travels with janne

Before we leave Japan let me give you a brief look at some of the things I saw that I haven’t mentioned yet.

I visited a dahlia park: an orgy of colour. Unfortunately, from the loudspeakers emanated a tinny, weird music so it was like walking inside one of those jewellery boxes that young girls have, where a ballet dancer twirls round and round to the sound of a maddeningly repetitive tune.

I sat on high-tech toilets with heated seats, automatic flush the minute you sit down and a whole array of control buttons that I dared not touch – the instructions were all in Japanese.

I felt utterly cleansed inside and out. A diet of vegetables, raw fish and rice combined with hot Japanese baths and an ultra clean, tidy and neat environment made me feel so deliciously, utterly squeaky clean.

I experienced a charming combination of tradition and modernity, old and new, urban and rural. Sayonara, lovely Japan!

This week in Japan has certainly had a very international flavour. I have been in the company of about 180 agricultural journalists from 29 different countries from all around the globe. As the vice-chairman of our association concisely summed up, in many places in the world you see walls between countries and between cultures. This week we have instead been building bridges. This congenial group of curious, questioning and open-minded people has been exchanging experiences, tricks of the trade and business cards. We have encouraged each other to drop a line or even to drop in if we visit each other’s countries.

In fact, strengthening my international network is what I have been doing, and today in a very pleasant way. A Japanese friend I met at the agricultural journalist congress last year and I spent my last few hours in Tokyo sightseeing, eating, talking about the future of Japanese agriculture and probing for facts about each other’s cultures and habits.

This week has been spent studying Japanese agriculture, but today I had the chance to study Japanese urban life. One thing that struck me was how much time and money people spend on their appearance. The style of dress seems to be used to make a statement about who you are and to rebel against the otherwise fairly rigid rules of etiquette. Most people seem dressed up to go to a party. And what a mix of partying that would be! Some teenage girls favour the Lolita-look: frothy pink skirts, pink knee socks and cheeky ponytails. Other girls are more into the ghoulish black look while still others sport the skimpiest and tightest of mini-skirts, thigh-high stockings and totteringly high shoes.

Welcome to Tokyo: Here is a city that pulsates with efficiency and busyness, where a considerable portion of its 12 million inhabitants seems glued to mobile phones, and where traffic zooms by in several layers above and below ground. This is also a city in which you can come home to your own personal chirping cricket. In the midst of the hubbub the citizens can buy a tiny oasis of nature: a little plastic container complete with a colourful flower and a real, live singing cricket.

Odd and cute in their own peaceful-sounding way, the crickets for sale are a but a minor diversion that I spot on my tour of the 40,000 square metres state-of-the-art Zen-Noh fruit and vegetable centre under the auspices of the Japanese farmers coop.

Huge and almost perfectly round apples, tomatoes and pears, crispy and juicy cucumbers, and sweet-tasting pumpkins and persimmons are some of the fruits and veggies that make their way through the centre with a journey from farm to consumer that does not last more than a day. Speed, however, is not the only priority. Quality control and traceability are considered imperative. Each individual fruit and vegetable is checked, graded, controlled, packed and labelled so that the consumer can always be ensured of the exact origin. And each store receiving the goods receives them packaged and labelled in the way they want them, such as two tomatoes and one eggplant per package from a specific farmer. Freshness during the handling process is ensured by temperature control and removal of ethylene gas.

The Japanese are paying extreme attention to promotion of their own agricultural products these days. And no wonder. This year their self-sufficiency measured in calories was only 39 percent – down from the 1965 level of 73 percent. Not only is this a bit rough on the agricultural economy, import of food and feed from abroad leaves a larger global footprint due to transport fuel and is also leaving its mark on the health of the population because food imported from abroad tends to contain more fat. The agricultural ministry has therefore introduced the policy of “Shokuiku”. This is a concept that educates the public holistically – starting with the school children – about food, its health properties, its culture and its origins.

Soaping, scrubbing and rinsing thoroughly before lowering yourself into the lusciously hot and clean waters of a naturally-fed mineral spring bath is a Japanese must. Emerging from the onsen bath I feel totally cleansed both inside and out. The feeling of squeaky clean remains with me for the rest of the evening and much of the following day despite travelling in temperatures that soar above 30 degrees centigrade and a sticky humidity. Bathing at an onsen is a gratifying experience. It is no wonder that the Japanese are so keen on it

On the whole, the Japanese seem to be a clean, hygienic and purist people. This feeling of pure and perfect also extends to their food. Nothing but the best will suffice. The apples must be perfectly round and unblemished and the rice must be cooked to just the right degree of stickiness.

The hankering for perfect places a lot of pressure on the farmer. On the one hand, the consumer wants products that look perfect. On the other hand, the consumer is stoutly against any type of GMO and the use of pesticides is also frowned upon. The supply of organic rice can seemingly not meet the demand despite the fact that organic rice costs the consumer twice as much to buy. At the same time, government regulations limit rice production in order to keep the rice price up. One third of a farmer’s acreage must be planted with other crops. Otherwise, the farmer loses his subsidy and may not sell his rice through the agricultural coop.

The government has several targets for agriculture that seem to be rather difficult to consolidate with reality. Japan aims to increase its self-sufficiency from the present low of 39 percent. Consumers are encouraged to eat Japanese products – especially rice – and people are encouraged to be more interested in agriculture. However, limiting quotas are set for rice production.

The amount of available arable land is rather limited in this mountainous country and is on the decrease as cities take over more and more space. At the same time the government aims not only to increase self-sufficiency with regard to food, but also wants more land to be dedicated to growing crops for ethanol production. And the government even wants to strongly increase its export of agricultural products.

Where is all this land going to be found? And where will the young people needed to farm the land be found in a country where the average age of the farmer is 65 and where the average age of the population in general is getting higher?

Japan is a place where you can experience high-tech toilets complete with heated seats and a series of different flushing choices in the same house that offers sleeping arrangements on the floor on a traditional futon.

In the morning you see teenagers on the street who are extremely aware of creating their own identity through fashion-conscious and ultra modern clothes and hairdos. In the evening in the restaurant you are served by porcelain-delicate women wearing traditional kimonos.

You see women trudging through the soggy mud of a rice paddy, planting rice plants one by one by hand. You also see state-of-the-art robots that steer themselves up and down the rice paddy while planting the rice plants automatically.

You experience age-old traditions of tea ceremonies, sake brewing, Buddhism, Shintoism, and respectful bowing to each other. But you also experience madly busy and crowded train stations, multi-tiered highways, and neon-decked skyscrapers.