Over spring break I took a few days off to visit some Hyogo attractions: Kinosaki Onsen (hot springs) and the Oriental White Stork Park. The hot springs were to relax, but the stork park was to learn about a local conservation success.
The Oriental White Stork
A captive Oriental stork at the Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork
In case you missed my last post covering the storks’ biology and conservation history, here is a quick overview. The Oriental White stork is a large white bird with black feather tips that lives in wetlands and eats a variety of smaller animals like fish, frogs, and small mammals. It went locally extinct in Japan in 1971, but through captive breeding, habitat restoration, and reintroduction programs it has made a comeback with approximately 90 birds living wild in Japan again.
My first stork sighting
Hopping on the Kounotori Limited Express to Kinosaki Onsen, I sat back and enjoyed watching the countryside fly past the window for the 3-hour journey from Osaka. In Japan, you never know what you might see through the train windows. Rice paddies, small villages, cherry blossoms.
A view from the train window, passing a small park with cherry blossoms
In my case, I saw something very large and white fly past as the train ran alongside a river. Too large for an egret I thought. Could it be a stork? Unfortunately, it was going in the opposite direction of the train so I only had a quick glimpse, but I think it might’ve been my very first Oriental stork sighting. Thanks to breeding and reintroduction efforts, wild Oriental storks are living in Japan again and if you’re in the Toyooka area you might spot one of them along the rivers where they can hunt for food. I can’t say for sure that I spotted one, but I think the chances are good. In any case, don’t forget to look out the windows occasionally because you never know what you might be missing.
Kinosaki Onsen Station
Cut paper artwork at Kinosaki Onsen station
If you’re not familiar with Japanese, you might not have noticed what is special about the express train’s name. Kounotori is the Japanese name for the Oriental stork and the limited express train that runs to Toyooka and Kinosaki Onsen is named after it. Arriving in Kinosaki, you will also see artwork and souvenirs depicting the storks, from postcards to daruma dolls and station artwork. You can tell that the people here are very proud of the storks and that they’re a part of the local culture. I enjoyed wondering when I would see something stork-related pop up while I was walking around the town. The stork daruma dolls were tempting but my goal was to take some pictures of the storks so I managed to resist.
Hachigoro Toshima Wetlands
After taking a day to relax at the hot springs and another to do some sightseeing in nearby Izushi, I planned my last day to focus on the storks. The first stop on my stork itinerary was the Hachigoro wetlands.
The wetlands are named after one of the first wild oriental storks to migrate back to the Toyooka area. They are a short walk or bike ride from Kinosaki onsen so they are very easy to visit. I rented a bike from one of the visitor information facilities first thing in the morning, then headed down the road along the train tracks and took a left onto the blue bridge. Stopping on the bridge to take a few photos, I paused to enjoy the cool and quiet of the river and watch the swallows flit around me before continuing on my way.
Crossing the bridge to get to Hachigoro Toshima wetlands
On the other side of the bridge was a surprise. An oriental stork nest, just past the bridge and on top of a utility pole. The male and female were both standing on top of the nest, but after a moment one flew off towards the river. Its partner remained at the nest, rearranging sticks. I couldn’t believe I was already getting an up-close view of wild storks! I grabbed my camera and took a few shots before continuing to the wetland area, just a short distance up the road.
Stork nest on the other side of the bridge
Hachigoro wetlands is a wetland habitat for waterfowl that was converted from rice fields and sits in a floodplain near the Maruyama river. It has one artificial nesting platform near the edge of the woods that is in use by a pair of oriental storks. Visitors can only access one side of the wetland so that they don’t disturb the birds. As you approach, you will see there is an observation shelter you can go inside with open windows looking out over the water. There are a couple of benches as well as information panels showcasing some of the species you may see. I sat on one of the benches and spent some time quietly watching and trying to take some pictures. It was a bright and sunny day and although there didn’t seem to be many birds out, I was able to see some egrets and ducks as well as the nesting pair of storks in the distance.
Inside the observation shelter
The artificial nest platform is set back farther away from the shelter so if you want a good view you should plan on bringing either a very large zoom lens, binoculars, or a viewing telescope. I’m still very much an amateur when it comes to birding so I don’t have my own binoculars and rely on my camera’s zoom to get a closer look. That being said, you can still enjoy watching the birds without binoculars and you don’t need a telescope to enjoy listening to the storks’ beak clattering.
Map of the wetlands showing the stork nest and observation shelter.
Cafe Lamp Eye
After quietly watching for a bit I made my way over to Cafe Lamp Eye for some breakfast. This cute cafe is just past the wetlands, a minute or so walk through the parking lot, and across the street. The interior reminded me of a cozy grandparent’s house with comfy floral couches and an assortment of armchairs and tables to choose from. The morning air was still a little chilly so they had a portable heater set up in the room, adding to the cozy atmosphere.
A relaxing breakfast at Cafe Lamp Eye
I took a seat in one of the armchairs set up in front of a table with a view of the cherry blossom trees in the back garden. Sinking into the chair, I felt an urge to stay there all day with a bit of crochet or a book to read. I ordered some fruit waffles for breakfast (absolutely delicious) and took my time to enjoy the food and atmosphere before finally pulling myself up out of the armchair to pay and head to my next destination.
Hyogo Oriental Stork Park
My second stork stop was the Hyogo Park of the Oriental Stork in Toyooka. After returning my bike I went back to my hostel to pick up my bag and catch a bus to Toyooka station. It’s a bit of a bus ride to Toyooka, and another to the stork park, so I would recommend eating before you go as I later found out the food options there are very limited. On the bright side, there is a direct bus to the park from Toyooka station so you won’t get lost and you can also buy food or small lunchboxes from the station convenience store before you go. Once there however there is only one cafe that serves pizza, some coffee, and drinks, and the food orders end around 3:00.
After catching the bus, I arrived at the park around 2:00 and headed straight in, not realizing I was setting myself up for a very hungry afternoon. Entry to the park is a small 100 yen donation which comes with an oriental stork origami gift, and they do have English instructions and an English park pamphlet you can ask for. The museum itself also has a good amount of English information on the displays; most of the information about the storks and their conservation seemed to have English translations with only some of the specimen displays or smaller displays being Japanese only.
Stork origami, bird specimens, and oriental stork information in English
In the entrance area, there were some bird specimens of egrets, herons, and storks and in one of the education rooms, they had a side-by-side specimen display of the Oriental and White storks so you can see their differences.
Left: White stork, orange beak, black skin around dark eyes Right: Oriental stork, black beak, red skin around white eye
Observation Cages
Captive stork observation cage
Out through the back is the captive stork observation cages, biotope, and nature trail. The cages have terraced pools for the storks to wade in but most were hanging out inside their eating area. When I came back later a few came out and were wading in the water closer to the fence so I could get some better pictures. At the biotope past the cages, I could see insects flying around and listen to the many frogs croaking. There’s also a nature trail you can take into the forest a bit but I passed on it this time around as I was on a bit of a time crunch.
Stork in breeding observation cage
A short walk up the road from the museum is another biotope and an observation area for the breeding cages. You can really only see into one of the cages and you can’t get very close to it, but up on the hill is another observation point with binoculars and a display showing videos and information about the breeding cages.
Final Thoughts
The Hyogo Park of the Oriental Stork is a great way to learn about the storks and a nice area to walk around and take in some of the natural landscape. Depending on your timing, you might be able to see some more of the wild storks hanging out in the terraced pools and nearby fields. Hachigoro Toshima wetlands are also a nice area for some relaxed birding and a chance to see some wild storks. Both are affordable attractions to visit at the low low prices of free (Hachigoro wetland) and 100 yen ( ~$1, Oriental Stork Park) and are easy to visit from the Kinosaki Onsen area for a conservation or wildlife-focused day trip. I definitely enjoyed my time visiting and would love to bring my family for a visit someday.
If you want to see some of my pictures from my trip, or an abridged storyline of it, check out my Instagram and the Oriental Stork highlight on my profile.
For more about visiting the storks and the Kinosaki or Toyooka area, check out the Visit Kinosaki website.
If asked to name an iconic bird of Japan, most people would probably go for the red-crowned crane. Though rare, it is captured in many works of art, folk tales, and even company logos. Known for its elegant dancing during mating season, it is often featured in nature films and photography about Japan.
If you’ve paid attention to the title of this post though, you have probably realized this is not the bird I will be talking about. I’ll save that for a different day. Today I’d like to tell the story of another large rare Japanese bird: the Oriental white stork.
Description
A captive Oriental stork at the Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork
The oriental white stork shares the red-crowned crane’s color scheme, with a mostly white body and black wing feathers. Although it is smaller than the more famous crane, it is still a sizeable bird at 43-59 in (110-150 cm) tall, roughly 6.2-13 lb (2.8-5.9 kg), and with a 7.3 ft (2.2 m) wingspan. Similar in appearance to the European white stork, it can be told apart by its black beak, red skin around the eyes, and white irises.
The oriental stork was historically found across Asia, from the Siberian region of Russia and Northeast China to the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and further south with some birds wintering in parts of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Phillippines.
It became locally extinct in the Korean Peninsula and Japan in 1971. As a result of conservation efforts, the oriental stork has returned to Korea and Japan and most of the population appears to be found in China, with smaller population clusters in Russia, Korea, Japan. They are less commonly seen in other parts of Asia such as India and the Philippines.
Diet and Behavior
Storks are carnivores and eat a range of insects, small invertebrates, fish, amphibians, small reptiles, and small mammals. In Japan, they are a top predator in their wetland ecosystem, and their presence an indicator of a healthy habitat. The Oriental white storks mainly hunt by wading in wetland or river edge areas as well as rice paddies.
They are migratory birds that travel to breed or winter in other areas and are usually solitary except during breeding season. They nest in tall trees or man-made structures such as electricity poles or nesting platforms. They do not have much in the way of vocalization and mainly communicate by loudly clattering their beaks.
Road to Decline
While the oriental stork was once widespread in Asia, the species has declined and is considered endangered. The main threats and reasons for its decline are hunting, habitat loss, and other effects of human development and industrialization such as prey loss and environmental pollution.
In Japan, the storks were initially able to live alongside humans and hunt for prey in the flooded rice fields. But as agriculture became more industrialized, it soon led to problems for the storks and other smaller species that lived or hunted there. With industrialization, traditional farming practices were changed for higher rice production. Heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers not only reduced the storks’ natural prey but also led to the buildup of mercury and other chemicals in their bodies, a process known as biomagnification, which left them sick and unable to breed.
Traditional practices where fields were connected to natural waterways and left flooded for longer periods in the year were altered; concrete irrigation and drainage isolated from the fields prevented natural movement of aquatic species like fish, and fields left flooded for a shorter period meant that tadpoles didn’t have time to develop into frogs, further reducing the prey population. These factors coupled with the loss of natural nesting sites from logging of the pine forests led to the decline of the species in Japan.
The last wild birds were seen in 1971 in Toyooka, and after their deaths, the stork was declared extinct in Japan.
Conservation Timeline
Capture and Breeding
With the wild stork population at risk of local extinction, the oriental white stork was designated a special natural monument, and protection groups were established to help conserve the species from 1956. At this time, there were only 20 wild birds left in Japan. As the number of wild storks continued to decline, plans were made to set up a captive breeding facility.
By 1963 their numbers had dwindled to just 11 birds and an attempt was made to remove eggs from the wild to incubate in captivity. Unfortunately, their efforts were unsuccessful. The next step was to capture some of the few remaining wild birds for captive breeding. From 1963 to February 1971, three wild adult birds were caught and taken into the breeding center. In May of 1971, the last wild stork was captured in Toyooka but subsequently died resulting in the local extinction of the stork in Japan.
In 1985, Russia sent 6 young storks to Japan to help bolster the captive breeding population. Finally, in 1989, the captive Russian storks successfully bred and raised a chick. From this point on, the captive storks have successfully raised chicks every year.
Reintroductions
As the captive population grew, plans for re-introduction to the wild were formed and additional facilities, such as the Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork were developed. From 1999 on, the breeding population was added to with birds from zoos within Japan as well as wild birds from Russia. By 2002, the captive population had risen to over 100, and the first captive-bred birds were released in 2005. Two years later, in 2007, the first chick from reintroduced storks fledged in the wild.
Since then, captive breeding and re-introductions in Japan have continued along with efforts to restore and protect the storks’ habitat. And in 2014, the Graduate School of Regional Resource Management was established on the grounds of the Hyogo Park of the Oriental Stork to support the sustainable management of natural resources.
Conservation Initiatives
Stork friendly rice-growing methods
Stork-friendly rice cultivation. From Visit Kinosaki: Stork Natural Rice webpage
For the storks to thrive again, it was crucial to restore their habitat. Stork-friendly farming methods were established and supported by government subsidies to encourage rice farmers to change their methods. This includes a 75-100% reduction of pesticide and fertilizer use and a return to leaving rice paddies flooded for a longer period. Reduction of pesticides allows natural prey to survive for the storks to feed on and prevents bio-accumulation of chemicals which could hinder storks’ ability to breed again. Leaving the fields flooded also provides additional habitat for waterfowl and prey such as frogs and insects.
Wetland Restoration
While storks can find prey in rice paddies and co-exist with organic farming methods, they need more habitat than that to thrive. In addition to the stork-friendly rice-growing methods, the city of Toyooka has established several habitats for wetland preservation. These include the Hachigoro Toshima wetland, Kaya wetland, Maruyama river, Tai wetland, rice paddy biotope, and lower Maruyama river.
Hachigoro wetlands. Image from Visit Kinosaki website
Some of these are wetlands or biotopes converted from unused rice paddy fields. These expand the habitat and feeding areas for the storks as well as function as natural corridors connecting wetland areas. Along the rivers, wetland areas and shallows are created to expand habitat and foraging areas for the storks. These habitats benefit not only the storks, but the species they feed on, such as insects, fish, and amphibians, and other waterfowl.
Current Status
While the stork has rebounded thanks to captive breeding and habitat restoration efforts, the population in Japan is still small. There are approximately 95 storks in captivity and 90 in the wild. The main location of breeding and conservation efforts is the Toyooka area in Hyogo Prefecture. As the captive population grew, reintroductions have expanded to other prefectures such as Chiba and Fukui. Worldwide, the population is estimated to be between 1,000-2,500 mature individuals.
Where to see them:
In addition to habitat restoration and stork-friendly farming methods, Toyooka city has also become an ecotourism spot to see the storks. From local schoolchildren to international tourists, university students, and researchers, visitors to the park and other nearby attractions have increased over the years with over 1,000 package tours sold since 2006. But if package tours aren’t your thing, no worries. It is very easy to see them on your own. And the best part is, you can pair it with a visit to the famous hot springs of Kinosaki.
Kinosaki Onsen: Hachigoro wetlands
Egrets at Hachigoro wetlands
The Hachigoro wetlands are located just outside of Kinosaki Onsen. They are free to visit and easily reached on foot or by bike from the town. Just a short ride/walk down the road and across the bridge and you will find them in no time flat. Only one side is open to the public to prevent disturbing the birds, but there is a viewing hut with some identification information and a view of the nesting platform.
Toyooka: Hyogo Park of the Oriental Stork
Captive stork viewing cage at Hyogo Park of the Oriental Stork
The Hyogo Park of the Oriental Stork can be reached with a direct bus from Toyooka station and requires only a small donation of 100 yen to enter. In the museum, you can learn more about the storks’ biology, conservation efforts, and local history. There are also many specimens of other local birds and wildlife, an education room, and videos of the storks on their nest. Outside, you can view some of the captive storks, visit a biotope, and even hike a nature trail. At the end of your visit, you can buy stork-friendly rice or other goods at the nearby souvenir stands.
Conclusion
Although the Oriental stork was once extinct in Japan, it has been brought back through the hard work and perseverance of local communities and governments as well as international cooperation with other countries that the stork calls home. The numbers are still small, but hopefully, the population will continue to grow as the Oriental stork is re-established in its historic range.
Another weekend, another day I force myself outside because I could use the fresh air and exercise. This time, in Kyoto. Normally, I go to Kyoto for the temples and shrines, the markets, or the scenery. This time I would be trying to look for birds.
First stop: Kyoto Imperial Park
This is the location of the Imperial Palace (closed except for scheduled tours you must reserve) as well as a few other imperial buildings and other attractions. The park is fairly large, with some trees and green areas around the perimeter but also large gravel pathways surrounding the palace. At first, I didn’t see much because the birds were higher up in the trees and moving a little too fast for me to catch. Sparrows and pigeons of course were easy to see. Eventually, though, I found a small shrine where quite a few different birds were hanging out.
Shrines and temples in Japan can often be quiet havens of nature. They may have large mature trees protected as part of the shrine, inner gardens, and are almost always a lot quieter. This one had some shrubs and shorter trees where there were quite a lot of birds foraging among the leaf litter. Distracted by a crow gathering nest materials at first, I hung out here for a little while as I spotted more birds up in the branches and down in the leaves.
Large-billed Crow
This bird hopping across the entrance to the shrine is what first drew me in. It was collecting pine needles for nesting material and at one point, turning its head, reminded me of Nigel Thornberry with the way the needles stuck out on either side of its bill like a large mustache. After pulling at some paper litter, it eventually flew off to deliver its load to the nest.
Oriental Turtle Dove
I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed these doves before, maybe mistaking them for pigeons because of their size, or just not seeing them as often. The mourning doves we have back home are smaller and more vocal, but the turtle doves were quietly rustling around in the leaves. Flicking them out of the way looking for food, keeping one eye on the people walking past, but otherwise unconcerned.
Pale thrush
I have an image of thrushes being very spotty birds, so this one confused me at first. But I suppose its name fits because it had a pale unspotted belly and pretty solid coloring. It blended in well to the shadowy brown leaf litter. As it hopped around it kept stopping to look at me, warier of my presence than the dove.
Varied Tit
I believe this may have been a recently fledged young bird and its parents. It was easy to locate as it screeched for food, mouth open and wings fluttering in a familiar begging pose I had seen when caring for orphaned birds. After another bird deposited a sizable grub in its mouth, it quieted down and started hopping around in the branches, exploring on its own.
Japanese Tit
Quick as ever, this little bird wouldn’t sit still and quickly moved on, but I finally managed to get a full side view of it.
Brown-eared Bulbul
Briefly spotted this bird peeking out from the leaves of the camellia tree.
Dusky thrush
Got a better view of the dusky thrush away from the shrine in a more open grassy area beneath some taller pine trees. These thrushes had the more familiar speckled belly and were foraging in the grass.
Next stop: Kamogawa (Kamo River)
Not going to lie, I mainly just wanted to enjoy hanging out on the riverbank. Japan has a lot of rivers and they are often set up with walking paths and benches, so many people enjoy hanging out by the riverside. But water means wildlife, and there was no shortage of birds even at this popular river walkway.
Black kite
One of the first birds to catch my attention was the black kite. These raptors are incredibly common and are easy to spot circling above the rivers. They also call frequently and, to me, make up one of the distinct natural sounds of Japan. There was a pair hanging out in the top of a cherry blossoms tree, making for another great spring photo.
White-cheeked Starling
These birds might seem familiar to Pokemon fans because they resemble the pokemon Starly, with their brown bodies and white cheeks. These are also pretty common to see around local parks and were making their way along the bank in a little group.
Grey Heron
Another common sight near water, there were a couple of these wading around the bridge area and near the rocks.
Little Egret
On the other side of the river, this little egret was admiring its reflection in the water. Or maybe looking for food. One of those. The big giveaway for this species is the black beak, most of the other egrets have a yellow beak.
Japanese Wagtail
This one was perched on some rocks in the middle of the river. This was another bird new to me, I didn’t know that white wagtails and Japanese wagtails were 2 different birds because they always move so fast! The Japanese wagtail has a smaller white mask above its eyes, while the white wagtail has a broader white mask across its face.
And now for some ducks.
Mallard
This male was hanging out in the shade of the bridge so he didn’t have the strong green sheen to his head and it was more of a dark blue, with a bit of green showing on the cheek. The female was not far behind, dipping below the water to dabble for food.
Green-winged teal
A pair hanging out in the middle of the river, enjoying the sun.
Eurasian Wigeon
This male was cruising with his girl around the bridge, enjoying the fine weather.
Baer’s Pochard
A pair of dark diving ducks, these two would quickly disappear under the water leaving only ripples. They were in the middle of the river where the water was deeper, going after aquatic insects maybe.
At first glance, the imperial park and the riverside didn’t seem to have that many birds (other than the usual pigeons, sparrows, and ducks), but once I slowed down and looked a little closer I began to notice more. Even in a city as large as Kyoto, there is plenty of nature and wildlife to be found.
One of the local attractions in my city is a small insectarium in a large park. I’ve been to the insectarium a few times before, but after a dreary week of cloudy skies and rain, I decided to check it out again. Luckily, I was just in time for the last weekend of their special exhibit on red list insects on the verge of extinction.
The entrance to the insectarium has a garden and colorful mural.
After a bit of a Saturday lie-in, I biked over to spend an hour or two wandering around inside. There weren’t many people there yet, so I quickly sanitized my hands and purchased a ticket through the vending machine before entering the world of insects.
“Honey, I shrunk the kids!”
This museum is very much geared towards children, which you can tell by the “Honey I shrunk the kids” style giant insect habitat model which is the first exhibit you walk through. Passing between giant blades of grass, everywhere you look you are likely to spot another insect. A sampling of the biodiversity lying at our feet, just out of sight.
If you’re not careful, you might get eaten by this mantis camouflaged in the grass!!
Here there are a few displays of pinned insect specimens with some information about insect species or families. Rounding a corner (and a giant dragonfly) you can see into an ant colony model on the other side. Once through this upsized kingdom of insects, you are faced with a giant model bee. Usually, it is an interactive display that children can climb up to and touch screens for more information. For now, though, it is closed off due to COVID safety restrictions.
Specimens galore
Buzzing past the bee for a few pics, I detoured into a large room on the left: the specimen room. Here, behind glass cases, are specimens of butterflies, bees, beetles, and other insects found in Japan and within Itami city specifically. Neatly organized together in groups with facts posted here and there, you can quickly appreciate just how many insects there are living all around us.
This room also had two special exhibits. One on ladybugs, and the other on the bull-headed shrike. I swung by the ladybug exhibit, quickly looking through the life cycle photos before taking a little more time at the shrike exhibit. I hadn’t realized we even had shrike here! Over the last 30 years, the insectarium had been collecting specimens of a unique shrike behavior. Namely, impaling their prey on sharp thorns or sticks. This behavior is what led to their other name: the butcher bird.
The museum had collected a large variety of impaled prey items, from insects like centipedes and giant hornets to small mammals and reptiles like mice and lizards. Quite the balanced diet!
Shrikes have a hooked beak like a raptor, but not the strong talons and feet to help hold and tear their prey apart. They impale it on sharp thorns or branches, or even wedged into forks, to help hold it in place or store it to eat later. So if you happen to see fish or shrimp stuck on some random branches away from the water, that just means you’ve found a shrike’s pantry!
Float among the butterflies
After carefully looking through the desiccated remains of shrike leftovers, it was time for something a little more lively and colorful. Crossing to the other side of the building, past some live insect displays, is the entrance to the butterfly atrium.
This is always one of my favorite parts of the museum. A chance to see so many butterflies, and up-close too. This time, I could even watch them lay their eggs on the undersides of the leaves. Meandering up the slope, surrounded by tropical flowers and fluttering butterflies, the perfect pick me up after a long week spent inside due to rain.
Special Exhibit
At the top of the walkway, it exits out onto the third floor where the learning room/library and special exhibit rooms are. Here, I entered the ICU or “Insect Care Unit”. I couldn’t help but laugh a little at their dedication to the theme. They had 3 large beetle models hooked up to an IV drip just outside the entrance. Cute and easy to understand.
The exhibit was packed with a lot of information. A list of all the threatened insect species in Japan, a chart breaking down the numbers of threatened or critically threatened species, and posters further breaking down the species of specific habitats that were under threat. They explained why they were threatened and what needs to be done, or is being done to address it. Other posters focused on a specific species rather than all the species in one habitat and showcased insects the insectarium was breeding for release into the wild.
While some of this information might be a little difficult for younger children, they did have a nice visual display illustrating why extinction was bad. A globe made of puzzle pieces with a different species or part of nature on each piece represented our planet. The more pieces that get taken away, the less stable it becomes until eventually, it all falls apart. Showing we are all connected and rely on each other to make one planet.
On my way out I grabbed the insectarium’s news booklet which covered the special exhibit with some more details on their conservation activities. This was free for visitors and a nice souvenir to take home for further reading.
A visit is just a walk in the park. . .
Before heading to the mall to grab a snack, I walked through a bit of the park to see if there were any birds around. (Maybe hoping I’d see a shrike after the interesting exhibit inside) I didn’t have to go far before I realized there was a large flock of Great cormorants nesting on the island in the middle of the pond. This island is unique because it is actually in the shape of the islands of Japan, although you can’t really tell from the shoreline. I watched the cormorants swimming, flying, and sunning for a while, taking a few pictures of them and some herons resting nearby.
Feeling hungry, I packed away my camera and headed to the mall. I could explore the rest of the park later, but for now, donuts were calling.
To see more of my visit to Itami Insectarium, check out the Insectarium highlight on my Instagram, @jennywrenrambles.
Spring is around the corner and after weeks hiding from the cold in my apartment, I finally dragged myself outside for some fresh air and a bit of birding.
Around the end of February in Japan, it’s plum blossom season. It’s one of the first big blossom events after the winter but often overshadowed by cherry blossom season which comes in March-April. That being said, the fragrant plum blossoms still attract plenty of people to the groves planted around castles and temples.
Plum grove at Osaka Castle
In addition to people, the groves also attract many birds with the sweet nectar of their blooms and insect life waking from winter. And when it comes to plum trees, there is one bird, in particular, you can expect to see and which everyone wants a picture of. The Warbling or Japanese White-eye. An olive bird with white spectacles around its eyes, these little birds flit from tree to tree drinking the nectar from the plum blossoms. Sitting atop the blossoms, they make for beautiful spring photos which is why you’ll often see a group of photographers with big telephoto lenses all pointed at the same tree.
To get this same picture, and hoping to find some more birds, I went to Osaka castle park for a late morning of relaxed birding.
Stepping through the castle gate, I entered the grove on the left and began to wander through, keeping an eye out for the birds while basking in the pink clouds of blossoms.
To get the most out of the view, groves of flowering trees are carefully tended and arranged with meandering paths around roped-off patches of trees. This lets people get close enough to the trees for pictures but maintains large patches where birds can land and forage out of reach.
After wandering around, taking some pictures of the castle and the blooming trees, I made my way toward the back of the grove. This area is a little quieter and in the shade of some bigger pine trees and a castle wall. I find it tends to have a little more bird diversity than the more open and active area near the gate.
True to expectations, this is where I found and photographed most of the birds on my outing.
Warbling white-eye / Japanese white-eye
These little birds seemed to usually be in pairs or small groups, hopping among the branches drinking the nectar. They’re fun to watch and hold still long enough to take your pictures before they move on to another branch or tree. They’re also popular as a symbol of spring in Japan, hence why everyone wants to get that perfect flower framed pic of them!
Brown-eared bulbul
I was surprised to see that this bird, larger than the white-eye, was also feeding on the nectar from the blossoms. Although, because of its big size, when it landed on the smaller branches it tended to knock some of the petals loose and scare off the smaller birds.
Daurian redstart
I only saw one of these birds, hanging out at the very back of the grove. Rather than feed on the nectar, this one was foraging on grubs and insects from the ground.
Japanese Tit
I was trying for a picture of this little bird since its black and white head reminded me of the cute chickadees back home. Unfortunately, after getting a picture from behind, it was scared off by someone talking to me and never came back down from the castle walls.
Eurasian sparrow
These birds are common everywhere but still cute to see and easy to snap a picture of.
White wagtail
A speedy little bird that doesn’t sit still for long, running along the ground before flying off.
Dusky thrush
It blends in perfectly with the brown brush behind it.
Not 100% sure of this I.D., but seems like this brown bird may be the dusky thrush. It blended in pretty well with the brown leaves and branches, so I only noticed when it moved!
After getting my fill of blossoms and birds at the castle, I headed down to the moat to check out what waterfowl were hanging around. Unfortunately, most of them took off to the far side of the moat, but I managed to get a few pictures of the ones closer to the rail before they swam off.
Eurasian coot
These birds seemed less bothered by people approaching the rail and continued to paddle around, fairly close, just doing their own thing.
Tufted duck
You can see from the tuft of feathers on the back of its head where it gets its name from
There were quite a lot of these guys swimming around.
Eastern spot-billed duck
I think these are pretty common to see around, the average duck if you will.
Green-winged teal
It was difficult to see the color on these due to the cloudy weather, but after some photo editing, I’m pretty confident I got the ID right.
Redhead duck
This was one of the ducks that was too far away for a good picture, but it stood out for its color. I’ll try for a better picture next time.
All in all, not a bad day. I haven’t tried bird watching in a while, but it was a nice change of pace. I also had a new camera lens to work with which made it fun to try and get pictures of all the birds I was seeing. Now that the weather is warming up, I’m going to try and get out more often and see what else I can find in the parks and gardens around here.
There’s still a bit of winter chill hanging around but spring is just around the corner. Here in Japan, we are in the midst of plum blossom season, oft-forgotten in the shadow of sakura season. With the days growing longer and the weather (ever so gradually) warming, the birds and beasts are coming out. If you ever happen to visit Japan during this time, here are a few Japanese birds of spring to keep an eye out for and where you may spot them.
1. Japanese White-eye/ メジロ (me-ji-ro)
Japanese white-eye perched on some plum blossoms at the plum grove in Osaka Castle Park
If you visit some of the plum blossom groves in February or March, there is a good chance you will see this bird perched among the blossoms. The Japanese white-eye, also known as the warbling white-eye, is easy to spot among the pink with an olive green head and back and the white circle around its eye from which it gets its name. These agile birds flit from branch to branch drinking the nectar of the plum and cherry blossoms and eating small insects. If you’re looking to spot some, look towards the tops of the trees where they like to hang out. Otherwise, keep an eye out for where groups of people are pointing their cameras!
Where to see it:
My go-to spots are Osaka Castle Park’s plum grove as well as Jonangu shrine in Kyoto, where you can enjoy the weeping plum blossoms and camellia. Since the trees are a little shorter than the cherry blossom trees, but just as packed with blossoms, there’s a solid chance you can get a good look at the white-eyes. For cherry blossom season, you can go to just about any park. Japan’s love for sakura means they have them planted everywhere, so it only takes a quick google to find a park or cherry blossom spot nearby.
The Japanese Bush Warbler is a nondescript bird you are more likely to hear than see. Many in Japan mistake the white-eye above for this bird, because they can often hear it but only see the olive white-eyes flying around in the trees. The bush warblers are brownish in color with a lighter gray-brown belly and a bit of a darker stripe along their eye with light “eyebrows”. Despite this lackluster appearance and their tendency to stay hidden in the brush, they are considered the true harbingers of spring in Japan. In fact, another name for them in Japanese is “harutsugedori” or the “bird that announces spring”. This is because their iconic breeding calls can be heard in spring, and some consider this to signal spring’s true start. The breeding call sounds like a low whistle ending in a warbling trill.
Cultural symbolism: Spring & Sutras
This bird has great symbolic meaning in Japan. They believe its call sounds like “Ho-hoke’kyo”, one of the other names for the Buddhist Lotus Sutra. Additionally, the bush warbler’s name in Japanese, “uguisu”, is one of the kigo words used in traditional poetry to symbolize spring, and is featured in poetry anthologies from the Nara and Heian periods. It has such a strong association with spring, they even have a traditional sweet named after it: uguisu mochi. If you are visiting Japan in spring, see if you can hear this call when you go out, and don’t forget to stop by a Japanese sweets shop to pick up some uguisu mochi along the way!
Barn swallows are migratory birds that return to Japan in the spring in preparation for their summer breeding season. They are small-bodied birds with pointed wings and a long, deeply forked tail. Dark, metallic blue feathers on their head, back, and tail make a bold contrast to their rusty throats and white or cream bellies. These acrobatic birds swoop through the air eating flying insects such as flies and moths (and come summer, hopefully, mosquitos!).
Symbols of Spring: Traditional Poetry
Barn swallows also have a place in Japanese traditional poetry as kigo, words or phrases that represent the seasons, representing spring and summer. In spring kigo, swallows appear as swallows in flight: hi en 飛燕 and first swallow of the season: hatsu tsubame 初燕. Next time you head outside, look to the skies and see if you can spot your hatsu tsubame!
Photo from https://www.miyanomayu.com/archives/8939297.html
Where to see it:
Another great place to see this bird is, surprisingly, local train stations or shop buildings. Swallows build their mud nests against the wall of a building, usually under an overhang. Because of their special significance in Japan, rather than try and remove these nests to prevent bird droppings from disturbing customers, businesses will often simply put up an umbrella under the nest to catch the droppings and put up signs to alert customers. I see this often at my local supermarket where they will put out a little sign on a cone to get people’s attention and an umbrella to keep things clean.
mejiro tag on Instagram
These 3 birds are symbolic of springtime in Japan and have been memorialized in traditional poetry, sweets, and of course on Instagram. They can be found throughout most of Japan so odds are high you’ll be able to see them (or in the case of the bush warbler hear them) during a spring visit.
Are there any birds symbolic of spring where you are from? Or any you look forward to seeing once winter ends? Comment below and let me know!
Just a meandering look at changes to daily life in Japan during the pandemic.
In my last post, I talked about how the coronavirus situation unfolded for me in Japan and some of the bigger changes going on in the country. Now that school closures have been extended (again) and I’m starting to get a little bored working from home, I thought I’d write about some of the changes in my daily life.
The Rush for Masks and Toilet Paper
In Japan, it’s pretty normal for people to wear masks outside for a variety of reasons. If you have a slight cold, trying to block pollen, or even to keep warm in the winter. Usually, there’s a whole section of masks to choose from at the drug store and even at school in the staff room, there’s a box for teachers to grab a mask from if they need it. Given this, I wasn’t expecting masks to run out that fast because I assumed most people already had some at home anyway. Japan didn’t seem to be taking the virus that seriously at the start, so I thought there wouldn’t quite be that rush on supplies like I see back home when there’s a hurricane. I live just a couple minutes from a drug store and planned to grab a pack to have on hand, just in case, on one of my many trips to pick up snacks.
Turns out I was already too late. I noticed a big gap on the aisle as I walked toward it. Empty shelves where the masks used to be.
Sign: Masks, tissues, toilet paper out of stock
This didn’t bother me too much since I don’t usually wear masks. What was a little worrying was when toilet paper disappeared too.
Luckily I had been to Costco in December and picked up a big pack of toilet paper, so I was fine. But the fact that it was constantly out of stock by the time I was heading home for lunch was surprising and started to become worrying as my own stash started to dwindle. A rumor had been spread online that toilet paper supplies could run low because China would be using the supplies or ingredients to make masks. This turned out to be laughably false since the materials used for masks and toilet paper are different and 98% of the toilet paper in Japan is produced domestically. Not from China.
Before I started working from home, I would see a line of people waiting outside the drug store for it to open. The stores had instituted limits on how much people could buy, 1 pack of masks and toilet paper per person. Even so, it was consistently sold out or not in stock by lunch. Eventually, the TP panic died down and once it started to stay on the shelves I bought another pack. The shelves are back to being fully stocked for TP but there still aren’t many masks.
Luckily I happened to have enough fabric to make a few masks.
Since I can’t seem to buy disposable masks, I finally made my own cloth mask. Being a hoarder of craft supplies came in handy and I happened to have enough fabric to work with and a borrowed sewing machine to use. After a few unsuccessful patterns and 1 failed mask, I made one that fits ok.
Shops, sheets, and sanitizers.
Another one of the early changes was some of the germ-fighting measures the food shops implemented. Supermarkets and bread shops have always had a bottle of hand sanitizer out front but not everyone used them. I am one of those people mainly because more often than not the supermarket’s automatic dispenser either doesn’t respond or is empty. After Coronavirus started to spread though, they pulled the hand sanitizer out so it was a little easier to see and use. Other places that didn’t have it before started putting it out for customers, like my local drug store.
My favorite donut shop, which usually had trays of donuts for you to grab from and put on your tray, attached vinyl sheets that you had to lift to grab the donuts. Later on, convenience stores, supermarkets, and drug stores erected vinyl sheets in front of the registers to limit any cross-contamination between customers and cashiers. (Just don’t sneeze on your hand before you give them the money.) At the bread shops and the deli section of the supermarket, everything was prepackaged into plastic trays or bags instead of being left out for customers to grab on their own.
Supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, and more have put up these vinyl screens at the registers.Normally, these foods in the deli section would be on trays for people to grab and package as much as they want. Now everything is prepackaged.
The most recent development is many shops closing and restaurants changing their operating hours. My local mall closed everything except for the supermarket area and local restaurants have earlier closing hours. Some of the izakaya (bars), which are normally small, enclosed spaces, are shifting to selling pre-made lunch sets to make up the difference now that they can’t operate as normal.
Local bar has started selling lunches.
The Food Situation
I did a pretty good job of gradually stocking up on food early on just on the off chance that people went crazy and stripped the shelves a la US hurricane season. Despite the toilet paper panic buying, no one was panic-buying food at that point. There were a few times the ramen shelves got low but everything else seemed normal. After the state of emergency was declared this changed a little and in kind of a weird way. My mom had been telling me how everyone was buying up dried pasta and pasta sauce back home in the US. Dumb because you can’t just live on pasta, you need some fruits and veg in there. Theoretically not a problem because the fruit is comparatively cheap and easy to get in the US and our refrigerators are larger, so more storage space. Chop that stuff up and freeze it.
Shock! Empty ramen shelves!
Not the case in Japan. I did fill up my modest freezer space with some fruit, vegetables, and meat; bought some canned goods and dried beans, and some seasoning and quick meal packs so I would have a nice diversity of foods to get through. I’ve cooked pasta once in like the past 2 or 3 months. I was not surprised by the instant ramen selling out. It’s Japan. I was surprised that pasta also sold out in Japan. The rest of the aisle, with all the other Asian noodles and seasonings, seemed well stocked. Why is everyone buying pasta? Potato chips also got a little low which I thought was odd until I realized that Japan doesn’t have the same diversity of snack foods as what I’m used to in the US. (I weep as I get to my last few fig bars from Costco)
My small (cluttered) fridge. To give you a sense of size, the top only comes up to my chest (I’m 5’4″) and it’s only about as wide as my body.Even more shock! WHY is the pasta gone?
Most of the food is staying stocked but some of the meal and seasoning packs are consistently low. Flour is also sold out because everyone has started baking at home. Even though I had a decent stock of food, I still find myself heading to the store as often as I used to. This is because everything is smaller here. My fridge, the portions sold at the supermarket, and the space I have to store dry goods. I keep burning through bread, eggs, and milk. I miss the days where I could make a trip to Food Lion or Walmart and get 2-3 weeks of food in one go and not have to go out again. I think Japan is socially set up on an assumption that you’ll grocery shop nearly every day, buying the ingredients for that night’s dinner and not much else. I laughed when I read that Tokyo was advising people that they needed to go to the supermarket less to reduce crowd exposure, and try and get enough food for 3 days at a time. 3 days at a time? Minimum I always try to shop for a week’s worth.
My food situation is fine with the exception that more time at home makes me feel snacky and I’m trying to resist eating too many potato chips.
Trying to branch out from potato chips. Fish fry flavored rice crackers.
Social Distancing and Avoiding Travel
One of the earliest changes I saw with regards to social distancing was actually with the movie theaters. In February I went with a friend to see a movie and noticed that every other seat was blocked out so that you couldn’t buy 2 seats next to each other (seats are chosen at the kiosk when buying your ticket in Japan). Then there were suggestions to change work times to avoid peak travel and work from home. I won’t go into that too much since I mentioned it in the last post, except to say it has not worked well for Japan.
Heading into April one of the big changes/worries was cherry blossom season. Often, people will take tarps or blankets to the park and have a group picnic or drinking party with friends and coworkers. Popular cherry blossom spots can be quite crowded with people looking to celebrate the start of spring and get some nice pictures. To combat this, some parks put up ropes to discourage people from having picnics in the grass (to no avail) and even my local park had signs up. Luckily, our park is pretty small (not a tourist draw) so locals could walk around or have a small picnic with their family and still maintain social distancing.
Sign in the local park asking people to refrain from drinking parties. Luckily the park didn’t have too many people so it was easy to practice some social distancing.
Around this time there were some campaigns for an at-home hanami (flower-viewing) party which I leaned into. Dominoes pizza put up some videos with music on YouTube that you could watch at home with a hot pizza (no-contact delivery available). I spent a day or two making cherry blossom decorations and after a walk at the local park, came home to have my own solo hanami party.
Sakura decorations: check. Pizza: check. Got everything I need for my own cherry blossom party.
The next big change is the requests for avoiding travel. Last week was Golden Week which is a peak travel period in Japan. It’s one of the few times when multiple public holidays line up together and Japanese people have the opportunity to travel without having to use as much paid leave. Imagine everyone taking a holiday at the same time and that’s pretty much Golden Week in Japan. Japan had hoped things would normalize by this time, and the original school closure was due to end this week. But social distancing and contact reductions did not go as planned (not even close) and people have continued to go out in crowds and use public transport as usual (partially due to the poor implementation of work from home).
Only recently have they been requesting more businesses to voluntarily close and areas that have reopened too soon have seen cases spike again. With that in mind, and the cheap airfares, there were renewed calls for people to exercise restraint and stay home this Golden Week. Okinawa, a popular destination, had openly asked people to stay away with the hashtag 来ないで(don’t come). Students in University have been asked to stay there and not travel back to their home prefectures and they have even started announcing over the public intercoms requesting people reduce their excursions.
How I’m Handling Things
I’ll admit it, I miss traveling. I had to cancel a family spring break trip and have now passed two 3-day weekends and a week of public holidays sitting at home. Looking back on all the trips I’ve made during these times (as Instagram is kind enough to bring up in memories), I can’t help remembering how much fun it was to go out and explore a new place. A chance to get out of the house and stretch my legs, see new sights, try new foods. I was looking forward to a couple more trips before I end my time in Japan, but I’m grateful I was able to travel as much as I have in the past 4 years. I’m staying home now (and by home I mean literally not going farther than like a 1-mile radius of my apartment) and sacrificing travel for the safety and health of the community I live in. It sucks, but I can’t complain since I have food and entertainment and a salaried job.
So what exactly am I doing with this time?
For a start, I’ve been working from home which has been pretty easy though it’s starting to get a bit boring. My contract allows me to also use this time to study Japanese so I’m going to try breaking up my workdays with some more studying. I have plenty of books I can practice reading with and I’ve started making online flashcards again.
I’ve been bouncing around doing crafts again, trying new things and trying to make new project ideas a reality. This has been a little less successful since I tend to start many projects but finish few. The cross-stitch patterns I downloaded from The Stranded Stitch have been a lot of fun to complete and don’t take too long to finish. Crochet has been trickier as my habit of ignoring the needle and yarn sizes for patterns means the pattern usually does not turn out right and I have to start over again. I need to just pick something easy and repetitive so I can use up all this yarn I’ve been hoarding.
Finished my second cross stitch. Stranded Stitch has a lot of fun patterns you can download and print at home.
Socially I haven’t been struggling since I normally don’t go out that much anyway. I’m pretty much living life as usual with less travel. That being said, being stuck at home so much has become a little monotonous. One of the Facebook groups I’m in has been having weekly watch parties, so I’ve been able to get a little social interaction out of that while watching some new shows and movies. That’s given me something to look forward to during the week. My almost daily skype calls home have continued as usual so I can chat with my parents or siblings. And of course, I can send quarantine memes to my co-ALT while we work on lessons together via google drive or chat over messenger about we’ve been watching lately. Add in all the streaming services I have access to thanks to family accounts and a VPN and I have plenty of options for killing time. Killing it, but not necessarily being productive. That is one thing I’ve been struggling with.
The first of many watch parties.
Exercise is another thing I’ve been lacking. I thought all this time at home would be a great way to get back in the habit of regular exercise. Unfortunately, I’ve mostly been staying up late watching streaming, snacking, and sleeping in. I did sign up for a virtual run event and so far I’ve managed to do each weekly run, but my goal would be to run 2-3 times a week. Now that the school closure has been extended and I will be working from home a little longer, I’m going to try harder to establish a daily routine and incorporate short workouts and runs.
Run for myself? Maybe tomorrow. Run for the animals? Sign me up I’m already out the door.
All in all, things are not too bad on my end. Just trying to do my best to stay healthy and occupied.
Looking at how the pandemic has progressed for me in Japan and what this might mean for my postgrad plans in the fall.
A whole lotta questions and indefinite answers. Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash
The recent pandemic has led to a lot of changes and disruptions. There is no vaccine yet and there’s no way of knowing for sure what the near future holds. This means that my postgraduate plans are at risk of being postponed, and before that, whether I can even get out of Japan is unsure. My current situation is that I am working from home while schools are planned to stay closed until May 6th. I’m mostly staying at home in my apartment except for grocery runs. In the meantime, I thought I’d sum up what my experience has been so far and what my contingency plans are.
Background
To start, some quick background on my situation. I’m currently in my 4th year on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET). I teach at a prefectural high school and was planning to finish my contract and return home this summer in August before starting my postgraduate program at Bristol University in September. I live in Hyogo prefecture, one of the prefectures with several cluster outbreaks and one of the original 7 prefectures that Abe declared a state of emergency for before it was extended to cover the whole country. And currently, school is closed until May 6th and I am working from home.
The Beginning
Japan gets a lot of tourists from China, so when cases spiked and travel restrictions were enacted on China’s end, Japan took notice due to the large drop in tourists at popular sites. Many places banked on reservations for tourists traveling during the lunar New Year, and the decrease in tourists was noticeable in places like Kyoto and Nara which are regularly packed. However, at this point, Japan seemed less concerned with the possibility of the disease spreading and more concerned with the economic repercussions. In February, there was a new tourism campaign where posters of nearly empty sites were put up encouraging people to take advantage of the rare lack of tourists.
Top poster: “It’s been a while since there were more monkeys than humans” Bottom poster: “Crossing easily…excuse me.”
I’ll admit, I did make a trip to Kyoto (2/24) as there were still very few cases (2 in Kyoto at the time) and an uncrowded Kyoto was too much to resist. I headed to Arashiyama since I had already planned to go and enjoy the hot springs and had made a trip only a few weeks before that. I planned to limit where I would be going, just the hot spring, the main shopping area, and park so I wouldn’t be traveling that far and I could get there without going through Osaka, a travel hub. The lack of visitors was refreshing but locals were already feeling the sting. I talked with an artist selling postcards of his work and he said that an art conference he was planning to attend in Tokyo had been canceled. Stories in other areas were starting to come out of drastic declines in visitors and sales while it seemed Gion was happy for a break from the tourist hordes.
Left: Spring 2018 when my mother visited, the famous bamboo path crowded as usual. Right: Winter 2020 the same bamboo path with far fewer tourists. You can actually see the path!
Watching and Waiting
As a member of an international exchange program, belonging to several program-related groups on FaceBook (prefectural, regional, etc.), and having friends from a variety of different countries, I had a lot of virus-related information flowing through my feeds. I also had some insight into what was happening in different areas of Japan. Many were skeptical and suspicious of Japan’s handling of the virus. The cruise ship quarantine was botched and a story came out of people disembarking from a flight from Wuhan, which had passengers who tested positive for the virus, who did not get tested. Testing was voluntary but if you tested positive hospital quarantine was mandatory. Have fun picking through that logic loophole.
A lot of us suspected Japan was refusing to test and covering up cases in a bid to have the Olympics continue as scheduled. (We were unsurprised when suddenly after the Olympics were postponed there were a large number of cases reported in Tokyo.) Finally, there was an outbreak in Hokkaido and Japan had to start taking things more seriously. Hokkaido closed schools, but things still somehow felt far away as everything in my area seemed to be business as usual, except for masks being completely sold out.
Sign outside my local drugstore:masks, tissues, and toilet paper out of stock.
I decided not to do any more travel for the time being and start gradually buying some extra food supplies to have on hand. The end of the academic year was coming and I was focused on getting through my last few classes, preparing for spring English programs, and saying goodbye to my 3rd-year students. Then, the evening before my school’s graduation(2/27), Abe made a surprise announcement. Large crowds were a risk factor for the spread of the virus and it was graduation season. Ceremonies were to be minimized, shortened, limited in attendance, or altogether canceled. Schools nationwide would be closed until the spring holidays to try and curtail the virus spread. Parents and teachers rejoiced at being given no notice and no time to plan for this change and suddenly have to make arrangements for their children at home while still going to work. (sarcasm)
Schools Close (The First Time)
Luckily for our school, students would still be able to have their ceremony but there would be a hand disinfectant station at the gym entrance and all but the core parts of the ceremony were cut. After ceremony celebrations were to be kept short, although seniors still took a couple of hours to take pictures and say their goodbyes, and as usual the English club party was on the long end. Once students had left the teachers had one of many meetings to try and figure out what was next. Essentially, the school was closed to students, spring day camps were canceled, and no club activities for 2 weeks. ALTs began to watch what was going on closely as we had already been watching how the virus was hitting other countries.
With the best interests of students, staff, and ourselves in mind, ALTs wanted to stay at home during this period. Despite an implied need to limit outings and keep gatherings small, the board of education would not let us stay home unless we used paid leave. Usually, this is the norm during spring break but we were hoping that in these circumstances the rule would change. It did not. I took a couple of Mondays off and one week of half days. Waiting to see more aggressive containment policies or signs that the virus was being taken seriously, as we watched nearby Asian countries take more serious measures such as South Korea’s aggressive testing or Taiwan and Hong Kong’s strict travel and quarantine restrictions. Surely Japan would do something any day now?
Starting to take it seriously?
More and more cases were starting to pop up. Online, ALTs shared that coworkers were coming in coughing, sick, but being denied testing. Or, not wanting to get tested because of the social stigma. Japan, perhaps still in denial, limited the testing to those who had been abroad recently or in contact with someone who had. Typical of Japan, they said they didn’t want to fill up hospital beds as positive cases were required, per law, to stay in hospital. It didn’t occur to them to change the law for asymptomatic cases. And despite aggressive testing leading to positive results in places like Italy and South Korea, Japan decided to focus on backtracing cluster outbreaks. In other words, wait for an outbreak to happen and then take action rather than try to identify and isolate before it spreads.
Like in the U.S., some governors seemed to take things more seriously than others. Before a holiday weekend (3/19), the governor of Osaka requested that those in Hyogo, which had growing numbers of infection, refrain from traveling into Osaka and vice-versa. Osaka is a large city and a travel hub which is the perfect recipe to spread the virus. The Hyogo governor, instead of supporting the moderate restraint requested by his neighbor, claimed he was being overly cautious. I wonder what he thought when news came out that Hyogo residents that had attended a concert in Osaka then tested positive for the virus?
Not what you thought. . .
With community spread confirmed and cases growing by the day, Hyogo finally had to face the facts. The school closure was to be extended with some modifications. Were those modifications online classes? Nay! Despite the image many may have a high-tech Japan, it is far surpassed by its Asian neighbors which were able to set up virtual classrooms for their students to stay on track through quarantine. Computers at home in Japan are not as common as many rely on smartphones for their internet browsing. Schools continue to almost exclusively use chalkboards with limited use of technology in the classroom and many teachers lack experience or confidence in using it.
A typical classroom at my high school. Teachers write everything on the blackboard. Each floor has 2 large monitors (not all of which work) that can be rolled in but are bulky and difficult to position so everyone can see because there are so many desks.
So what were the modifications? To reduce the number of students at the school, they split the attendance and had each year group come on a different day to pick up/turn in assignments and receive updates. Clubs would be canceled (there was a brief period during the first school cancellation when clubs were allowed with reduced duration, only 2 hours allowed). In the meantime, ALTs were in an uproar. The best way to reduce the spread of the virus was to stay at home, and it looked like schools were resistant to this idea. Many ALTs e-mailed their embassies, their prefectural advisors, CLAIR (manages the JET Program along with the government), and Boards of Education outlining their worries and reasons why we should be allowed to work from home.
Logic Finally Wins. Sort of.
Many excellent points were made. ALTs travel throughout Japan and internationally a lot more often than our co-workers, so there was a higher chance we could have picked up the virus. Many are not fluent in Japanese and could have trouble navigating the healthcare system if we were to get sick. We are also far away from our home countries and families and so lack social support in the event of having to quarantine ourselves. On top of this, we were dealing with the anxiety and worry for our families back home. We don’t receive sick leave and the amount of paid leave varies. This means that if we become sick, we may run out of paid leave, and because our contracts may not allow unpaid leave, we could lose our income and position within the program. Otherwise, we could have our pay reduced because of missed working time.
As educators, we are also very concerned with protecting our students and coworkers. If students continue to attend school it increases opportunities for students to spread it among themselves, or to us, and vice versa. The staff room also breaks most of the “3 c’s rule” Japan has been touting to reduce risk. Avoid closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded places with many people nearby, and close-contact settings. Desks are close together in tight rows and people covering their mouth when they cough or sneeze (let alone washing their hands with soap) is not as common as you would hope. Many teachers may be older and so at increased risk from the virus. Meanwhile, ALTs, which are supposed to be assistant teachers, have fewer administrative responsibilities and a lower workload. Most of us are used to using technology in making our lessons (google drive, PowerPoint, etc.) and are better positioned to do our work at home with our personal laptops.
With all this considered, in addition to official recommendations for social distancing and self-quarantine, we had good logical reasons to work from home. However, that would be deviating from the norm, the established rules, and Japan doesn’t like that. Even in a global pandemic. Luckily, it seems there was enough pressure, between embassies, ALTs, and finally an announcement from Abe declaring a state of emergency for 7 prefectures. Word came down that ALTs would be allowed to work from home given some additional paperwork and restrictions.
Work From Home
Sorry, some ALTs. In some places. In my case, prefectural ALTs directly hired by the BOE would be allowed to work from home on days students didn’t come to school. That would be 2 days a week. Meanwhile, municipal ALTs living and working in the same city as us could not. (Not long after this staff from a local elementary school would test positive. The municipal ALTs did finally get work from home permission.) It was very haphazard. At any rate, we took it as a win. Implementation of this varied among schools (some people had already been allowed to work from home and others had different requirements for showing their work) but it was better than nothing and honestly more than I expected to get.
The new rules were we had to fill in a form showing which days we would work from home and then outline what work we planned to do for those days. We have to email at the beginning and end of our shift and cannot leave our apartment within those hours except for our lunch break. We also have to report what work we have done during the day by the next working day. (This part has been vague in my case since I haven’t been told what exactly they want so I’ve just been attaching whatever I’ve done to my end of shift e-mail.)
Schools close. . .again
This lasted all of a couple of days before there was another change. Despite splitting year groups, having hundreds of students still commuting to and from school from the surrounding cities on public transportation doesn’t do much to reduce the chances of catching and spreading the virus. The first week into the modified schedule and school was abruptly closed again to students. Some students in Kobe were among another spike in cases. This meant that students would not be coming to school at all and we could increase the number of days we would work from home. It also meant that the Japanese teachers would also finally be allowed to work from home some days.
Getting Back to the Point
Sorry, that was a long ramble and I still haven’t addressed the main subject of this post: how the pandemic may affect my ability to start my postgraduate program. As this whole situation has devolved there has been a weird disconnect between the inaction and small changes I was experiencing in my daily life while there was a massive influx of information and updates online within the JET community and the news I was reading. I may go through some of those moderate changes in a separate post but let me explain how it is finally starting to affect my future.
When cases started to increase in Japan and international flights were being reduced, the U.S. Embassy sent out e-mails advising travelers to return home and refrain from any unnecessary travel. Initially, this was aimed at short-term travelers in Japan who might not have the income, health insurance, or resources to be able to quarantine in place. Later, another e-mail was sent advising English teachers specifically to either return home immediately while there were still flights or be prepared to stay in Japan indefinitely. It will come to no one’s surprise that as an American I opted to stay where I had affordable health insurance and income and not risk my family’s health with an international flight back or my financial security with the U.S.’s hyper-inflated healthcare costs. (Let alone use up funds earmarked to pay my tuition.)
The main problem here is whether I will be able to get a flight out of Japan in August. International flights out of Japan are down to about 6% of the normal volume. In light of this, and Japan’s lagging response, a fair number of ALTs cut contract and flew home early to be with loved ones. (This may also have helped push BOEs to allow work from home as that would be preferable to suddenly having no ALT, no replacement, and getting left dealing with their remaining belongings and bills.)The situation is constantly changing but seeing as we are most of the way into month 2 of the outbreak and conditions are not improving, it’s hard to say if things will have settled down by the summer. Even if they do, we don’t know what restrictions may still be in place. I would have to make 2 international flights, one home to the U.S. and then on to England. If quarantine was still required for international arrivals that could add up to 4 weeks for me. That doesn’t give me much time to move back to the U.S. and prepare for another year abroad.
In light of this uncertainty, I have been e-mailing people within the JET Program, the embassy, and my University to find out if there are any plans for if conditions do not improve. Bristol is so far still holding to the September start date. Within the JET Program, some areas may be considering extending our contracts into the summer if ALTs are not able to get in or out as planned. In the meantime, contracting organizations have been encouraged to support ALTs leaving and paying for their flights home. Normally, COs pay for our flight back after completion of our contract. Leaving early would void this and the ALT would be on the hook to pay for their flight. Now though, with the global situation and the fact that schools are closed for the foreseeable future, they are being advised to consider our contracts as fulfilled and still pay for our flight.
Contingency Plans
Like I said before, I’m going to stick it out until the end of my contract. Hopefully, things will improve by the summer and I can return as scheduled. If not, there are a lot of alternatives I have to juggle. The main factor being Bristol. If I cannot get to Bristol in time, I would need to defer. Difficult because I have already used my one deferral and haven’t heard back yet on the possibility of a second. If they push back their start date that might give me enough time to move and repack. If I can and do defer, I will probably look for an internship to pass the time and work on my career skills. Possibly return to one of my previous internships. It’s all still up in the air. Not reassuring or helpful for making plans.
In the meantime. . .
I’m enjoying work from home, although having to turn in work every day when normally my work at school would be sporadic is a little annoying. It is nice though to do things at my pace in the comfort of my home. Before stores closed I picked up some additional craft supplies and I already had a healthy stockpile at home to work with. Surrounded by books, crafts, and my trusty internet connection, staying at home isn’t that bad. I still go into school once a week to help record and upload English videos for the students, and since my school is right down the street I don’t have to use public transportation. Now that Japanese teachers can work from home too, my exposure to other people is limited. So I’m going to keep holding down the fort here and wait for any more updates.
Picked up some more embroidery patterns and thread.
Further Reading
This was a long and roundabout post, but if you are interested in reading more about the situation in Japan, and why certain things are happening (or not) the way they are, I am linking some articles below. Some interesting stuff in there.
Note: The Japan Times limits the free articles you can view. Try opening an incognito window if you reach your limit.
