Kurashi - News From Japan

The Tokyo Global Environmental Film Festival is Asia's first international environmental film festival. It was launched in 1992, the year of the Earth Summit. Its objective is to create a forum for the public to think about the global environment through moving images. EARTH VISION is working to strengthen cooperation with international film festivals inside Japan. They have strong international ties: European environmental film festivals participating in ECOMOVE International which EARTH VISION is also a founding member; the Green Film Festival in Seoul and the Green Film Festival in Taiwan, which we have supported since their launch. EARTH VISION would like to present excellent environmental films to the world by exchanging information and enhancing collaboration with our partners. English website Japanese website with details about the 18th Film Festival March 5-7, 2010. They clearly need volunteers who can help them make this a truly international festival, with more details ...

Nagoya is in the global spotlight as the city hosts the United Nations conference on biological diversity, starting on October 18, 2010 - in my opinion a much more important topic than how Toyota, with major factories in the city, will deal with its current crisis. We cannot afford to ignore biological diversity and genetic resources, and the ecosystems involving nature, plants, animals and humans are too complex to rebuild and once they are lost, what will we do about it? Local mayor Kawamura Takashi is fighting an uphill battle for this precious piece of forest, and has staked his reputation on the battle. Emergency Statement by activists who are trying to save Hirabara (English). Excellent reporting by Eric Johnston at The Japan Times about the Hirabari Satoyama east of the city of Nagoya: Despite a campaign that netted over 30,000 signatures, and the support of Academy Award-winning "anime" animation director Hayao Miyazaki to save the Hirabari tract from the bulldozers...

Steve Leeper speaks about nuclear proliferation and what is at stake in 2010. The Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation has this message from Mr. Leeper: Right now, we have a chance to shoot. Let’s not miss this opportunity. (7/January/2010) Happy New Year. Four more months. Mayor Akiba is leading a strong lobbying effort at the highest levels, both at home and abroad. The NPT Honbu he created within the Hiroshima municipal government is strengthening and coordinating the campaign activities of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, this Foundation, the 2020 Vision Campaign Association in Ypres, Belgium, and our friends and allies around the world. As a result, Mayors for Peace is growing fast and is working closely with other leading NGOs generating momentum demanding that the nuclear-weapon states begin now negotiating a nuclear-weapon-free world. The NPT Review Conference will begin on May 3. Luckily, President Obama will be doing his best to guide us ...

Kimberly Hughes posted this: While living in Tokyo for nearly the past decade as a community peace activist, I have had several opportunities to interact with people from Iraq (human rights journalists, pediatricians, and visual artists, to be precise) during their visits to Japan on grassroots-level exchanges organized by local peace groups. Each time, I came away from the experience with marvelous memories and new friendships. Last week, a fellow member of the Iraq Hope Network alerted members to two short theater acts taking place at Tiny Alice, a cozy theater in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. The only available information was a short blurb including the names of the performers and the titles of their pieces: “Abu Ghraib Prison” from the Mustaheel-Alice theater troupe in Baghdad, Iraq; and “Woman Sindyan” from SINDYANA in Tunisia. Knowing from experience that this could be an opportunity for another interesting encounter, I headed together with one of my most engaged university student...

Now, in early March, is the time to start thinking about which vegetables to farm this year, if you haven't already started like I did in mid January, when I joined Yanagido-san to help him plant daikon radish and carrots. 5-6 weeks later I can report that the daikon are doing well, with roots about 20-30 cm and lots of leaves. He thinks we had enough moisture in the soil, so the roots are"going for it" so to speak, going straight down. We pulled one of them up today and it was white and tasty but pencil thin. Later, the daikon root will expand and get the shape of a lady's leg, as they say here. The carrots appear to be more slow but that seems to be the way of nature, and I'm told we are on schedule. Today we put tiny negi leech onion seeds into special paper cups with soil and fertilizer. It was very difficult work but a lot of fun. The tiny seeds are black and almost as small as carrot seeds, but not as light. These are some very tiny packages of DNA. We put t...

Staying away from the beach today... NHK World : The Meteorological Agency says the estimated arrival time of the tsunami is 1 PM on the east coast of Hokkaido along the Pacific, and the Izu-Ogasawara Islands, 1:30 PM in Tohoku on the Pacific coast and in Kanto, 2 PM in Tokai, and 2:30 PM in Kansai and Shikoku along the Pacific, in the Satsunan Islands, and in Okinawa, 3 PM in eastern Kyushu, 3:30 PM in western Kyushu, and 4 PM on the coast in the Seto Inland Sea. 2010/02/28 09:47 (JST) JMA has the map . Update 18:45 The largest wave (or tide) seems to have been about 120 cm high in Iwate prefecture, and there are no reports of any major damage in Japan. From Chile, however, the reports indiacte that the situation is really bad.

May I introduce Mikael Wiehe from Malmö, Sweden, who has had an amazing career since the 1970s, on the "Silence" record label, and stayed very true and close to his roots, thinking about workers and people who don't have such an easy time. Live concert, winter of 2008. Here is a song to courage (modet, an ancient Swedish word for "brave") It is for all who dared to believe in love (kärlek or kär lek, "love play") Even though the night Is so long Here is a song to courage A little, simple song It may seem meaningless But I sing it Anyway Here is a song to courage For joy and hope and laughter It is for all who dared to believe in love Even though hatred is so strong For all who build bridges For all who let it in For all who think man can do, what he wants Here is a song to courage For those who say the truth For all who makes demands For those who knows how difficult it is And yet, they say, "yes" (Chorus 2.25) Here is a song for all of you W...