Category Archives: Environment

People Power – Part 2: Focus and Unite

Posted on April 30, 2022 by John Rachel

History teaches us that the more ennobling, inspiring periods of history, those occasional surges that we deem progress, result from substantial numbers of people focusing on the challenges and uniting their energies, dedication, determination, creativity and time. Focus and unite . . . the only solution. Continue reading →

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Life In Japan: Longing For Spring

Posted on February 4, 2022 by John Rachel

Kasai is a small town about an hour-and-a-half southwest of Tambasasayama. There’s a splendid rose garden there. We go almost every spring. Last visit, Masumi, her daughter Azusa, Azusa’s Black Labrador, JiJi, and I, arrived during the peak of the rose blossoms. Continue reading →

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Life In Japan: FBI

Posted on August 5, 2020 by johnrachel

Friends not familiar with Japan always express surprise when I tell them that camping is one of our favorite ways to tour the country. I have to remind them that Japan is not just cement and tall buildings with giant flat-panel displays advertising cafés, pachinko, and novelty shops. 70% of Japan is covered with forests. And we have an array of topological features which offer both stunning natural beauty and incredible variety: rivers, oceans, seas, mountains, valleys, hills, volcanoes, ponds, lakes, sand dunes, tropical rain forests (Okinawa), hundreds of kilometers of beaches, by golly even one semi-parched desert, finally, last but certainly not least, hundreds of islands. After all, Japan is an island! Continue reading →

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Life In Japan: School Lunch

Posted on June 29, 2020 by johnrachel

Here in Tambasasayama, “school lunch” has a special meaning. This weekend, in fact, Masumi-san and I had a “school lunch”. It was at a restaurant set up in one of the schools which is no longer functioning as an educational institution. The population here is shrinking. Fewer and fewer kids means closing schools and repurposing them. Continue reading →

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Life In Japan: Bamboo

Posted on March 31, 2019 by johnrachel

Unbeknownst to me in the dark days of my bambooless ignorance, this rather simple tree has a whole host of applications. Anyone from Asia needs to just bear with me here. This is all so obvious to you. But I’m embarrassed to have to admit, before I started traveling this hemisphere, I had no clue about bamboo. Continue reading →

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Life In Japan: Rice and Bean Fields

Posted on July 12, 2018 by johnrachel

Living in the rural area of Japan I now live in, I have to say, I’ve learned to appreciate the “cycle of life” as never before. Continue reading →

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Life In Japan: The Nesting Tree

Posted on April 24, 2018 by johnrachel

Great egrets and gray herons must number in the hundreds here in Sasayama. They can be seen everywhere, along the riverbanks, in the rice fields, soaring high overhead above our rustic town. Continue reading →

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Life In Japan: Clouds of Pollen in the Spring

Posted on April 25, 2017 by johnrachel

Nothing like some scientific knowledge to fill in the blanks, those blanks being the desolate stretches in our brains which result in a lack of understanding and appreciation for the magnificent workings of nature. Continue reading →

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Gay Whales

Posted on March 27, 2017 by johnrachel

I remember back in the 90s seeing a bumper sticker . . . Nuke the gay whales! I thought it was pretty funny at the time. But it’s no longer a joking matter. It’s now the newest battle cry in our president’s noble struggle to make America great again. Continue reading →

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What Red State vs. Blue State Looks Like To An Ant

Posted on July 30, 2016 by johnrachel

We are being kept disorganized and submissive by focusing on what divides us instead of what unites us. Bickering and name-calling only postpones serious efforts to address the greatest challenges we have ever faced and assures the inevitability of collapse and possible extinction of the human race. It’s time to put aside the “gang colors” of political parties and get some serious work done. We can start with the current election. If candidates don’t want to talk about real issues, they don’t deserve our votes. Continue reading →

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