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July 16, 2024
 

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WILD WATCH

Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 17, 2005
Ancient birds, Stone Age music
All winter long, the cacophony of sound at Sunayu, on the eastern shore of Lake Kussharo in eastern Hokkaido, is almost entirely comprised if the bugling and whooping of swans.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 17, 2005
Natural numbers games
As island nations go, I have always maintained that Japan sits on a motherlode of biodiversity; it is rich in so many senses of the word.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 20, 2005
Wondrous fall whiteout heralded a warming winter of discontent
T here is nothing quite like writing controversially for stirring up a response, and commonly those responses come as a mixture of extremes.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 30, 2004
What is behind 'shocking' Hokkaido bid for World Heritage Site status?
Recently I was lucky enough to visit no fewer than six World Heritage Sites (WHS) in northern India. An astonishing cultural, ethnic and biological diversity is well represented in India's array of national parks (NP) and WHS, and, my goodness, they have a huge wow factor.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 16, 2004
Serendipities abound in a wintery wonderland
Recently I spotted a Quetzal from Central America, a Snowy Owl from the Arctic, a Short-tailed Albatross from a remote Pacific island -- and a hovering Skylark. Amazingly they were all together, along with woodpeckers and barbets, thrushes and flycatchers, finches, frigate birds, other albatrosses and...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 21, 2004
On the woodland trail of sprites and fungal delight
Common sounds in the hill forests of northern Japan these days are the thin "tsiping" calls of Black-faced Buntings elusively flitting through the dwarf bamboo, as enormous numbers of them head south to milder climes.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 16, 2004
The changes that come what may
The arrival of just one dramatic, even devastating, typhoon, storming to the center of the seasonal stage like a massively overblown diva with a case of bad timing, is enough to signal autumn is on its way. This year the global signs of the season change have been untempered in the extreme. Hurricanes...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 19, 2004
Down in the grim intertidal zone
A coffee-shop friend of mine recently summed up his appreciation of our local lowland forest just outside Sapporo, saying: "You know, it's wonderful here; every season is the best season." And, you know, he has a powerful point.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 15, 2004
'Hideous alien' had an exotic past
Sometimes accidentally, sometimes to order, we humans transport a bewildering array of species about the world. Many of them wither under the regimens of their new environments; alas, some thrive to the detriment of the locals.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 17, 2004
Some pictures worth 1,000 words
I take my hat off to those folk who can draw and paint. What a wonderfully inspiring skill. And when they can illustrate living creatures in lifelike form then I am in awe. What has prompted this outpouring is the fact that I am currently at work on a new field guide, so I am heavily involved in both...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 20, 2004
On the trail of Japan's odd woodland dog with no bark
The first Ezo-tanuki (Hokkaido raccoon-dog) I ever found was a long-dead carcass along a woodland trail I used to frequent near Nemuro.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 15, 2004
Fungal alchemists snatch bodies to live
Step back in time a mere 1,000 million years and the three great domains of the Plantae, Animalia and Fungi shared a common ancestor.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 18, 2004
The wonder that is winter
The seasons have a powerful effect on me, which perhaps explains my need to anthropomorphize and personify them. Temperate Japan's six distinct seasons roll on inexorably: spring, rainy, summer, typhoon, autumn and winter. Though battered and bruised by the perceptible effects of global climate change,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 19, 2004
Distance lends enchantment
Take a look at a map of the west side of the Pacific and you'll find a fractured scatter of islands from the Kuriles south of Kamchatka, through Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea and New Caledonia all the way to New Zealand and its sub-Antarctic Islands straddling the Roaring 40s and the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 15, 2004
An island alone that is worlds apart
If it were possible to view the Japanese archipelago rising from the Pacific in profile, a distinct, lonely, broad cone would be immediately apparent between the high peaks of the Japanese Alps of Honshu and the even higher peaks of Taiwan. That cone is the long-isolated, mountainous island of Yakushima,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 18, 2003
Cold feet over winter camp
Camping is a wonderful way to unplug from the computer and e-mail, catch up on sleep, and escape the never-ending round of deadlines and commitments. While summer and autumn camps offer opportunities to "shoot the breeze" around a campfire, on dark evenings in the winter there is nothing more one can...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 20, 2003
Relicts of the distant past
Time passes; it flows on, sometimes seemingly at breathtaking speed like a mountain torrent, at others crawling like a meandering backwater. Personal time expands and contracts. Geological time is relentless; grinding, shaping, wearing; sufficiently prolonged to isolate islands, to raise landmasses,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 16, 2003
Tyulenii fur seals are all washed up and in no hurry to go
It felt as if we were an invading force as we set the bows of our black rubber zodiac boat for the shore. Tyulenii Island, a raised tableland of sandstone barely a kilometer long and less than half that wide, was our target. Winds blowing up the Sea of Okhotsk were pushing a rising swell along the unprotected...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 4, 2003
Labrador tea and forests to walk on
During the heat of a Honshu summer it is hard to imagine that there are hints of tundra here, or that refreshing tea might come from an unusual source. However, the alpine regions of high-altitude Japan, and small areas of the cool, fog-shaded regions closer to sea level in southeast Hokkaido, not only...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 21, 2003
Thrills on the hills
It happened again. Underfoot was the crunching tephra of Akan Fuji, black tinged with orange; it stretched away on either side of me, an arid, seemingly sterile environment. I'd zigzagged my way almost to the skyline and the distant view was opening up. Behind me to the north lay the cone and constantly...
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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