I’m not a car person, but I do appreciate good engineering and design of cars that are way out of my price range. Our last stop in Japan was a famous (and infamous) car meet that inspired the movie “Tokyo Drift.” Walking among the lovingly modified cars, I wondered if such events will survive our eventual transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles.
Affordability often comes with a price somewhere in the supply chain. In the case of instant noodles, it could be deforestation for ingredients and oil extraction for packaging long before the noodles hit the store and/or adverse health outcomes long after they hit the stomach. Nevertheless, this invention was an unexpected marvel that buoyed the Japanese economy and still supports disaster relief efforts worldwide.
Tokyo is an absolute playground for novel activities, and one thing on our do-to list for this last trip was visiting a capybara cafe. This South American rodent has won the hearts of the Japanese with its easy going demeanor and cross-species friendships. Of course, any interactions with exotic animals beg questions of ethics: what are the benefits and the costs of these visits?
As our time in the Climate Lab came to an end, we began thinking about what we had learned in the program and how to apply it to our work moving forward. My lessons from Japan highlighted the value of broad perspectives that hold room for a variety of ideas. I hope to use this concept to help build bridges across unlikely groups.
Good travel puts us outside our comfort zone and broadens our perspectives. Our trip to Okinawa in the Climate Lab connected us with government officials, entrepreneurs, researchers, and community volunteers – people working on the issue of climate change from different angles. A conversation with the former Vice Governor of the prefecture helped me better understand ways we can build bridges across professional islands.
Travels with the Climate Lab took me to Okinawa for the first (but hopefully not last) time. This Japanese prefecture (and former kingdom in its own right) is an absolute melting pot of cultures, disciplines, and functions in society. For someone who is regularly trying to break down silos in my own work, I was thrilled to see what lessons Okinawa had to offer.
During our time in Japan, we had the opportunity to meet with government officials, reporters, and residents of Tokyo, all of whom are responding to climate change in different ways. Because Japan has the ability to mitigate its emissions but also must adapt to more severe weather, it was interesting to explore what has been effective (or not) from the standpoint of shifting a hard-to-shift culture.
The final leg of my Climate Lab took me to Japan. I consider Japan the site of my environmental awakening, but there was still plenty to learn on this trip about impacts from the climate crisis and how to be an effective leader while centering the priorities of those facing the worst impacts. This jam-packed week was as fun as it was challenging.
It was only a matter of time before members of my Climate Lab cohort would be asked to produce something as a result of our learning, instead of just cramming information into our heads. In a time when my country feels more divided than ever, I wanted to find a way to work toward equitable, sustainable solutions that addressed concerns of conflicting parties.
Good, challenging travel teaches you about yourself, and I seem to have learned more about myself in Fiji than I did about Fiji. My introspective blog series does not begin to do justice to this beautiful country, but I am grateful that I had the opportunity to explore some of my growth edges against such an amazing backdrop.