CulturalCreative
Sustainable fashion challenge: The Uniform Project, One dress, 365 days
Mar 8th, 2010
Posts Tagged ‘education’
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[/caption]Uniform Project: Creative Commons. All Rights Reserved. Photo by OutsaPop
We’ve all heard of fast food, but… fast fashion?! That’s right, cheap and convenient, perfect for the modern urbanite; fast fashion tempts customers with new models of cheap clothing everywhere they turn. This trend towards cheap, fast fashion has lead to concerns of fostering a ‘disposable clothing’ market.
One project has begun to tackle this trend head-on by asking ‘what is a sustainable way of enjoying fashion?’ Let’s see what the Uniform Project: One Dress, 365 Days is all about. (more…)
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The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has released an interesting and very informative look at some of the problems surrounding food and being an island that relies on 60% of food from abroad. Who would have thought that 80% of the ingredients in something as Japanese as Tempura Soba are not from Japan? (more…)
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Photo by Cayusa. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
Some would say the most important thing for protecting the environment is education, and a shift in awareness. Teaching our children about how the earth’s systems work, and having them think how to protect the environment is essential for the future of the earth. But how can we teach this? Enter the new global environmental card game ‘My Earth’! (more…)
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Photo by Local Entrepreneur SchoolWarm rhythm, and fun work.
A new school has opened in Fukuoka for those who would rather work in a fun, warm environment, than slogging away for some company.
NPO ‘Local Entrepreneur School’ (‘LES’) aims to provide business models to entrepreneurs who want to start their own community based enterprise. According to LES, “it’s important to create a society with more options; where people don’t just move to the city because everybody else is, or leave rural areas because there is a lack of work. A society where one can chose their field of work, and place to live based on the lifestyle they want to lead.”LES provides training to improve the sense and skills necessary to make the dream of moving back to the countryside into an attainable reality.
The school is unique in that it provides both practical training to create business models suited to your lifestyle, and mental preparation through workshops getting you to think about why you are living in the city, why you want to move to the countryside, and what kind of attitude is needed to get by in rural areas.The business models aim to create an income of around 100,000yen or less per month. ‘Can you really get by on that much?’ I hear you ask. Well, there is no need to limit yourself to just one business model. By combining businesses, one can earn 200-300,000 yen per month – enough to support a family of two-four persons.
This school was founded by an OB from the ‘Hatsumei Kigyo Juku’ (inventor entrepreneur school) lead by inventor Dr. Yasuyuki Fujimura. Dr. Fujimura combined ‘venture’ with ‘inventor’ well before any of the other big venture businesses caught on, and the school carries on the spirit of his concept.
Dr. Fujimura is also working on ‘Atelier Non-Electric’, a social movement developing various instruments that do not require electricity. If you don’t believe we can get by without electricity see here. (Japanese only)
Recently local activities have been on the rise. By making our own community better, maybe we can influence the wider society as well.
This article has been translated from the original Japanese post.
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CulturalCreative
Change the World From Your Bottom Upwards! Introducing “Japan Toilet Labo”
Jul 3rd, 2009
Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by jurvetson
There is no shortage of societies in this world, but did you know there was one specializing in this sort of research?
The Japan Toilet Labo is an organization that was set up to propose and bring to fruition ideas for how toilets should be, in order for all people on earth to enjoy healthy lives, in peace of mind.
Launched in July 2008, the idea behind this organization “Japan Toilet Labo”, is to approach social issues from the toilet seat. As long as they are alive, people will need to go. And if you go 5 times in a day, that works out to 1,825 times a year! We spend our whole lives indebted to the can.
In fact, you could say that the toilet is an indicator of that person’s lifestyle environment. Toilet environments around the world are incredibly varied, and according to “Japan Toilet Labo”, some 2.6 billion people around the world don’t have access to a hygienic toilet. There seems to be no end to children losing their lives to diarrhea due to unhygienic lifestyles and poorly equipped toilet facilities. And even in Japan with its clean toilet environment there are many problems, such as issues relating to water saving and drainage, and provision of facilities for the elderly and disabled people.Against this backdrop, “Japan Toilet Labo” was established. Its predecessor, the Japan Toilet Association (founded in 1985) was involved in all sorts of activities including toilet symposiums and research associations, investigative research, also collaborating with government departments and regional public bodies to undertake environmental, educational and also overseas projects supporting developing countries. As well as carrying on this momentum, the Japan Toilet Labo has stated its desire to expand the business and its activities so as to bring about social reform and make an international contribution from the toilet seat.
One of their projects is an on-demand class,The “Shit Seminar”!In 2007, together with their predecessor the Japan Toilet Association cooperate with oji nepia co.,ltd. that they began offering on-demand seminars at 5 elementary schools in the Tokyo Metropolitan area designed to learn about health and environment through a manure medium. Seminars are designed to be both fun and educational, and range from basic lectures outlining the importance of toilets and feculence, to activity-based classes including making “poopy pencils” and writing “dung diaries”.
Check out this link to get a better idea of what the “Shit Seminar”.In here you can see the candid reactions of children who have learned about the fecal fundament.“Before, I’d sneak off to the toilet when no-one is looking, but now I’m really open about popping off for a dump”
“I realized that far from being a dirty thing, a brown boulder is super important for your body”Comments like these came in thick and fast from delighted mothers. For their children, it appears that a fundamental shift regarding the concept of a crap had taken place, changing from something “dirty” and “smelly” to “an important thing”.
This seminar has also taken place in East Timor. In a situation where 400 children were sharing one toilet, learning about the toilet environment and importance of excreta seemed to be a big hit. Further details of this episode are available here
Be sure to check out the children’s bright and smiley faces!Japan Toilet Labo also has opened a special website, disaster Toilet information network and Toilet support network in developing countries.
disaster Toilet information network is a website set detailing how regional self-governing and other bodies are putting out information in “normal times” on implementing measures regarding toilets in the event of a disaster, including information about earthquake-resistant toilets and examples of toilet initiatives that have worked in the past .Over at Toilet support network in developing countries, you can read about information accrued throughout past activities related to toilets in developing countries, including examples of aid that has been given. A very precious source of information for organizations delivering aid.
And not forgetting their most impish initiative,While this campaign seems at first to be stating the obvious, for example not wasting toilet paper and water and leaving the toilet clean for the next person, it has pegged a unique development:
Putting up this witty poem dedicated to making toilet paper last, in these cubicles public facilities and stores in the whole of countryAll God’s children wipe their bums
The Finance Minister wipes his bum
High School Girls wipe their bums
Wives and Mothers-in-Laws wipe their bums
Train Guards wipe their bums
Cabin Attendants wipe their bums
You wipe your bum
The next guy wipes his bum
Toilet paper is the shared treasure of
all humanityIncidentally, all of these 9-verse poems can be used as wallpaper, so go ahead download by all means. At a glance, some of them are not obviously toilet poems so how about using this wallpaper with an added awareness-reforming dimension? You can also download some cool blogparts here
The activities of “Japan Toilet Labo” are designed to remind of us of the important role of going to the toilet, something we take for granted.
The world, the environment, your own body. So much knowledge waiting right there in the toilet.
Next time you find yourself in the toilet, I want you to cast your mind back to this article. You never know, you may end up changing the world from the bottom upwards.This article has been translated from the original Japanese post
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SustainableCommunity
A movement that started from one book, a bicycle library that will change your life! (Maybe
Jun 4th, 2009
The Bicycle Library Curator Mr.Tsuchii.Inspiration from one book and your life changes forever. There are probably loads of people who have had a experience like this, but how many people can really say that their life has changed immeasurably because if it? Tsuchii’s life certainly changed completely when he stumbled upon “100 Years of Idiocy”. Taking it upon himself to live out the ideas the book, he made himself curator of a bicycle library. So what on earth is a bicycle library all about?
