Answers at Nikko

We spent the day in Nikko at the national park and UNESCO world heritage site. We visited the Toshogu temple which has famous artwork such as the monkeys that teach children how to live (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil). It’s a site where Shintoism and...

Tourism at Nikko and the Value of Community

Our day at Nikko offered us beautiful scenic views of snowy mountains, clear rivers, and ancient cedars. It is easy to understand why it is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and why so many tourists, Japanese and foreign, choose to travel to Nikko. While the...
Valuing the Local

Valuing the Local

Over the past few weeks in Japan, I have grappled with the important concept of the tendency to view cosmopolitan ideals as the ultimate state that everyone should strive toward, and the tension that this idea has with organic farming and life at ARI. Technology also...
An Alternative View Food Safety

An Alternative View Food Safety

When purchasing food in my life, I haven’t thought much about where the food comes from or if the food is safe for me to eat. For me food safety is a comfort and is a comfort that I take for granted. For example if I went to a super market in America and saw this a...
Nature of Japan

Nature of Japan

Before coming to Japan, I held fairly common preconceptions about Japan’s technology and relationship to nature. I knew tech brand names, heard rumors of the wonders of the train systems, and had seen enough media images of Japan to associate Japan with a reverence to...

The Power of Food

I have taken a lot of time to formulate my response to the question, “What is good food?” After considering many aspects of food, like the way the food was grown, how it traveled or how it gets prepared, I have concluded that my answer is much simpler than that. After...