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
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
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
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...
Altering Nature: Nasu Canal
Within our first week at the Asian Rural Institute (ARI), we were taken on a tour of the Nasu canal and learned of its importance. The Nasu canal provides accessible water to the adjacent Nasu plain which enables farmers to irrigate and farm the land. But this was not...
What do ARI’s agricultural methods and ideology reflect the mode of proper human-nature relationships?
It has already been two weeks since we started our program. In recent days we spent most of time at ARI where we learnt about the natural agriculture contributed to the foodlife works of there. We did chores in the morning and afternoon, receive lectures from Yukiko...
Nature in Japan
When I think about Japan, one of the first things that cross my mind is nature. From what I heard and what I saw in the past, I always had in mind that nature was embedded in the Japanese culture and that the people in the country had a healthy relationship with...
Environmental Engineering in Japan
After going to the see the Nasau Canal today, I found myself thinking a lot about the contrasting examples we have looked at so far involving environmental engineering to alter the land in a specific area. The Nasau Canal was made by pure human-power, and was done so...