Singaporeans have a certain relationship with trains. Singapore’s MRT, or Mass Rapid Transit, is always either elevated or below ground (as a subway). Therefore, no one can walk on the tracks. During one of the class sessions before leaving for Japan, I made students share tourist photos that best exemplify the “tourist gaze.” One student showed a photo of her standing on some railroad tracks in Japan, thus doing something out of the ordinary, that she cannot do at home. Growing up in Iowa, where train tracks can be found in many small towns, I took for granted my ability to walk on or along the tracks, or to simply drive over them when needed. For my students, railroad tracks are something inaccessible, either high in the air or underground.

So, after our rafting excursion we waited for our train to arrive, and the students took advantage of their sudden proximity to railroad tracks to take dozens of photos of themselves in a range of poses. Alone or in groups, sitting or standing, or even jumping, they took so many shots I could hardly believe my eyes. So, I decided to take photos of them taking photos.

Photographs on railroad tracks.

Jumping for joy

Since we were at a tiny station – no ticket machine, no attendant, no shops, no vending machines – they were free to walk and jump around on the tracks. Their excitement for this is something I could have never imagined prior to this class, but I’m glad I was able to provide them the opportunity to make these memories.

Watari Station

After waiting about 20 minutes our train arrived and we continued to Oguni.

Day 5 of the field study:

We had an early departure from Minamata on Saturday morning. All of the students said farewell to their host families and promised to write. This is yet another example of the importance of international exchange. For most of the students it was their first homestay, enabling them to question their stereotypes about Japanese families, gender roles, and houses. On the ride to our next destination, I heard many comments about how host fathers helped in the house more than they expected and how much larger the homes were than they had learned in class.

After a one-hour taxi ride on winding roads in the mountains of southern Kumamoto, we arrived at Watari Station (32°14’11.87″N, 130°41’41.18″E). Then we walked a few minutes to the rafting company, Land Earth. A handful of cool young men in laid-back clothes greeted us. These men would be our river guides, causing some excited chatter among our students. After changing into wet suits and receiving helmets and life jackets, we were ready to get in the water and experience eco-tourism.

Boat #1

Boat #2

30 seconds after settling in the boats, we had our first casualty, when the guide pushed R out of his raft. This became a theme that followed us down the river. Because the water level was so low, the river was slow and lazy. Therefore, the guides had to create excitement. We rowed under a waterfall, slid down an agricultural water chute, jumped of a 3-meter cliff, splashed each other, and floated in our life jackets.

A happy group of rafters after getting drenched in a waterfall.

Doing our best impression of synchronized swimmers.

Floating in the cool river.

Balance everyone!

The guides also purposefully flipped our rafts, took us down one set of rapids sideways, and did a number of other things to help us enjoy the lazy rapids. Everyone had fun, as one can see from the smiling faces.

The Hitoyoshi steam locomotive traveling upstream.

The entire trip took about three hours, although it would have been less than one-third that if we had actually paddled the entire way. We left the river at Isshouchi Station ( 32°15’4.94″N, 130°39’15.38″E) and took a bus back to our starting point, where we changed clothes and prepared to continue our trip by rail.

The rest of the day was a long train ride to Aso Station, then a long bus ride to Oguni town.

By the way, all photos courtesy of Land Earth rafting company.

Day 4 of the field study

This morning began with a visit to the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum. This museum is built on a small hill overlooking what used to be a bay, but is now acres of land that was reclaimed. Unlike the land reclamation in Isahaya, this area was reclaimed for more tragic reasons, since it was contaminated with mercury runoff for decades from a factory owned by the Chisso company.

The museum features video, stories, maps, photographs, and other items related to Minamata disease, first recognized in the 1950s. Some of the videos are difficult to watch, including those of children with congenital Minamata disease and cats fed sludge full of mercury from Minamata Bay. Cats were the first to show signs of mercury poisoning, unable to walk straight, falling uncontrollably.

We heard a one-hour talk from a Minamata disease sufferer, then the students walked around the memorial space outside the museum.

Student interpreting for disease sufferer.

Students with the disease sufferer after the lecture.

Students at the Minamata Disease Memorial.

Then we went to lunch, a simple meal of chirashi zushi and soup. Afterwards, we walked to City Hall, where we heard a lecture from a public employee about the environmental efforts of Minamata. The most drastic measure has been that the city requires its residents to separate its garbage into 24 different types: cans (steel and aluminum), glass (four different colors), burnable, paper (cardboard, newspaper, catalogs, office paper), etc. It really is a remarkable system. The city claims that the residents accept this system without complaint. In fact, our speaker said that the monthly separation day offers neighbors an opportunity to communicate with each other.

Lecture at Minamata City Hall.

The students seemed interested in all of the amazing efforts by the city to create a new environmental image in the wake of disaster. They listened intently and asked questions.

Power supply for Kumamoto Prefectural vehicles is just in front of the main entrance at City Hall.

An eco-friendly car parked at City Hall.

Monitoring equipment noting the current power generated (top) by the solar panels on the City Hall roof, along with the total power generated so far that day (bottom).

Once the presentation finished, we walked to a local NPO that arranges farmstays and other activities mostly for student groups who visit Minamata and the neighboring town of Izumi, in Kagoshima Prefecture. There we heard from the leader of a group that supports Minamata disease sufferers.

Minamata River

After this long and tiring day, the students returned for a second night at their homestays. I was relieved to have some free time again, and I enjoyed a terrific meal at an izakaya. It beat the meal at Mos Burger from the previous night, when I was too tired to walk very far. I did enjoy going to Mos Burger, though, since its efforts also tie into the environmental theme. Each restaurant has a chalkboard or some other way of indicating where some of its fresh vegetables come from. For instance, according to the board below, both the lettuce and tomatoes I ate were grown in Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture. I think this is a fascinating change to fastfood, taking food origins seriously.

Sashimi, which was one of almost ten dishes in my dinner set.

“Today’s Vegetables” at MosBurger.

Day 3 of the field study:

We took an early train from Isahaya to Minamata City, enabling us to ride the new Kyushu Shinkansen.

Sign hanging inside the train.

It was great to experience this new train, although I’m not convinced the huge investment will ever pay off. There was already a reliable and fairly rapid rail service linking Fukuoka to Kagoshima. The Shinkansen makes the trip more fast, but with so many low-cost airlines now operating to cities around Kyushu and more people than ever owning automobiles, is the bullet train really necessary?

The train was beautiful, filled with aesthetic choices that reflected what one might call a traditional Japanese sensitivity. For example, the window shades were made of narrow and intricately-woven reeds.

Students enjoying their first ride on the Kyushu shinkansen.

The interior of the mostly empty car.

A garbage can made of woven bamboo, instead of the usual plastic or metal.

We stopped for a few hours in Kumamoto City to tour the castle.

Elementary school students on a field trip, viewing a well used during sieges.

Our guide explaining the fortifications of the castle, including the steep wall.

A man dressed as the famous swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi, who lived and has a tomb in Kumamoto.

After our tour we had an unusual lunch, consisting of items based on past menus of the lords of Higo domain (previous name of Kumamoto). The dishes were more bland than most of today’s foods. However, it was a memorable experience for all of us.

Beautiful dishes, including this unusual spherical container for rice.

Lunch is by reservation only.

While the castle has nothing to do with the theme of ecotourism, some of the students very perceptively noticed some theme park aspects of the castle, like the characters dressed in costume (including Musashi and a ninja), which reminded some of them of Huis ten bosch. After our tour and some free time, we continued by rail to Shin-Minamata station, and the students met their homestay families.

All the participants and some friends at Kumamoto Castle (bottom image zoomed).

Day two of the field study:

In addition to learning about the issues associated with Isahaya Bay, we also enjoyed Isahaya hospitality. To be specific, we were treated to two meals at Nagasaki Wesleyan University (NWU), hosted by Professor Joseph Romero (below) and his students.

The sign at the NWU Peace Chapel

Lunch followed a short tour of the NWU campus. NWU was founded more than 100 years ago in Nagasaki City. It was destroyed by the atomic bomb and relocated to Isahaya. It is a small campus on a hill, with a student enrollment of around 500. They call themselves a small university with a big heart.

The NWU students were incredible. They were all dressed as if for job interviews, making me think they were young staff when we first stepped off the bus. We ate bentos with them in a classroom that had been turned into a trendy cafe, down to the checkered tablecloths.

The NWU students had such positive energy and a genuine excitement to see us, making us feel incredible welcome. Many of the NUS students had previous experience interacting with Japanese students, either in Japan or at NUS. Their past encounters had all been with students reticent to share anything about themselves or to ask questions. However, on this day we were all overwhelmed by how outgoing the NWU students were. They got our NUS students to open up, creating the perfect example of why intercultural exchange is so critical.

Leaving NWU after lunch, on our way to Isahaya City Hall.

After lunch we had our city hall lecture and toured the reclamation project. Then, in the evening, we returned to NWU for dinner. We were welcomed by a tunnel of students at the entrance. I haven’t had this experience since my last day teaching English in Kumamoto 13 years ago.

At night there were twice as many students as at noon, all in the same room as lunch. There were candles on the tables and music playing. It all created quite a mood. It reminded me of a host bar, with all of the young NWU men chatting with the NUS students (9 women and only one man). It was all innocent fun, though, and once again we got a terrific lesson on the benefits of international exchange.

Thank you to everyone at Nagasaki Wesleyan University!

Day two of our field study began with us leaving Huis ten bosch. The park is nothing like Disneyland, which has characters and theme rides, nor does it have the kind of thrill rides that characterize many other parks found around the United States – no vomit-inducing roller coaster or spinning rides. In fact, it appears to struggle to lease the space it has. So many buildings are simply vacant, looking like homes with the residents on permanent vacation (perhaps at Disneyland).

Despite the lack of planned things to do, I leave the park with a heavy heart, wanting to linger for a few more hours in its narrow brick streets. I enjoy seeing the facades change in the shifting light, and I like watching the swans paddle in the canal. If not for the continuous music playing throughout the park, one would call Huis ten bosch incredibly peaceful, almost meditative.

Morning at the Forest Villas.

Leaving the Forest Villas.

Crossing the bridge toward the train station.

Our group.

We left by train at 9:45 and traveled to Isahaya, a small city of 140,000 located in the center of Nagasaki Prefecture. Isahaya is not particularly beautiful, nor is it historically important. In fact, it would not likely appear on anyone’s 10-day itinerary to Japan. However, it now lies at the center of a controversy that is over 50 years in the making. And like all of the best controversies, this one has more than two sides, involves government waste and corruption, incorporates parties at a range of geographic scales, is not easily resolved, and threatens to tear the community apart.

There is a helpful layer in Google Earth that shows a United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) summary of the land reclamation project that is at the heart of the Isahaya controversy. The UNEP mark is located at (32°57’34.90″N, 130°13’4.22″E); however, this explanation is only a fraction of the larger story.

My interest in Isahaya is fairly recent and began with a passing curiosity in large public works projects that have been used for over a century by the Japanese government as a way to spur economic and social development. This has especially been the case in the postwar era, when a need for land, water, power and other infrastructure for industrial growth led to the reclamation of land in relatively shallow bays and coastlines, as well as the construction of hundreds of dams, roads, bridges, and tunnels. In many cases, the construction projects themselves have been used as economic drivers, bringing jobs to rural areas during building phases.

Construction projects have been the cornerstone of numerous redevelopment and revitalization projects, whether it be building a theme park to attract visitors or a new port to help villages improve their fishing industries. Another main reason given for construction projects is risk prevention, such as weirs and other works to regulate the shape and flow of rivers, with the desire to reduce the loss of life in the case of a natural disaster. Whatever the aim, these various projects all involve the pouring of concrete, which many (most notably Alex Kerr and Gavan McCormack) have complained have despoiled Japan’s natural landscapes.

Isahaya has been in the news lately because the Fukuoka District Court ruled in December 2010 that the huge reclamation project completed several years ago was done without adequate environmental assessment. Now, the court has ruled that two gates of a dike separating the Ariake Sea from the new farmland must be opened. In a major change from previous administrations, Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced that the government would not appeal the court’s decision, meaning that after three years of preparatory work, the gates must be opened and remain open for five years.

In much of the Japanese news media, this court ruling has been presented as a victory for the fishermen from around the Ariake Sea, who complained that the construction of the 7-km dike in Isahaya Bay damaged the water quality in the sea and led to decreased catches. In a country becoming more “green”, the court ruling appears to show that Japan’s new concern for the environment can even upend long-standing collusive ties between politicians, bureaucrats, and the immense construction industry. The media has also hailed the decision as a referendum on the scale and number of now-questionable public works projects proposed and carried out by the state. In a similar vein, a dam under construction in Kumamoto Prefecture was recently scrapped because of the high costs and questionable reasons for its construction.

We visited Isahaya City Hall to hear from members of the land reclamation division. After a short lecture, they drove us to the site of the reclaimed land, then onto the dike that is at the center of the controversy.

Lecture on the Isahaya Bay Land Reclamation Project.

Explanation at the wall protecting the newly-created wetlands from the farmland.

Students learning about the farmlands created by land reclamation, some of the most productive and highly-efficient lands in Japan.

The wetlands created by the project. They are within the freshwater that is used for agriculture.

The dike separating the Ariake Sea (left) from the new freshwater reservoir (right). The mountains of Unzen are in the distance.

More to come from Isahaya.

In the fall of 2010 I had this crazy idea to do a short field study in Japan that explored ecotourism and current controversies regarding the construction state, like huge public projects to build dams and reclaim land. Since I know Kyushu best, I decided it best to run the field study there.

I applied for funding from several agencies to help reduce the cost to students. I anticipated that I would only propose the field study in 2010 and possibly travel for a few days by myself in 2011 to give it a dry run, then hopefully receive funding in 2012 and then run the field study with students.

To my surprise, I received all three sources of funding that I applied for, thereby allowing me to recruit, interview, and select ten excellent students from the National University of Singapore to participate in the field study.

The field study began with five days of intensive classes (May 9-13) at NUS (six hours a day) on ecotourism, Japanese political economy, research methods, and case studies of the four locations we’re visiting. Then we left for Japan early Tuesday morning, flying direct from Singapore to Fukuoka. Upon arrival, we went straight to Hakata Station to validate our rail passes.

The central hall of Hakata Station. The tile work was done in Arita, Saga Prefecture. I was fortunate to stumble upon the factory in the summer of 2010 and see the tiles being made. It is incredible to see them installed.

The special Huis ten bosch train from Hakata to the theme park.

Huis ten bosch Station.

Then we took the train to Huis ten bosch, the Dutch theme park in Nagasaki that is renowned for its extensive environmental planning. This includes the most advanced waste water treatment plant in the country, the creation of a wetlands on a failed industrial site, and a power-generation system that is highly efficient and relatively eco-friendly.

Inside Huis ten bosch

Dutch-inspired architecture in a Japanese theme park. The buildings remind me so much of Pella, Iowa, where I attended Central College as an undergraduate.

We had a tour of the recycling, power, and waste-generation systems, and got to walk underground where the extensive pipes for water, electricity and other essentials run. No above-ground wires here, and never a break in a water main (in 19 years) since the pipes are climate controlled in a below-ground tunnel that can be easily walked through.

Our tour leader with students.

The lecture before the tour.

Sign on the floor of the power plant. This is actually a popular tour with school groups. All 5th grade students at Sasebo schools take the tour of Huis ten bosch.

Walking to the power plant.

Inside the plant.

After the tour, students had free time to explore the theme park, which has had a problematic economic past, including going into bankruptcy at least once. As of 2010 it is owned by HIS, the Japanese travel company, and it is reportedly turning a profit. However, the park is not completely open, with two hotels currently undergoing renovations. There were few guests while we were there. So many potential shops are closed that some areas feel like a ghost town, which is sad. A lifeless Dutch village in Japan.

So Dutch!

We stayed in the three villas on the right, overlooking this placid pond.

Regardless of the lack of other visitors, we enjoyed our stay, learning more about the theme park’s environmental efforts that we previously knew, and having a taste of Europe without the long flight.

Students enjoying the church square.

Evening descends on Huis ten bosch.

Stay tuned for Day 2!

This is my teaching and research blog at the National University of Singapore.

The primary purpose of this space is to document my Field Studies in Japan module, which I lead annually since May 2011.

I also use this space to discuss work I am engaged in, struggling with, excited about, and otherwise mulling over.