 board meeting, the Expo association says about 7,400 cubic metres of the Grand Roof Ring's timber will be reused, just under 70 percent of what can be recovered. Unbolting the wooden joinery piece by piece adds ¥2.4 billion to the demolition bill. The arithmetic, from reporting on the decision: the two-kilometre ring used about 27,000 cubic metres of timber. About 15,900 of that cannot be reused at all, locked into foundations or threaded with rebar…

Kyoto's autumn taxi experiment comes with a useful warning for anyone arriving with a suitcase: this is not an airport transfer with a smaller bill. GO Economy is a shared ride between set boarding spots, with room for one lap-sized bag. Miss the departure and the published charge is the full fare. GO announced the Kyoto trial on October 29. The planned run is November 1-29, on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, 10:00-16:00. It covers roughly four kilometres between Kyoto Station's Karasuma side and Higashiyama, with 14 boarding and drop-off…

A company can shorten its own working day and still leave somebody else working late. Bring the deadline forward, change the specification halfway through, leave the price where it was. The hours have moved down the supply chain. They have not disappeared. That is the problem behind November's “shiwayose” prevention campaign, announced by the health and labour ministry on October 30 and circulated locally by Osaka Labour Bureau. Shiwayose here means pressure pushed onto another business: rush orders and sudden changes without the buyer paying the real cost. The ministry…

October ends with a doctor on a station screen, a new storm-watch plan for underpasses and another chunk of Umekita given an opening date. There is plenty to do this weekend without pretending every patch of public space is a shopping opportunity. Some of it is even free. Read the conditions before leaving home, though: an open booth is not an open clinic, and an outdoor film festival is not a Halloween party. Station consultation booths: the small price is not the whole bill Osaka Metro and KDDI announced an…

Osaka Metro and KDDI are putting online consultation booths outside station ticket gates. The announced start is October 30 at Nishi-Umeda and Kitahanada; Tenjinbashisuji 6-chome follows in early November. The service brings a screen and remote staff into the station, not a resident doctor onto the concourse. The booths are advertised as available from 9:00 to 21:00 without advance appointments. That is the enclosure's window, not a promise that every service is available for twelve hours. The partner clinics, pharmacy and other operators keep separate reception times and breaks. What…

Wicked on Halloween, dinosaurs the next evening, and no cinema ticket to buy. Outdoor Life Festa 2026 is bringing free night screenings to Rohto Heart Square Umekita in Grand Green Osaka on October 31 and November 1. Both start at 18:00, with no reservation required. Saturday's film is Wicked, listed in Japanese as ウィキッド ふたりの魔女. Sunday brings Jurassic World Rebirth, or ジュラシック・ワールド／復活の大地. The cinema is at the Grand Green Osaka venue, not Grand Front Osaka's Umekita Plaza. The festival uses both places; the films do not. Free entry is not…