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November 23, 2024
 

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C.W. Nicol
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 7, 2010
Winter warmth, home and away
A friend just sent me a satellite photograph taken last month of the whole of Britain blanketed in white, and wrote about the homeless folk dying in extremely cold weather in Poland. Perhaps some people will doubt that global warming is happening at all after this winter — little realizing that it...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 3, 2010
Nature's oaken towers of power
Have you ever looked closely at the peak of a Western general's uniform cap — or that of an admiral or chief of police — or at their epaulettes?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 6, 2009
Clubhouse rooms with a view
Over the last 22 years we have had many guests visiting our woods up here in the Kurohime hills of Nagano Prefecture. However, their numbers have shot up since we converted our holdings into being The C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust in 2002.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 1, 2009
Wildlife returns to our well-kept woods
Our Afan Woodland Trust here in the Kurohime hills of Nagano Prefecture has entered into a joint project with the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Management at Azabu University to study woodland biodiversity and the results of our methods of woodland management.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 4, 2009
A pig of a weed — I kudzu you not
Looking out through the large picture window at the back of my house, I had a view through a little wood of Japanese oaks, mountain cherries and chestnuts of our small vegetable plot, a lovely wide hay meadow and more woods clothing the foothills of Iizuna mountain that rises on the horizon.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 6, 2009
My key connection
It was 1954 and the summer holidays were over. The family had moved a few miles south from Tewkesbury to Cheltenham in the beautiful county of Gloucestershire in the west of England, and I had been transferred from the one town's boys grammar school to the other's.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 2, 2009
My 'honey trap' sauna
In the little woods just behind my house I have a big wooden outdoor bath and a sauna, with lockers beside the sauna door for people to put their towels and clothes in.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 5, 2009
Mud, mud, marvelous mud
About 20 years ago I had a large pond dug in our Afan woods up here in the Nagano Prefecture hills. It was in a place that was always waterlogged when the snow melted, and in spring there were lots of puddles that became home to thousands of tadpoles. But then, as the weather warmed up, the puddles would...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 7, 2009
Anybody for chips?
In national parks, gardens, woodlands and any other places where people frequently walk in natural settings, the pathways and places where they gather pose many problems to owners, managers and anybody who is concerned with the comfort and safety of the visitors and also the integrity of the habitat....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 5, 2009
Swapping snow for a rain forest
Although there was very little snow this winter here where I live in the Nagano Prefecture hills, it was still good to have an excuse to get away from the cold, and the excuse this time was to present a prize for the writer and illustrator of a book for little children.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 1, 2009
Our woodland trust just keeps on growing
Last month, thanks to a very generous donation, we were able to add another whopping 119,088 sq. meters to our Afan Woodland Trust down the road from my home in the Nagano Prefecture hills outside Kurohime. This brings our total to 296,070 sq. meters — about twice the area we had when we set up the...
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 1, 2009
Mucking about with horses
In Britain when I was a lad in the 1940s and '50s, horses were still a common sight in the streets. Although horse-drawn carriages had pretty well vanished except for those used for ceremonial purposes, delivery wagons ladened with milk, coal and beer were commonly pulled by horses.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 4, 2009
You can't beat country life
I was down in Kyushu with some Japanese friends last year, just sipping a few drinks and chatting. The conversation turned to kabu and became very serious and somewhat gloomy. Quite honestly, I wasn't really following it all, but I felt I had to put in my two-pennies' worth.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 3, 2008
Oh, no: It's not a Christmas pud
The Christmas season may be grinding ever closer, and the creation in the photograph below is almost the right color and shape, but it's most certainly not a Christmas pudding.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 5, 2008
'The proudest day of my life'
Apart from a few experimental trees, it is not our policy to grow non-native plants in our woodland trust here in the hills of Nagano Prefecture.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 1, 2008
Helping a healthy river flow
My eldest daughter, Miwako, gave birth to twin girls in March of this year, raising the number of my grandchildren to five. So, when my busy schedule finally permitted, I recently nipped over to Vancouver to see them all and to help out Miwako and her partner, Don McCubbing, by being houseboy and chief...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 3, 2008
Thinking out of the box
Twenty something years ago, when we started to buy badly abused and neglected woodland here in the Nagano Prefecture hills, one of the problems that became very obvious was the lack of housing. Not for me, but for the woodland creatures.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 6, 2008
City gone wild
In June this year I took a group of Japanese friends and members of our Afan Woodland Trust up here in the Nagano hills on a trip to Britain. We went on an All Nippon Airways tour designed for people with an interest in ecology and nature restoration, and we visited our "twin" forest, the Afan Argoed...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 2, 2008
The right way to reconstruct rivers
It's the end of June and, after three weeks of travel, I'm back at my desk in Kurohime up here in the beautiful hills of Nagano Prefecture.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 4, 2008
To cage or not to cage?
I was born in 1940, in Neath, South Wales. My father went off to war and my mother took me to live in the relative safety of rural Suffolk in eastern England, where the Luftwaffe's bombers seldom attacked. There, she worked as a nanny for rich people's offspring. It was pretty tough for my Mum, but she...
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Saitama court bans demonstrations over anti-Kurd hate speech
Kurdish people in Japan in 2015. A court injunction has banned acts that defame the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association and are disrespectful, such as putting up banner flags or handing out fliers with hate speech like “Refugees should go back to their home countries.”
China reinstates visa-free travel for Japanese nationals
Beijing Daxing International Airport
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan carrying navy’s ‘most capable fighter’
U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Fred Kacher speaks to reporters shortly after the arrival of aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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