Author: travel67

Ugly Overhead Wires – Shifting Baselines

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In response to a few comments to the previous post… Do people get used to having electrical wires stretching through the sky, I’m sure. Does this lessen the frustration you might otherwise have, probably. Does it mean that it is no longer a problem, not at all. The phenomenon of shifting baselines as applied in fisheries and ecology is that the perception of what a “healthy” ecosystem is worsens as we get used to successive levels of damage. In Okinawa this idea could be applied to the coral reefs, the forests, beaches or the presence of wiring and concrete poles. Here’s a short public service announcement that explains a little more:

Ugly Overhead Wires

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Last weekend was cloudy and rainy. Rather than taking photos of cherry blossom I was stuck inside sitting at the computer. Then, following a gust of wind, my internet connection went dead. I phoned NTT (on my mobile) and after confirming that one of the green lights on the modem was no longer lit, then sent around an engineer. Turns out that the telephone line had been bent out of shape by the branches of a swaying tree. I didn’t ask, but I wonder how many people lose their phone, internet or electricity when typhoons bring much stronger winds. Isn’t it time that Okinawa thought about burying some of these cables? This isn’t a new idea, a few years ago I had a monthly column in the Asahi Weekly newspaper. Here’s the column from March 2004. Power to the People I can see the ocean from my living room window. This may sound idyllic, but running directly in front of my house is a mass of wires. Concrete pillars support various sets of electrical and …

Island Icons – Dolphin Trainers

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Dolphin Delight Ryo Nakasone and Azusa Watanabe are dolphin trainers at Okinawa’s Expo Park. Ryo Nakasone grew up in Motobu not far from the aquarium where he now works. While at high school in Naha he was a champion boxer and was scouted by Nihon University where he fought in the light-fly weight class while a student. After graduation, he returned to his hometown and began working at Expo Park. Now 29, he has been a dolphin trainer for five years. Azusa Watanabe majored in fisheries studies at Nagasaki University. She moved to Okinawa four months ago, and at age 23, is the aquarium’s newest dolphin trainer. What types of dolphin live at Expo Park? “There are 82 species of dolphin in the world, and we have five species living here at Expo. They are the Pacific white-sided dolphin, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, rough-toothed Dolphin, bottlenose dolphin and false killer whale.” I heard a rumor that killer whales are actually a type of dolphin? “It is true; they are part of the same biological family Delphinidae. …

Nagoya

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I’ve been busy the last few days writing a Best of Nagoya article.  I spent two weeks  in and around the city in March 2008 collecting information and taking photographs, but it is only now that I am finally getting around to converting my scrawled notes into what will hopefully become coherent sentences. Unfortunately a few things have happened in Nagoya over the last couple of years that have rendered images and possible recommendations a little redundant. The Villagio Italia an Italian themed mini mall was so kitsch  it was wonderful. It had its own Venetian canal, boutiques selling Carnevale masks, and a supermarket stocked with Italian wines, cheeses and pasta. You could even have a gelata while sitting beneath Michelangelo’s David. Unfortunately less than 2 months after my visit it closed. Then a month later, Kyu the star attraction of the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium died. And today, just a moment after writing about “the local textile firm that became the world’s largest automaker,” I hear that Toyota is suffering from its biggest crisis in …

On the Bookshelf – Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographer / A Propos de Paris

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Last Christmas both my parents and my brother gave me books on photography by Henri Cartier-Bresson. It turns out that by blogging about what is on my bookshelf, they were able to deduce what wasn’t there. Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer is a comprehensive collection of Cartier-Bresson’s work spanning the years 1926 to 1979 and includes images from France, Mexico, China, Russia, and even Japan. In Henri Cartier-Bresson: À Propos de Paris he delves deeper into his relationship with Paris. One aspect of his images I find fascinating is his ability to get fly-on-the-wall shots where the presence of the photographer is unnoticed or ignored. I have never used Leica cameras, but their compact size would not only make the photographer more maneuverable, I presume, it also reduces the impact the photographer has on the scene. Subjects would have behaved differently for example if he’d used a giant camera like my Pentax 67 that tends to get stared at rather than ignored (Not to mention the rifle-like crack of the Pentax’s shutter). My favorite Cartier-Bresson image can be …

Island Icons – Gerontologist Craig Willcox (extended interview)

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The interview I did with Dr. Craig Willcox went on far longer than the single page that appeared  in the magazine. I have posted the extended version of the interview below for those who are interested. Gerontologist Craig Willcox Okinawa’s most valuable asset is its people. This month we meet Doctor Craig Willcox a Professor of International Public Health & Welfare and Gerontology at Okinawa International University. Dr. Willcox is a principal investigator in the Okinawa Centenarian Study, which has brought global attention to the healthy lifestyles of Okinawa’s oldest citizens. When did you first hear about Okinawan longevity? “While at the University of Toronto I participated in a study investigating how nutrition and other factors were associated with healthy survival. One group we were looking at was Japanese Canadians in the province of Ontario and this is when I first met Toku Oyakawa. Oyakawa-san was 105; he’d been born in Nago City (in northern Okinawa) and later emigrated to Canada. He was living a traditional Okinawan lifestyle in Canada, which suggested that Okinawan health …