1 . Tokyo restaurant Sushiya no Nohachi reportedly serves great sushi, but it is most famous for its gimmick—making the world’s smallest sushi with a single grain of rice.

Located in Asakusa, a slightly quieter part of Tokyo, Sushiya no Nohachi is the place to go if you want to enjoy the tiniest, most adorable sushi in the world. Each piece is made with only a grain of rice and a tiny slice of topping wrapped in the thinnest piece of nori(海苔). Every served piece is actually perfect, which hints at the amount of work and patience that Bes into making them. They are the work of Hironori Ikeno, the chef of Sushiya no Nohachi, who came up with the idea in 2002 when a client asked him how small he could make his sushi. He answered, “as small as a grain of rice”, and proceeded to demonstrate that he wasn’t kidding. Over the years, the restaurant has become internationally famous for making the world’s smallest sushi.

Despite its size, miniature sushi actually takes a bit longer to make than regular-sized me, because of the precision and concentration required to put the tiny ingredients together. That is part of the reason why the restaurant only prepares tiny sushi for customers a few times a week and no more than five times a day, although they do sometimes make exceptions for foreign visitors who travel to the restaurant just to experience the world’s smallest sushi.

“I had a client from Sweden who came just to see my tiny sushi and the moment she saw it, she literally cried with joy.” Hironori Ikeno said.

Interestingly, one cannot simply order the tiny sushi at the restaurant. It is served for f re upon request with a regular-sized sushi course. Considering the sushi served at this place is reportedly delicious, you should probably be more excited about that. Plus, it also justifies the gimmick that the restaurant is so famous for.

5 . Mr. Riccardi was working for an Italian university at the time, 10 years ago, and had to go to the city of Potenza in the south of the country for a conference. He wanted to book an environmentally-friendly hotel, but it was not so easy to find one online and book.

So it gave him the idea for a business — a website called Ecobnb, where people can search for sustainable accommodation. When someone finds a place that they would like to book, Ecobn b does not take the payment. Rather it contacts the property, which then emails the person directly. Ecobnb makes its money by charging the accommodation providers a monthly subscription to list on its website.

Today Ecobnb, based in Trento, in northern Italy, lists more than 3,000 properties worldwide, from an organic farmhouse in Tuscany, to an eco-mountain cottage in Costa Rica. 2.8 million travellers now use Ecobnb per year, up from 780,000 in 2018. Mr. Riccardi says the number is still rising. Some accommodation providers offer discounts for guests arriving by bicycle, or those not using a car during the trip.

“Holidaymakers are rethinking their relationship with planet Earth,” Mr. Riccardi says. “Thereis a new awareness, especially in young people, about our responsibility for our future and for the planet.” Statistics appear to back this up. A study has found that 69% of travellers are now actively seeking sustainable travel options.

Although Ecobnb is focused on sustainability, how sustainable is it when many people might be flying to arrive at the accommodations it lists? “The impact of the travel of the flights is very big,” agrees Mr. Riccardi. “We are pushing the staycation (就近旅游) model a lot, inviting people to discover their own countries and to avoid the flights when it’s possible.”

“More people are interested in green lifestyles every day,” he says. “And now they are looking for the same green choices also during their holidays. These little choices can come together, and we can change things and make something different. We can be the change we want to see in the world.”