The end of a second full day in the weird and wonderful world of Tomakomai – home to Japan’s first integrated carbon dioxide capture and storage project and, as I learned today, much much more than that. As I’ve alluded to many times before, with this being my first piece of fieldwork outside of the… Read More Tomakomai Part 2 – carbon dioxide storage and much much more

This week is a short visit to Tomakomai, on the southern side of Hokkaido, where preparations are currently underway for Japan’s first integrated CCS (carbon dioxide capture and storage) development. I have been working on CCS for the past three years, so after a fortnight learning about radiation it was strange to be back on… Read More Tomakomai and the CCS demonstration

Fukushima Prefecture is famed for its food, both of the fishery and agricultural variety. One of my pieces of fieldwork this week was a spot of ‘virtual shopping’ in the supermarkets of Fukushima City, looking at the Prefectural produce on the shelves. Here’s a little extract from my field notes, but before I get stuck… Read More Fukushima Food

This week I am in Fukushima City, the administrative seat of Fukushima Prefecture. It has the real feel of a provincial town to it, with cobbles, trees and brick buildings. It is also famed for its agricultural produce, an industry around which great efforts are being made to get it back on its feet. Unfortunately,… Read More Fukushima City

Back in Tokyo after a busy and exhausting week in the southern part of Fukushima Prefecture. Not a ‘fun’ or ‘interesting’ week by any stretch of the imagination, but feel I learned an awful lot nonetheless. First, though, a geography lesson. Let us not confuse Fukushima Prefecture and the Fukushima Dai’Ichi nuclear site. Fukushima Prefecture… Read More Brief reflections on a week in Iwaki

In the last two days I have carried out two research interviews. The first of these was on the twenty-second floor of a gleaming skyscraper in Otemachi, just minutes’ walk from the decadent Tokyo Station. The second of these was surrounded by samples and dog-eared record books in a lab-cum-office on the ground floor of… Read More Onahama

It is the sound of the cheap chipboard panels bowing back and forth that wakes me up. The bed is wobbling, but so are the floor, ceiling and walls. Everything is moving in concert, orchestrated by some deep dark force. Oh god. It’s an earthquake. I stay in bed until it stops. I’m too tired.… Read More Earthquake

Preparation, preparation, preparation. I honestly cannot remember the last time I was spending so much of the day just working flat out. Next week is when the real fieldwork – getting out and about – starts, but before that there are lots of emails to send, schedules to write up and logistics to sort. As… Read More Preparation

Despite leaving my iPad temporarily on the first plane (which necessitated an embarrassing run of the shuttle bus and back up the boarding steps to retrieve it) and receiving thirty insect bites by virtue of trying to take a picnic in a park, I have successfully made it to Kaiyodai. Now the work starts. I… Read More At Kaiyodai

Aberdeen Airport (again) 11.40am Back at my favourite place in the world – Aberdeen Airport. Although this time, I am happy to endure the oil drilling posters because I have a pretty exciting destination lined up – Tokyo. I haven’t wanted to post about this until all the I’s have been dotted and T’s crossed,… Read More To Tokyo for summer