Visitors stroll the grounds illuminated by flickering candle lights during an annual winter event featuring 1,000 lanterns made of snow at Jozankei Shrine in Sapporo, northern Japan, on Jan. 30, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Children are surrounded by flickering candle lights during an annual winter event featuring 1,000 lanterns made of snow at Jozankei Shrine in Sapporo, northern Japan, on Jan. 30, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Monks go on a walking pilgrimage on Jan. 23, 2023, in Minamisoma, a northeastern Japan city devastated by the massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, in memory of its victims. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
People walk by a signboard promoting Japanese culture at a subway station in Beijing on Jan. 29, 2023. China said the same day it will resume issuing visas for Japanese citizens, a procedure it suspended in early January in protest of Japan's tightened COVID-19 measures for travelers from China. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Men are splashed with cold water in a river during a festival to pray for a good harvest at a Buddhist temple in the northeastern Japan city of Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, on Jan. 29, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Men walk down to a river to get splashed with cold water during a festival to pray for a good harvest at a Buddhist temple in the northeastern Japan city of Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, on Jan. 29, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
A music concert is held in an underground tunnel in Tokyo used as a flood control facility on Jan. 29, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
A new shinkansen train, the E8 series, is being unloaded from a vessel at a port in the Miyagi Prefecture city of Sendai, northeastern Japan, on Jan. 29, 2023. The train will be introduced on the Yamagata Shinkansen Line in the spring of 2024, replacing the E3 series and raising the maximum speed of the service from the current 275 kilometers per hour to 300 km. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
A new shinkansen train, the E8 series, is unloaded from a vessel at a port in the Miyagi Prefecture city of Sendai, northeastern Japan, on Jan. 29, 2023.(Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Photo taken on Jan. 27, 2023, shows a commercial drone capable of both flying in the air and operating underwater during a practice exercise in the Seto Inland Sea off the coast of Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Serbia's Novak Djokovic kisses the trophy after claiming his 10th title at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 29, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Rescue workers ride a gondola at a ski resort in the village of Otari in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, on Jan. 30, 2023, as they take part in a search for missing skiers following an avalanche the previous day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Photo taken on Jan. 30, 2023, at a subway station in Seoul shows a poster notifying passengers that the wearing of masks remains mandatory on trains but no longer on station premises after South Korea lifted most of its mandatory indoor mask-wearing rules. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Photo taken on Jan. 30, 2023, shows frosts looking like flowers on the surface of the frozen Ishikari River in Asahikawa, Hokkaido in northern Japan. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2023, shows Tokyu Department Store's flagship store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, on the day it closes down for good after operating as a landmark of the area for more than 50 years. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
People visit the Ice Fall Festival in Kamikawa, Hokkaido, on Jan. 28, 2023. The event, featuring various ice sculptures lit up, kicked off the same day and will run through March 12. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
People visit the Ice Fall Festival in Kamikawa, Hokkaido, on Jan. 28, 2023. The event, featuring various ice sculptures lit up, kicked off the same day and will run through March 12. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Nippon Ham Fighters manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo watches fireworks light up the night sky at the Japan pro baseball team's spring training site in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, on Jan. 31, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Composite photo taken on Jan. 31, 2023, shows comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) seen in the Okinawa Prefecture village of Kunigami, southern Japan. The comet, discovered in 2022, will come closest to Earth in the small hours of Feb. 2. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Photo taken Jan. 16, 2023, shows wreckage of Russian missiles and cannonballs kept in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
A market in Yangon is seen deserted on Feb. 1, 2023, the second anniversary of the military coup that ousted Myanmar's democratically elected government. Citizens refrained from going out that day to protest against the military rule. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
A Steller's sea eagle that flew from Russia for the winter is pictured near Lake Biwa in Nagahama in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, on Feb. 2, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
A Steller's sea eagle that flew from Russia for the winter is pictured near Lake Biwa in Nagahama in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, on Feb. 2, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro Hakuen scatters roasted beans during the annual "Setsubun" event marking the turn from winter to spring at Naritasan Shinsho-ji temple in Narita, near Tokyo, on Feb. 3, 2023. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
