Study Trip!

Hello again! Been a busy couple of days with lessons, so much so that I haven't had any windows of opportunity to get in this third blog - until now!

In Japanese universities, it is common to go on a study trip, know as 'gasshuku' during the Summer holiday, as an opportunity to learn about something new and bond with your fellow students and professor. In the typical Japanese hierarchical system, several months ago the M1 (Masters first year) students, myself included, were asked to come up with proposals for where we should go, what we would see, what the merit of this would be, and our accommodations. Naturally, wanting to see as much of the country as possible, and visit prefectures I have not been to yet, I came up with week long adventures to far flung places - these were promptly shot down as too expensive and logistically challenging (in fairness though the extent of my instructions were to come up with a proposal for our trip, with no limitations on price, time, or distance). In the end it was decided that we would go to Nikko, somewhere I was initially less than keen to visit, on account of having been there twice in the last four months, but that's democracy for you! As it turned out though, it was a far more interesting trip than I thought it would be, most of all because the focus of our study was just beyond Nikko itself, in the township of Ashio.

The other part of this trip was essentially to give presentations, much like we do weekly at university. The pragmatic and practical part of me thought 'why do we bother to go a far flung place to do something we can do in our normal classroom', especially as our trip is going to be for little over 24 hours, but that's the Japanese way of doing things I think (as an aside, several of my students at my English conversation class say they are going overseas to Paris or Malta, for three days, and then coming back - crazy); however I spent a few days beforehand preparing for a report, and happily it went well, further crystallised my research topic and gave me some interesting avenues to go down.

But, to take it from the start, it was an early wakeup from Odaiba, and several trains to our meeting point in the main campus of Tokyo University. From there we went to a rental car place, and the 8 of us split into two cars for a three hour road trip - this was good fun going through Tokyo in a manner I don't usually go, jamming to various Japanese and American pop songs.

Arriving at our hotel in Nikko, it looked like something straight out of the 1970s...My professor said to him it felt like the Showa era, when Japan's economy was growing and there was a lot of money being spent in the countryside as rich urbanites developed their holiday homes and such. You could see a lot of this around, with big old houses lying abandoned, and the decor of our hotel being untouched for 30 decades.

We were scheduled to start our presentations from evening, so with the hour and a bit we had to spare a group of us went to explore a waterfall, called Kirifuri. These were very pretty falls, nestled in some lush bush, and from our observation platform we had a very nice view.

A far cry from the metropolis of Tokyo!

Then it was back to the hotel for our presentations, which took about 3 hours, followed by dinner. After dinner there was a discussion about onsen and nomikai (communal bath and drinking party respectively), so we bundled into the cars and travelled to another hotel, which had a geothermally heated bathing facility. I hadn't been in an onsen since my first trip to Japan in 2009 (not for reasons of squeamishness or anything, just that the opportunity hadn't really presented itself). It was a slightly surreal experience though sitting naked with my professor and classmates in a pool, totally 'freeballing' it to and from the various facilities - in New Zealand I feel this would be crossing a few lines, but all the same it was very relaxing. I did notice though that the Japanese seem very vocal in their bathing, moreso than New Zealanders are - lots of very loud 'aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhs' and so on - I guess when you are as stereotypically highly strung as Japanese any relaxing outlet you have would result in this!

After an hour of soaking or so, it was back in the cars and to a supermarket, where beer, wine, and chu-hai (Japanese RTDs) were bought en masse. Then back to our hotel, into one of the lounges, and consumption commenced. My professor seems to have a desire to get me drunk everytime these things happen (so I made sure to monitor my consumption -aren't you proud mum- and I ended up falling asleep next to my classmates while they carried on partying. At around 1am we headed to bed, and my roommate/tutor, Keishi, said he was wanting to get up early for birdwatching the next morning - alarm set at 6.30. I said begrudgingly that I would also come along, and, to Keishi's laughter, the last thing I said before drifting to sleep was 'Japanese are crazy'.

Alarm went off, I regretted my decisions, and just after 7 were were walking through the bush looking for birds. Unfortunately there were none particularly close by, though with a very cool birdwatching app Keishi was able to have a 'conversation' with some birds; the app playing recordings of birdsong, so that was funny to be a part of.

Breakfast was at 8, and then we were packed up and checked out by 9, off on the field trip side of things, which was a bit more photogenic than the trip thus far.

For context, Ashio is famous for its copper mines - they supplied over 40% of Japan's entire copper output over the centuries, and were a significant source of capital for the various administrations. In the Meiji era when mining techniques were modernised and output skyrocketed, Ashio became the third biggest city in Japan - and massive companies like Sony and Toshiba have their roots there. Salaries were three times the national average, and the very best high schools in the country were found there. It was a boom town, full of wealth and knowledge; many Tokyo University alumni went to Ashio after graduating, becoming top level administrators, educators and engineers.

Unfortunately the increase in output meant the impact of the mining on the environment increased too. Smelters required fuel, and so entire hillsides were cleared to provide wood for the fires, and in one particularly short sighted move, an entire forest was burned to kill insects (both with smoke and also destroying their habitat). This degradation was further compounded by the emission of sulphuric acid, which poisoned the soil and left the valleys looking like some World War I battlefield. Toxins from the mines poisoned the river, destroying fisheries downstream, and people became sicker and sicker. However of course the mines still had much wealth, so there was resistance to change. This changed when a man, Shozo Tanaka, took a petition to the Emperor and advocated for environmental policies. This was the first instance of modern environmentalism, and led to regulations of mines being imposed. Such was the money in mining that the companies who had to change did so almost overnight, at huge expense, so as to not lose a single day of precious extraction. The mines were no longer belching out so many toxins, but there was already significant degradation, which no amount of mine regulation could restore. And so the valleys remained fairly desolate for decades to come.

Over time the mines found it harder and harder to find copper, and things began to slow down. After WWII, the big companies such as Sony were forced by the Allies to breakup from their big conglomerates, and in being fractured, they left for the bigger cities. As an aside, because a lot of Allied POWs were kept in Ashio, the US did not bomb the area, meaning in nearby Nikko the 17th century tombs of the Tokugawa Shoguns (now UNESCO sites) were preserved. Once the mines closed, the town began to depopulate and fall into disrepair, and it was around this that a lot of our tour focussed on. We had a very passionate local historian taking us around the town, which has a lot of history panels and remnants of its glorious past, so it was interesting to see - but hard to imagine - how this sleepy, almost run down town (more of a village really) used to be one of the biggest cities in Japan, with few buildings under three storeys.

The grand Ashio station building now is little more than an abandoned shell

This train used to run between Ashio and the other big cities ; now it runs as a tourist trip, and sometimes features in period dramas

The old Ashio Mining Company Building

Is now gone, with only a brick sidehouse remaining

This house is where the first telephone call in Japan took place, between Shozo Tanaka and some people in Tokyo, discussing the petition to the Emperor

The river that was rendered toxic by mining pollution - now largely cleaned apart from some seepage far downstream

The grave of Shozo Tanaka

Mountain Goats that are famous in the area

Another old train used now for tourist trips

Former accommodation for miners; rent was cheap and salaries high, it was a place to make a lot of money fast

One of the few remnants of the large Ashio hydroelectric power plent

A festival to the mountain gods

The old hydroelectric power plant

After our tour of the town, we took part in a reforestation program on the formerly poisoned hillsides. This is a Ministry of the Environment run program, and very slickly run for that. There was a tent at the base of the hill which had rows upon rows of small trees ready for planting, as well as the equipment necessary for digging into the stony earth, putting in a fertiliser, and activator, and then some mulch. The hardest part was digging through the soil, 20 cm down, as there was a huge number of rocks and stones, but all up the activity took us no more than 20 minutes. Despite the brevity, you could see the impact the project had had on other hillsides around us, which in the 1980s were completely desolate, and now had a very solid layer of gree covering them. As one of my classmates said, 'you have now left a part of you on the mountain!'.

The hills in the background were completely bare 30 years ago

Then it was off to a museum that showcased the enormity of the project, with a huge terracing activity taking place from the 1970s to ensure that toxic soil was removed, but also that trees could be planted in a stable base that wouldn't completely erode into the river when the first rain came. Amazingly a lot of this work was done by hand; hard to imagine a country as technologically advanced (even in the 1980s) enlisting ordinary citizens to carve great terraces and lay paths in the hills. Still, an excellent job was done by them!

Mosaic on the old dam that used to power the hydroelectric system

Replanted hillside

We were also lucky enough to see a fox! This one is apparently semi-tame and hangs around the museum where visitors tend to give it bits of food, and it was more than happy to play model for the camera. I had never seen a fox before in my life (much to the surprise of my classmates) so this put a huge smile on my face - much like the fox is doing in this photo really.

Having done the history of the mining town, the environmental impact and subsequent movement to restore it, and indeed having taken part in that restoration, the last thing to do was actually visit the mine. There is a section of it which has been set up as a mine experience, which you get to by riding a small mine cart/train - giving it a slight Disney feel, but in a good way. They had a number of semi animatronic figures in the mine, with voices describing the kinds of conversations they would be having down there. Starting in the Edo period, there was a Government official imploring the workers to work even harder, and extract as much as they could. As it moved into the Meiji era, there were demonstrations of the use of explosives (who knows how many accidents and deaths they had down there), and then the conversations turned to talking about how it was getting harder to get copper ore, and that the quality seemed to be dropping - heralding the beginning of the end for the mine. It was a bona fide mine shaft, with even my classmates having to duck in places (I was perpetually walking over like a hunchback), and the drip drip drip of water condensing filled the background.

Edo era smelter

All in all it was a very good and immersive experience, and it certainly showed why they were paid three times the national average - I was sore after 20 minutes down there, and that was without lifting anything heavier than my camera! All in all, a generally crappy place to work I think, in any era.


The study trip was a good one, and ended almost as soon as it began; I got back to my dormitory 36 hours after we left. It was cool to see some social history, and especially of a place that was once the place to be. To take part in an environmental activity was cool too, both from a social conscience perspective, but also just to get my hands a bit dirty. I think I can safely say I have done Nikko well and truly now; three times in four months is plenty and if I were to go anymore the locals would start knowing my name (I'm expecting several Christmas cards from them as it is), and I look forward to the next gasshuku in the summer of 2019 - I think I will push for Hokkaido or Kyushu!


This about does it for my buildup of material for the moment, the last week of September is largely working and getting ready for the resumption of university. October has some adventures in store, some confirmed and others in a state of beinng shored up, but no doubt that will generate a wealth of stories for me to tell! I should probably get around to doing one for my current domestic situation and goings on, but that can wait for another time, or perhaps as an addendum to the next one. In either case, keep checking back, and stay frosty out there friendos!

Troy :D