Hi All,

I am Setsuko Nakayama, an ABD in anthropology/area studies stationed as an assisstant professor at Noto Gakusha, Kanazawa University, under the "Noto Satoyama Meister" Training Program. This blog is about my daily encounters and musings as I slowly accommodate myself into life at the tip of Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.

大きな地図で見る
Why am I keeping this blog in English when it's not my mother tongue? Well i said so in my job app so i have to;) While the term Satoyama Satoumi seems to attain international recognition, very little has been written over the topic in languages other than Japanese outside academic, international organizations or civil society movement circles. Those who seek information about Satoyama or Satoumi will invariably run into somewhat romanticized images of Japanese rural life that has been or is about to be lost -- and occasionally, critiques of such representations. Such representations -- and their critiques -- do capture certain aspects of life in rural Japan and their production landscapes; however, they elide for the most part the complex realities of life itself or the larger political, economic situations they are placed in. Moreover, they seldom foreground the creative, innovative endeavors that are currently unfolding on site. 
In hope for a more balanced coverage I am going to add my voice --and later on, my friends'-- on this blog from the Noto Satoyama Satoumi area of Japan.