Kurashi - News From Japan

Care for healthy food and want to join the discussion how to make it better, here in Japan... Busy weekend! How about joining the Japan Organic Agriculture Association conference in Tokyo this weekend? JOAA is the oldest organic group in Japan, founded in 1970. They are known abroad for their work promoting teikei, which is a system to connect farmers and consumers. While similar schemes have evolved in other countries, like the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) trend, teikei is about more - how agriculture can support communities. I will speak in a panel on Sunday March 8, but there is a lot to do and enjoy during the 2 days, including films and seminars by Japanese organic farmers and experts. For more, check out the JOAA website about teikei (E) and details about the conference (J) on March 7-8, 2015 at the Kokugakuin University in Shibuya. Tema: Healthy food and soil for our children. If you are in Kumamoto, you can attend the GMO Free Zone Meeting on Saturday Marc...

What a lot of travels and what everyone here calls the 連休 (renkyuu, consecutive days off) or "Golden Week" but here are some links that I think are important. Andrew DeWit has a great take on Obama's visit and how a US-Japan Green Alliance may be the key to the future. Heavy on military information but why not? The Pentagon apparently is way ahead of whoever-is-in-charge here in Japan when it comes to visions for defense that will not depend on oil. Japan Focus: Could a US-Japan “Green Alliance” Transform the Climate-Energy Equation? There was no emphasis on US-Japan military cooperation on climate change, even though the US military itself has for years identified climate change as the mother of all threats, including fully 8 detailed references to “climate change” and its consequences in its March 4, 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR 2014). Indeed, the American green military-industrial complex is openly calling for NATO to focus even more on climate ch...

Kyushu is rather very far away from Tokyo, and has been that way since time immemorial when the good people in Satsuma (Kagoshima) refused to go along with/only reluctantly accepted the bakufu (Edo/Tokyo), and the rest is history. I had the pleasure of visiting these southern parts of Japan, staying at Kurokawa Onsen, and then I went further to Yakushima, an island with great cedar trees that are up to 7000 years old. Some 40% of the island is protected. Shiratani and Yakusugi Land provide the kind of hiking I had always dreamt of. But the local harbour and the main roads along the coast are being "developed"and there is a lot of construction going on. You can get a terrific cappuccino at the   Yakushima Island Environmental and Cultural Village Center 屋久島環境文化村センター (yakushima kankyou bunka mura senta) One helpful guide who had previously been in the Self Defense Forces but was now working at Shiratani told me that the busy road projects w...

Coal mining is a dirty job, but someone has to do it... And in Tagawa, Fukuoka prefecture on Kyushu, they have turned it into a tourist attraction complete with a Coal Mine Festival . And now they are taking their show on the road. Don't miss the Tankou-bushi Festival at Nippori JR station in Tokyo (East Exit) in collaboration with the Nippori Yume Donya. The Tankou-bushi tune, which is a popular dance at many summer festivals all over Japan, laments the hard days and nights of people in a small mining town. The movements of the slow, walking-style dance copy the way coal is dug out of the mine and thrown on cars in the mine shafts. Well, kind of. As with any dance, it looks a lot better than that! Here is a Youtube video from an event this summer in Hayama, where 佐野 真澄 （Gacya） leads her ensemble (complete with a trombone) and the crowd just can't stop dancing on the beach. Can it be more "Summertime in Japan" than this? The Sunday, September 2 show in Nippo...

Hope you are all surrounded by great people, someone special, here is Maia Hirasawa's new hit, The Best Team. I saw this on the huge HD video screen near Takadanobaba station, walking back from work at Consumers Union of Japan late one night a few days ago. More about Maia in Japanese here . Just a year ago, she was recording Boom! for the new Kyushu Shinkansen , a terrific tune. En, två, tre... Lycka till!! Update: The original video for the Boom! Kyushu Shinkansen start for March 12, 2011 has been added, here it is: One comment is, that it was so sad that this was not able to be aired in March back then, due to the Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, 2011. "I am moved to tears," writes teruterubouzu126, and "I got to like this song a lot, thanks for the translation," says ft2465. "How many times have I watched this, I'm still so moved!" writes 506tks. There is also a 25 minutes long video of the entire trip from Fukuoka City to Kagoshima, throug...

If you like trains (and music!) as much as I do, here is a new Shinkansen line that is just a must. Starting in March 2011, the island of Kyushu got its first real super express train line. And they just love it over there. The first ride was filmed on February 20, 2011 and a lot of people showed up. Do have a look. Superexp translated what the narratar says: That day, Thank you for your wavings, Thank you for your smiles, Thank you for your cooperation. Kyushu-Shinkansen starts now. In Kyushu, we are full of new power. From Kyushu, we should deliver happiness to all over Japan. With you all, Kyushu-Shinkansen starts now. Great song (Boom!) by Maia Hirasawa, from Sollentuna, Sweden. Isn't life amazing? How connected we are. It is a small planet, after all. Maia is based in Sweden, and did charity concerts this spring in Gothenburgh and Stockholm. As the March 11 earthquake and tsunami happened, the good people in Kyushu decided it was not the time to celebrate too much. Rather, ...