MORI NO SEIKATSU (FOREST LIFE)

It is currently finals time here in Japan, semester hell take #2. Just in time for the sun to finally come out in what has been an unusually rainy start to the summer in Hokkaido.

Last weekend I was finally able to escape Sapporo. I hadn’t realised how long it had been since I had left the city until I sat down in the bus and watched the city scape turn to those long stretching roads famous to Hokkaido’s countryside. It had been a while since I had felt that twinge in my gut, that feeling of excitement of going somewhere new.

However it was not that much needed relaxing weekend away. As part of a university class we were to travel to small town of Shimokawa, located about 3 hours north of Sapporo with a population of about 3,800 people.

Us 20 odd students were to do fieldwork in the town by talking to locals, collecting media and writing our observations that we would later use to help suggest ways to encourage tourism in Shimokawa. On our final morning we were to then present our findings in Japanese to the town mayor and tourism representatives.

So Sunday night the 8 of us staying in the local hostel ‘Andgram’ were up to early morning preparing after a day of data collecting.

I sat upon my bunk bed flicking through the most upbeat EDM tracks to keep us awake as I edited footage I had taken the last two days.Across the room one group composed of two Taiwanese girls and one Singapore swapped between Chinese, Singlish, Japanese and English as they spoke, collaborating putting together a presentation. From the top bunk above them my own partner, Marielle from the Philippines checked my progress as she showed me her laptop monitor with the slides she had made.

Every day I am amazed at the nationalities that surrounded me.

Downstairs we could hear the cheers and disappointed shouts of those watching the final battle of France vs Croatia in the world cup.

It was probably about 3am when we finally called it a night before awaking again 4 hours later the next morning at 7.

Refilling my coffee mug for the second time, I added music to the footage I had edited the previous night and showed my partner. Then shortly after we headed to the community building to give a presentation in Japanese we had not rehearsed at all.

I have attached our (shaky...) footage here. Our theme the beautiful forest of Shimokawa the town specialty of producing essential oils from the tree found in the forest.