Travel and Food

Visit the gold mines of Sado Island, which became a World Cultural Heritage site in 2024. We will tour the Sado Magistrate's Office, the Sōdayū Mine, Dōyū no Warito, and the Kitazawa Flotation Plant, tracing the approximately 400 years of history and culture born from the gold mines, from the labor of vagrants to Zeami, literature and film, Mumyōi pottery, and the town of Aikawa.

Walk through Niigata's Furumachi district and experience the dance of Furumachi geisha and cuisine at the long-established restaurant "Nabechaya." From the history of Niigata, a port town that prospered from Kitamae ships, to its geisha district, restaurant culture, and the background that fostered the Furumachi geisha, we will explore its history.

Visit the Northern Culture Museum in Niigata and trace the history of the Ito family, one of the most prominent wealthy farming families in Echigo. From the rice and land of the Echigo Plain, to the large landowning system, magnificent mansions and gardens, tea rooms, ceramics and crafts, we will explore, with local photographs, why "wealthy farmers" emerged in Niigata.

From the Ryugenji mine shaft of the Iwami Silver Mine to Yunotsu Onsen, climbing kilns, Iwami Kagura dance, and Izumo Taisha Shrine, I re-examine my 2019 trip to Shimane from my current perspective as I've started pottery and accessory making, tracing the process by which silver, clay, paper, sand, and rice transformed into culture.

Starting from the Tobacco and Salt Museum in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, this tour traces the origins of tobacco, the Age of Discovery and slavery, Japan's monopoly system, advertising and packaging, cigars, and tobacco trays. It interprets world history and design history through a familiar luxury item.

We will receive prayers at Meiji Jingu Shrine and experience Kagura dance, sacred sake, and votive offerings. We will walk through the Meiji Jingu Garden, visiting the Kakun-tei pavilion, Kiyomasa's well, irises, and the 100-year-old artificial forest, and consider its relationship to Harajuku, which has developed outside of it.

At the Gion Festival, we witnessed the tea ceremony performed by the head of the Omotesenke school at Yasaka Shrine. We experienced the floats, the tea ceremony rooms, and the Ichiriki-tei tea ceremony firsthand, and explored the connections within Kyoto culture through the tea ceremony, from Rokkakudo Temple, to the plays "Hana Ikusa" and "Kanadehon Chushingura," to the geisha districts and chimaki (rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves).

I've climbed Mount Kiso-Komagatake twice, and encountered ptarmigan both times. I'll share my experiences and photos, from the glacial topography of Senjojiki Cirque, the seasonal changes in ptarmigan feathers, conservation activities in the Central Alps, to Nogaike Pond, Komagai Pond, Kozenji Temple, and even Komagane's famous katsudon (pork cutlet rice bowl).

This book compares Nonomura Ninsei's national treasure, the "Polychrome Pheasant Incense Burner," which I saw in Kanazawa, with works by Ninsei and Ogata Kenzan that I saw at the Nezu Museum. It analyzes the polychrome enamel, form, patterns, and negative space of Kyoto ware, and introduces how this was applied to the actual production of polychrome tea bowls, along with photographs of the production process.

I visited Ippodo Tea Shop in Teramachi during the Gion Festival in Kyoto. Using Miyako Watanabe's "The Taste of Tea" as a guide, I will consider how the "taste of tea" is created in relation to matcha, thick and thin tea, tea ceremony practice, the seasons, and the tools used.