C.W. Nicol - The Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Aug 2, 2006

It was my first month of living in Tokyo, and I had just about gained enough courage to go into a little restaurant and order all by myself. I had come to Japan to study karate, and had just finished a hard training session at the Kodokan. I was thirsty, and so was delighted to see that not only did...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Jul 5, 2006

Fond memories will bloom forever

When I was a young lad in South Wales I used to collect, press and catalog wild flowers. Then I reached the age of 12 and went to an all-boys school in England, where my seniors soon taught me that flowers were for sissies. So I kept this love to myself.

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Jun 7, 2006

Have-nots put elite twits to shame

Right now, on one side of my house there is a profusion of green growing things and golden daffodils; on the other side there's the remnants of a huge bank made by the snow that fell off our roof. In the sunshine, that will vanish today.

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

May 3, 2006

Yearning for Canada's high north

I spent most of the latter part of March in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have friends and family there, and when the cherry and magnolia trees blossom and the mountains still gleam with snow, Vancouver is a very special place to be.

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Apr 5, 2006

Patrolling the seas from on high

On February 28 this year, I was invited by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force base at Hachinohe to give a lecture on naval history to the officers of Fleet Air Wing Two. So for me it was to be a sudden switch from the coral seas and pleasant climate of Okinawa (with which I regaled you in this...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Mar 1, 2006

Dead wood mars warm winter retreat

Once a year I try to spend time in Okinawa, if possible a month, during which I usually get a block of writing done. Okinawa is one of my favorite places in Japan, and nowadays I would say that it is where I most like to be in winter.

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Feb 1, 2006

'Twin' trip full of pleasant surprises

First of all, let me wish you a very happy new Year of the Dog, which Chinese people all over the world welcomed in last weekend.

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Jan 4, 2006

Letting laughter flow in our woods

Two years ago, we started running programs specially designed for visually challenged children in our forest near Kurohime among the Nagano Prefecture hills. Before getting started, our Afan Woodland Trust sent out a questionnaire asking the children what they would most like to do in the woods. The...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Dec 7, 2005

Creative destruction augurs well for woodland well-being

Coming into Tokyo earlier this year, a mountain lad like me might have thought the city was hosting a great convention of bank robbers. It seemed that half the population were masked and looking grim indeed. The problem, it seemed, was an allergy to the pollen from sugi (cryptomeria, or Japanese cedar)....

Features

Nov 27, 2005

Is it so hard to see the forest for the trees?

By C.W. NICOL

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Nov 2, 2005

Recalling fond memories of eiders

It's getting to that time of year when I air out my down-filled sleeping bag. No big field trips are planned for this year, but I do like to spend a few nights in the woods, a campfire going, with no phones (no, not even a cell phone), no television and no mosquitoes.

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Oct 5, 2005

Sad drumbeats in the wilderness

I made several visits to the Aichi Expo this year and met a lot of interesting people. But one person above all left an indelible impression. Soft-spoken, modest, and wearing traditional northern buckskin, his name was Michael Cazon -- a Dene drummer, teacher and healer from Fort Simpson in the Northwest...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Sep 1, 2005

Learning to enjoy where waters flow free

Every summer in Japan there is news of a few children drowning in rivers, and the message that comes from the media with those tragic stories is that rivers are dangerous and children should not go near them.

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Jul 7, 2005

Battling for nature in the face of greed and neglect

I started to buy neglected woodland on a mountainside near where I live in Nagano Prefecture more than 20 years ago. Together with a local forester (and now long-time friend), Nobuyoshi Matsuki, we began tending the woods. One of the delightful results was the blooming of hundreds of wild Calanthe discolor...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Jun 2, 2005

'Weed' of wonder fresh from the sea

I first consciously ate kelp when I came to Japan in 1962. Slowly stewed, it took the form of those small, almost black bows of a soft and tasty vegetable in the traditional, souplike dish of oden. Later I ate it wrapped around fish, or used it with dried bonito as a base for soup stock. I chose the...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

May 5, 2005

Swallow tales to silence those who speak with forked tongues

It was 1969, and I was driving our open-topped Mercedes Unimog to Asmara to get some building supplies and other gear not available in Gondar, the nearest town to the Simien Mountain National Park in Ethiopia where I was then a game warden.

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Apr 7, 2005

Birds of fine feather -- and taste

The Green or Common pheasant was adopted as the national bird of Japan in 1947, and a pair of these kiji used to decorate the 10,000 yen note. Recently however, the noble pheasant, symbol of masculine might and courage -- and, through its sudden agitated flying and crying, supposedly a prophet of earthquakes...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Mar 3, 2005

Unique 'twin' woods branch out

Our little Afan Woodland Trust here in Kurohime in Nagano Prefecture is twinned with the Afan Forest Park in South Wales. Most folk have heard of twinned cities (though I believe that Americans call them "sister cities"), but as far as I know, our twinning of forests is unique, and -- as sometimes happens...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Feb 3, 2005

No ends in sight to quell Matsuki's rage

Mr. Matsuki, our forester here at the Afan Woodland Trust in Kurohime, Nagano Prefecture, came to me just before Christmas in a very bad mood. He does get grumpy sometimes (he's quite famous for it), but this time he was very, very cross. He stormed into my house, not even bothering to say hello, came...

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Jan 6, 2005

Buckwheat booze lifts locals' spirits

The first flurries of snow usually fall here where I live in Kurohime in mid-November, just at the start of the hunting season.

author

Meta

Podcast

Longform

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

In your social network

In your inbox

In your social network

In your inbox