Sakura, sakura, sakura

Seeing the sakura lit up at night time at Himeji Castle was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. On more than one occasion I collided with an oncoming passerbyer as I was staring up at the trees. My shaky hands and dodgy camera don't really capture the niceness of it all.

Kyoto and sakura

It's been very cold these past few days and I've been stacking on the layers to try and stay warm. My first weekend in Japan was spent at a dinner party in Himeji, visiting shrines in Kyoto, a stop off in Namba in Osaka and finally, my first Hanami (cherry blossom viewing party) under the sakura. Although this involved more sipping sake and eating food than looking up at the trees. I've been trying to cram in as many parks as possible while the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Kyoto was completely covered in the white snow of the blossoms. It was incredibly busy as it was the weekend and school holidays. Nevertheless, I'll be back.

Ridiculous.

Tom's bread/icecream combo.

The ever-endearing Kinkaku Rokuon-ji zen Buddhist temple.

One day last week, Sawoka - who is a country western singer and volunteers on many organising committees - took myself and another girl out to see Takasago by car. I really liked our transportation.

We stopped for lunch at sushi train where all the plates were 100yen (or, about $1). So cheap, so fresh and so very, very delicious.

A view from one of Takasago's temples. My apartment is just off the right of the photo.

After returning home from Kyoto on Saturday I stopped off at Osaka to take a quick look around. I met up with a friend who took me to his friend's art studio in some crevass of Osaka. By midnight we'd made our way over to Namba. Rain hung in the air, there were people everywhere and advertisements flashed in my face. I stood for a very long time watching stories unfold as people crossed the bridge. Ah, Japan.

Hello from Japan

Oh Japan. Little, wonderful, magical Japan. Although I haven't seen much yet - bouncing between paperwork and formalities - these past few days have been wonderful (albeit a little strange). I stepped straight off the plane and straight onto my ¥18,000 bicycle.

I opted for no gears - and although Takasago is flat i feel as though I will come to regret this decision.

This is my little apartment - otherwise known as 2LDK (the Japanese abbreviation for a two-bedroom apartment with a living room, dining room, and kitchen).

I quickly unpacked and spent many hours trying to set up internet, a phone and bank account. All arduous tasks when you don't know any of the language. So far, I've taken several bike rides around Takasago, visiting many beautiful temples and shrines. In the front/back/side of every house are bonsai trees. I love them. It's horticulture, art and philosophy all in the form of a carefully pruned tree.

I'm lucky to have arrived in spring, and that means cherry blossoms (sakura) season. The sakura usher in a new season, along with a new school and fiscal year. While Japan is highly industrialised, it is also very in touch with nature. And this means where there is concrete, there is always a potted plant.

 

La Trobe University's environmental impacts explained

(A little something I wrote for the University on its sustainability report)

La Trobe University has taken another step towards reducing its environmental footprint in 2012, with results showing a range of improvements across campuses including a reduction in water use across the University by 11 per cent.

The University also significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions associated with staff business travel and the Bendigo campus recorded a 12 per cent reduction in commuting by car during 2012.

The findings are a part of the University’s third sustainability report, Building Futures.

La Trobe has been tracking and publicly reporting its social, economic and environmental impacts since 2010, and arguably produces the most comprehensive sustainability report published by a University worldwide.

‘We have made significant progress over the last year in minimizing our environmental impact,’ said Stephen Muir, Director of Sustainability.

‘These results  are the efforts  of many people across all faculties, divisions and campuses as more staff and students gain the skills and knowledge to address sustainability challenges in their work and daily lives.’

The report showed the University achieved its goals around energy and water consumption, but still faces challenges in the areas of recycling and waste reduction which failed to reach the University’s expectations.

‘While the University used considerably less paper over the last 12 months, championed by efforts to provide better online resources for staff and students, we fell short on targets for recycling and waste sent to landfill.’

‘Recycling rate of general waste dropped slightly from 25% to 24.6%,’ he continued, ‘although the volume of co-mingled recycling, which includes disposable coffee cups, glass bottles, aluminum and plastic containers, increased by five per cent.’ General waste sent to landfill increased by 7 per cent.

‘We have made meaningful improvements in key areas, but our environmental performance is measured on a continuum and there are always opportunities for further improvement’ he continued. 

‘Energy reduction across the University was supported by investing in more efficient LED lighting, staff efforts to turn off lights and equipment when not in use and conducting regular building audits.’

Building Futures details a number of other achievements:

- 1,390 furniture items provided to the University community for reuse

- Green Building Council of Australia’s 5 Star Green Star design certification achieved for three La Trobe buildings

- 381% increase in video conferencing sessions scheduled between 2009 and 2012

- 92% of all purchased office paper from post-consumer waste recycled content.

In  2012, the Melbourne campus generated electricity from its own cogeneration plant. The plant, run by natural gas, produces fewer emissions than electricity purchased from the brown coal based Victorian grid.

The plant produced 25,216,710 KWh (90,780 GJ) of electricity last year, supplying the campus with 53 per cent of its energy. Of this, 25,545 gigajoules of electricity were exported to surrounding organisations and back into Victoria’s electricity grid.

Mr. Muir said as sustainability awareness grows, the University will be seeking new policies and projects led by students, staff, and the wider community.

‘We are committed to creating change that will see the University on the right path to addressing some of our and therefore our communities and the planets most pressing environmental issues.’

Read the full sustainability report Building Futures.

The third day

I wish I could condense these posts, but I'm very obsessive with documenting (sorry). On the third day of our trip we woke in a quiet area, somewhere near Coffs Harbour. It was a very nice place to be.

I went for a walk and found a few things. A lost sign, cratered marble rocks and a native bush.

The ocean was just like bath water. Spoken like a true southerner.

A very pretty part of the world.

I was very insistent that we had to stop at the Big Banana, an iconic landmark of the great Australian Holiday. There was minimal tourist activity, so we ate banana splits and went tobogganing.

The poor old prawn was looking more than a little sad since its heyday. It was surrounded by construction of a Bunnings Warehouse.

Fighting. Again. Here they are on a hill, with very typical tropical clouds rumbling in the distance.

We finally made it to Byron Bay and I directed us to Top Shop, a hip little coffee and burger place. 

I've rarely been happier while consuming this mushroom burger and green smoothie.

A great ad. We're here to make our way over to Nimbin to find some people who might know a thing or two about marijuana, serizures and brain tumours.

East coast

On Tuesday we left for a road trip up the east coast. We picked Damian up from his residence and set out with a car full of entertainment and homemade goods.

By 10.30pm we had just past Sydney. It became obvious our plans to camp on the beach were a tad ambitious. We found the closest turn off and stopped at a resting area off the highway. In the morning we woke to these scenes.

Pretty? Yes. Quiet? No. The highway was only 200m away. It was also a noisy boat ramp.

We were back on the road early. I slept in the back of the car overnight, so we had to play a second game of Tetris with our bags in the morning.

We took turns along the way to drive, Damian always the navigator on the passenger side. This usually entailed directing us to streets that didn't exist, and cursing at the phone map. On the instructions of Beanhunter this time, we stopped in an industrial part of Newcastle at a coffee shop that also doubled as a weird French furniture factory.

As always, most of our time was spent eating food. We procured this salad and a juice from a cafe in Port Macquarie.

We stopped to get some supplies at the local shops and pointed out how fresh all the vegetables looked. 

We didn't buy any Silverbeet or Wombok, but I liked the textures.

The scenery became fairly wonderful, especially as the sun was setting.

We were determined to set up camp before the sun fully set, so we turned off a random road just before Coffs Harbour.

We followed a winding road down into a forest and passed some houses. Just before the national park opened up, we spotted an old barefooted man in a rainbow beanie seemingly giving directions. 

"Victoria. The place to be. I think you are in the wrong place," he joked, rumbling with laughter.

He mumbled something about German tourists and then said, "if they ask you why you've stopped, just tell them you're resting and they can't do anything." We figured out this meant it was a no camping area. We bid him farewell and travelled deeper into the forest. At the end of the road was a perfect patch of grass and an idyllic beach. We couldn't believe our luck.

This is the dinner platter we constructed - covering all good food groups.