Rakuen

Rakuen (Japanese "paradise" 楽園 らくえん) may refer to:

Music

Albums

Songs

See also

Lakuen

"Lakuen" (Japanese: 楽園, Hepburn: Rakuen, "Paradise"), stylised as "LAKuEN", is a song by Japanese singer Ken Hirai. It was released on January 19, 2000 as his eighth single, and became his biggest hit since his debut in 1995.

Background and development

"Lakuen" was Hirai's first release in two years, since the single "Love Love Love" in 1998. Hirai's debut single "Precious Junk" in 1995 charted at number 50 on Oricon's singles charts, but since then he had not charted on Oricon's singles chart. The popularity of this song managed to revitalise Hirai's career.

Promotion and release

The song became popular after intense radio play from FM stations across Japan. Hirai's follow-up album The Changing Same, released in June 2000, debuted at number one on Oricon's albums chart, and became certified for over one million copies sold.

Hirai performed the song three times on TV Asahi's Music Station: first on March 10, 2000, followed by on the 2000 New Year's special on December 29, and a week before the release of his sixth album Sentimentalovers on November 19, 2004. Hirai performed the song at the 51st Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Year's TV song contest on December 31, 2000.

Highway

A highway is any public road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks: It is not an equivalent term to freeway (motorway), or a translation for autobahn, autoroute, etc.

In North American and Australian English, major roads such as controlled-access highways or arterial roads are often state highways (Canada: provincial highways). Other roads may be designated "county highways" in the US and Ontario. These classifications refer to the level of government (state, provincial, county) that maintains the roadway.

In British English, "highway" is primarily a legal term. Everyday use normally implies roads, while the legal use covers any route or path with a public right of access, including footpaths etc.

The term has led to several related derived terms, including highway system, highway code, highway patrol and highwayman.

The term highway exists in distinction to "waterway".

Overview

Major highways are often named and numbered by the governments that typically develop and maintain them. Australia's Highway 1 is the longest national highway in the world at over 14,500 km or 9,000 mi and runs almost the entire way around the continent. China has the world's largest network of highways followed closely by the United States of America. Some highways, like the Pan-American Highway or the European routes, span multiple countries. Some major highway routes include ferry services, such as U.S. Route 10, which crosses Lake Michigan.

Massachusetts State Highway System

In the U.S. state of Massachusetts, the highway division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) assigns and marks a system of state-numbered routes. U.S. Highways and Interstate Highways are included in the system; the only overlaps are with the end-to-end U.S. Route 3 and Route 3 and the far-apart Interstate 295, shared with Rhode Island, and Route 295, shared with New York State. A state highway in Massachusetts is a road maintained by the state, which may or may not have a number. Not all numbered routes are maintained or owned by the state.

History

The Massachusetts Highway Commission (MHC) was the first highway commission in the U.S., formed in 1893 in response to a commission of inquiry finding that over 90% of the public roads in the state were in poor condition. The first state highway in Massachusetts was a 5305.17-foot (1617.02 m) section of Fitchburg Road (now Main Street, part of Route 119) in Ashby. The MHC laid it out as a state highway on August 15, 1894 from a point west of South Road to a point west of Route 31. The road was paved with 15–20 foot (4.5–6 m) macadam, with work beginning August 21, 1894 and ending July 15, 1895. The 50–66 foot (15–20 m) right-of-way is still owned by MassDOT under the original layout.

List of Hawaii state highways

Below is a partial list of state highways in Hawai‘i.

The current state (then territorial) highway numbering system was established in 1955. Route numbers are organized so that the initial digit corresponds to the island:

In general, two-digit numbers are primary highways, while secondary state highways are given three-digit numbers.

When referring to highways, Hawai'i residents usually refer to state highways by their names instead of their route numbers (e.g. Kamehameha Highway instead of Route 99).

Routes

Hawai‘i County