eco-samurai

Nuno-zori fundraising

2011-08-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

I went back to Japan in July for 3weeks.

The whole country is still in the state of shock from the aftermath of earthquake and tsunami. In addition people are forced to live with the threat of radiation.....nobody knows exactly how it will affect them, their kids and the environment.

Immediate 15% reduction of energy consumption was almost mandatory. And people are making efforts everywhere on a daily basis.

And people are starting to think about energy a lot. I mean A LOT. Everybody is now thinking why they had to rely so heavily on nuclear, and what they have been risking by doing so. I think Japanese people are starting to realize what was really going on with nuclear policy.

Anyway, the recovery from earthquake will take a lot more time and money, and also I would like to help support renewable energy in Japan.

Most popular posts in this blog has always been Nuno-zori, so why don't I use Nuno-zori to help support sustainable recovery for Japan?

The company that make Nuno-zori books and kits, Cotton B's, graciously Ok'ed for me to translate "how to make Nuno-zori". My idea is to sell the book and the kit.

I will write more details in the next posts, but if you are interested in this project please let me know.

Tsunami-quake desaster: Think, ecosamurai, think!

2011-03-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

Yes Japan is on the huge subduction area. Yes there are a lot of earthquakes.

But this was nothing we've known, this was nothing we could imagine/expect.

I am urged to do something. Only thing I can think of is fundraising, but....

What should be done to help them, and in more sustainable way?
Of course we are witnessing the world's safest nuclear power plants in trouble.

But right now we should focus on the rescue.....

If you have any idea please let me know.

Warm ice cream?

2009-08-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is novel.

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is pondering how to make an ice cream that is made, shipped and sold warm, with the consumer taking the final step of actually freezing the product.

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/08/26/fighting-climate-change-with-warm-ice-cream/

I have always thought that we could reduce enormous amount of CO2 by reducing our reliance on cold or frozen foods/beverages. It's almost second nature to us, but there are a lot of things that are unnecessarily cold or frozen. We can reduce or eliminate ice cubes in soda, for example. And it won't change the function of soda that much. Eating less frozen food and cooking by yourself might reduce more GHG than you think, if you think through the supply chain and logistics.

Rethinking cold/frozen food is one of the low-hanging fruits to reduce our carbon footprint.

Thank you Ben and Jerry's for working on this, and thanks for being delicious and green at the same time.

Bright side of economic downturn: People are eating healthier

2009-02-15T21:40:00.001-08:00

American Diet Changing Out Of Economic Necessity

Eating healthier is definitely good.

And probably it's time to start thinking about "peak food", just like "peak oil".

We only have one Earth to cultivate yet world's population keeps growing so rapidly. Shouldn't it hit the peak eventually?

If everyone on earth live the same standard of living of Americans, we need almost 5 earths.
Below is the links for ecological footprint calculator.

http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.html
http://myfootprint.org/
http://www.ecologyfund.com/registry/ecology/res_bestfoot.html
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/

Haramaki! - tummy warmer -

2009-02-11T21:35:00.000-08:00

My sister sent this from Japan and I was very skeptical at first.
It's called Haramaki. It's basically underwear that you wrap around your waist. (sorry it's not explicit with this pic)

This was an old way to get yourself warm - when building heating system wasn't good. Back then, people used to put on anything they could to keep them warm.
Now that we are in the modern society, we thought we didn't need it any more because it's not sexy and we've got whole bunch of cool ways to warm ourselves.

But then, it's back! And it's back with whole new look. (see the website I linked below)

My sister said it was super warm.

And it is! I think it is back because people decided, after all, that this is much more efficient and comfortable than its modern version competitors!
....this is hard to explain. Can you imagine how much such a small piece of fabric can do to your body? It's pretty thin and fits your body, and when your tummy is kept warm, your whole body feels so much warmer!

If you are trying to minimize your expense, this small cloths can save your some dollars because you can lower the temperature of your home heater 2-3 degrees! And obivously it'll reduce your carbon footprint. I am serious.

Well, honestly, you can't wear your hip-hung jeans with this, but if you are done with that phase, it's for you. I found some interesting story on Haramaki: Check this out.

Solar Prius?

2009-01-05T15:24:00.001-08:00

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/01/02/toyota-reported-to-be-developing-solar-powered-car/

Best performance Tofu: Trader Joe's

2008-12-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

Good quality Tofu is determined by its texture and the flavor of soy bean which should be just right.

Among those that are easiliy available at grocery stores, Trader Joe's is best considering its price (I think it's $1.29~1.49) and the fact that it's organic. Thank you TJ.

Japanese major brand "House" is probably the most widely available Tofu in the US, but I am not a big fan of it. It is either too soft (silken) or too firm (firm), and it's waterly and flavorless.

Another option is Korean grocery stores. Korean brand Tofus are not bad at all, and best of all, you might find locally produced (possibly hand-made), fresh Tofu.

Yamaha fuel cell scooter: FC-Dii

2008-12-12T19:40:00.000-08:00

Yamaha unvailed its fuel cell scooter "FC-Dii" at Eco-products 2008, Tokyo, Japan.

Fuel cell use methanol as fuel and it can also be charged by external li-ion battery.

Well I don't know well about the true eco-friedliness and feasiblity of this technology, but the product looks sort of cool. Probably postman can use this to deliver mails?

California AB 32 Scoping Plan adopted, Toyota iQ is coming to US

2008-12-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

Today, California Air Resources Board adopted its historical AB 32 Scoping Plan. This is a huge milestone for California to shift toward low-carbon society.

Yesterday, Toyota decided to launch their new concept car "iQ" to US market. I think iQ is a next generation Prius, not in terms of functionality but in terms of concept -- to (possibly) change people's perception as to how a cool car should be. This is a big and nice surprise because small cars were traditionally thought to be the last choice by the American consumer and automakers haven't tried to sell them here. If people just choose to drive smaller cars, it's such a simple and easy way to reduce GHG emission at a considerable scale.

AB 32 Scoping Plan is highly praised for its "comprehensiveness", but it's missing one critical concept: Small.

Being smaller is less footprint, both ecological and carbon.

Yes, small is not a bad thing at all. Small is a beautiful thing.

Find more about iQ...
http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/iq-blog.jsp
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2214/

Recycling or collection? Both.

2008-11-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

When we say "recycle", we typically talk about "collection effort" -- putting things in recycling bins. This is confusing because "collecting recyclables" and "remanufacturing recyclables" are very different two processes.

The effort to increase collection rate is one thing, effort to increase good quality recyclables is another thing, then improving remanufacturing process and marketing secondary products are yet another thing.

Interesting story about Japanese plastic bottle recycling. (leftt: EoL plastic bottle collection rate)

1) Collection rate has been increasing and coming close to 70%. (I guess simple strategy to install recycling box exclusively for plastic bottles everywhere really helps.)
2) The quality of feedstock is improving. (Consumer awareness matters: they are educated and increasingly source-separate recyclables, therefore plastic bottles are not comingled with other plastics, making feedstock more heterogeneous)
3) Technology for remanufacturing is improving, helped by heterogeneous feedstock. (even different kind of plastic is considered contaminants that deteriorates the quality of secondary material)
4) Secondary products are increasingly with good quality, finding them suitable for different kinds of uses. (combination of 1, 2 and 3)

source: http://www.petbottle-rec.gr.jp/nenji/2006/index.html

Zen-garden designed by the Zen-monk

2008-10-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

Very interesting.

http://www.kenkohji.jp/s/english/index_e.html

Genmai (brown rice) for beginners

2008-10-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

Brown rice (whole grain) is a lot more nutritious compared to the white rice. It's rich in Vitamin B and E, Potassium... and fiber. But it has some disadvantages as well.

1. Takes long to cook (it's best to soak brown rice in the water overnight).
2. Takes more to digest (might not be good for kids or when your body is ailing)
3. Got some brown rice-ish odor.....

This half-brown rice solved those problems. As you see in the picture, it's not whole-grain; it looks to me like 40%-grain instead of 100%. Obviously less nutritious than brown rice, but more so than white rice. You can cook just as you cook white rice, and it tastes pretty close (not the same though).

It's a little bit expensive, but worth trying. If you live in California, it shouldn't be difficult find it in Japanese grocery stores.

Sukoyaka Genmai, or 健やか玄米 (I bought 15 lbs bag at about $22)
Nishimoto Trading, Santa Fe Springs, CA USA

New Honda Insight

2008-10-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Debuted at Paris motor show.
Honda's hybrid car "Insight" is totally renewed and will hit US market next spring, with affordable price less than $19,000.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/honda-new-insight-hybrid-car-photos-specifications.php
http://www.hybridcars.com/compacts-sedans/honda-insight-overview.html

Renewable energy: Policy matters!

2008-09-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

Learn from failure.

Japan had been leading solar cell market both in production and implementation till 2004. Sharp had been No.1 producer for a long time. But in 2007, it gave up No.1 position to Q Cells, a German company.

Everyone would know that Germany is heavily invested in renewables. They introduced feed-in-tariff which boosted German solar power market. And it's not only Germany - a lot other countries are pursuing renewable energy as policy goal.

A lot of countries, except for one country that once boasted World's No.1 solar cell technology and market - Japan.

There is no sign that Japan will start investing seriously in renewable energy as policy, at least as earnestly as other countries. Consequently, it is losing its ground on such a promising field and its leadership role in the market. How sad.

This shows that technology won't spur on its own; policy direction and support (including incentives and regulatory changes) really matters for this kind of paradigm shift.

Ultimate minimal / Chashitsu- Japanese tea house

2008-09-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Revisit calculus: keep dividing 1 by ever decreasing number, and the result becomes larger and larger and larger.....toward infinity. 1/0.0000001, 1/0.00000000000001, 1/0.000000000000000000000000000001......

Zero has infinite power.

Yes, zero is null itself, but by being null, it can have infinite power. This is like zen.

Japanese traditional Chashitsu (tea house, tea room) is designed to be very very small as if it wanted to be infinite by being physically null.

Discover some concepts and philosophy that are embedded in 20 square feet or so confined room where most minimal and sophisticated ceremony happens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chashitsu
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/architecture/japanese-teahouse.cfm
http://www.teahyakka.com/chashitsuElayout.html
http://takatsuka-architects.com/suki&sukiya.htm

It reminds us that we don't need huge or extravagant things to be rich in mind. We can release our mind to the world of infinity by allowing ourselves close to zero, physically and conceptually.

How many miles of road do you owe?

2008-09-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

California budget deadlock still continues. As of September 8, there is no sign of 2008-2009 budget moving forward.

I come from a small country with little resources, so I am always impressed by what California has. It is very rich in almost everything: human resources, industry/innovative technology, agriculture, land, mineral resources (including oil) and so on. I feel like water is the only missing piece from the picture. So it is hard for me to believe that California has to suffer from such a serious budget problem.

But I am not here to criticize the politics... I will leave the discussion to the experts. I am simply curious to know why.

Well, as a politics-amateur, one of the things I notice as an outsider is that there is massive investments on infrastructure because everything is large here. People depend on cars for transportation which depend on massive highway system that is FREE. By the same token, extensive scale of urban sprawl requires massive investments to establish and maintain water system, electrical grid, sewage, roads, parking, commercial complex and so forth..... which could be redundant if the community was twice denser.

This is unproven theory and I am just wondering: if what is true to California is true to US as a whole, which also suffers from budget deficit despite its richness in various resources....
Does the life of an American need more infrastructure investment (cost) compared to other countries? Here is some figures:

This is the statistics of the land devoted to road and parking. Each country has different area and population, but it is noticeable when you look at "area per capita" and "area per motor vehicle". The figures in North America and other countries are significantly different.
A British only has to maintain 72 meters2 for road/parking whereas an American has to do 573 meter2.
A Japanese car only has to maintain 184 meters2 for road/parking whereas an American vehicle has to do 745 meter2. (Plus, highway is not FREE in Japan! )

Establishing and maintaining infrastructure takes money. More infrastructure means more spending from tax revenues. If spending is too much, fiscal budget will be in red. Obviously not all the taxes are spent on public infrastructure, but this seems to be an interesting topic to investigate, especially in relation to smart growth.

Outside Lands Music Festival@San Francisco

2008-08-26T21:27:00.001-07:00

I'd been to Outside Lands Music Festival at Golden Gate Park to see Radiohead.

I found quite some "green features" in this festival. Most impressive was the food they sold at the site. The menu was usual suspects such as hamburgers, hot dogs, crepes.... but they used good quality meat, buns etc. Even the ketchup was organic! Good quality junk food.

Solar-generated cell phone charging service.

I have always been hoping that we will eventually be charging our cell phones all solar.

I've been to other music festival in Golden Gate Park before, and I already saw this. There are two types of garbage bins on site: Landfill and Recycling. This is a very good idea because it really make people stop and think what they are about to toss. As a result they could threw more responsibly.
All the plates/cups/folks..... were biodegradable so as they could go to the recycling bin.
And there was some specifics on the bin as to what to put in the garbage bin.

Overall, it was very green but I had a big complaint!

Transportation.

Golden Gate Park is in the middle of the city of San Francisco. They advocated very strongly that we should take public transportation. Sounds very green. I totally agree with the concept.

BUT the reality didn't catch up. Local public transportation (Muni=bus) was almost unavailable to most of us! Too many people and not enough services. I just had to see off Munis by Munis full of passengers that even didn't stop at the station I was waiting.

We had to walk almost two hours to get any line available.

Why was there no coordination between Muni and the organizer? It was too obvious that the demand (number of riders) would be way too high than the supply that the regular service could offer. It didn't look like they increased the number of services.
If the organizer couldn't strike a deal with Muni, couldn't they offer some shuttle bus services at least to BART stations?

San Francisco always leads in being green. Please come up with smart solution for transportation. I felt like I was going through some punishment when I was walking in the middle of the night, tired, freezing and desparate to catch a bus.

Mugicha -Barley tea

2008-08-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

I am trying not to buy beverages to reduce my carbon footprint. Beverages need to be transported long way, and need to be refrigerated for sales and consumption. A lot of energy. And then, all these glass/plastic bottles.....

So, alternative solution. For summer, I make barley tea in a big pitcher.
Sugar free, caffeine free, no calories.

Pretty healthy. And not expensive at all.

How does it taste?

Well, as a beer lover, I would say that barley tea tastes like Guinness without alcohol and bubbles. Eerrhh, so basically you took all the good stuff from Guinness!?

Honestly, it might taste weird for the first try. But if you get used to it, you will like it. I like it because I don't have to feel that yukky feeling in my month after I drink sweet drinks.

Direction: Find mugicha or barley tea at Japanese or Asian grocery store. They are usually in bags, so you just have to boil water and throw a bag into it and wait for a couple of hours. Some even don't require the water to be boiled, but I believe tap water tastes better when boiled.

Drying index

2008-08-06T20:34:00.001-07:00

Luckily it's not deadly hot in Northern California this summer. I only have to put the air on on for a few hours in the afternoon/evening before sunset. It's totally okay to live without air in the morning and at night.

When the air is on, I often check outside temperature and breeze to see if I can turn the air off. I just realize I need to be alert to the change of outside air if I want to minimize the use of air conditioner.

At the end of the day, it's not all about replacing air conditioner with energy efficient one; it's also about keeping an eye on and knowing the weather, and to be able to react to the change swiftly.

One of the interesting thing about using drying rack for laundry is that you become alert to the local weather. Especially in the country like Japan where sun-dry is the major way to dry clothes, people keep an eye on the weather much more seriously. It's especially because it rains much more frequently down there.

The picture is Japanese weather forecast with "drying index". It shows how the weather is suitable for drying and I think it's the combination of radiation, humidity, wind and the chance of rain. This is one of the way to pay close attention to the weather and use solar energy efficiently.

Likewise, we could reduce the use of energy, water or probably something more in various ways by understanding local weather better. For example, we shouldn't need drying index in California because it's always sunny and dry, but I think local radio/TV could report the temperature on hourly basis to let the people know when to turn the air conditioner off. (typical Mediterranean, the temperature here surges/drops drastically within a couple of hours)

This is something we easily forget when we indulge ourselves in 24/7 air conditioned building.

Going dryer-free

2008-08-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

One of the things I am hoping to advocate in my blog is stopping using clothes dryer. Dryer is the second largest energy consuming home appliances only to fridge.

And we already have solution to get rid of it -- use drying racks.

I've wrote some posts about laundry, but those are one of the most unpopular pages in my blog. And I know why - drying rack is time consuming.

But hey, if you are so into renewable energy, why don't you talk about most easily available renewable energy??? It's MANPOWER. Our body is designed to some works anyway. There is no reason why we shouldn't count it toward renewable energy to be greener.

There is another important reason why dryer is not good; it damages textile. In Japan, a lot of mesh bags are offered for washing machine. Some are for under wears (left pic) and some are large enough to hold several clothes (below pic). You can use them to wash your favorite clothes with delicate materials or finish.
Mesh bags also keep your clothes from getting excess lint. When lint collector is part of a dryer, it becomes a problem when you chose not to use a dryer.

You might want to add black or navy clothes in the bag so as they don't end up looking fluffy.

Netherlands and Japan

2008-07-31T22:21:00.000-07:00

I wasn't aware that there is so much in common between Netherlands and Japan. I was amazed to find many similarities when I visited Leiden, Netherlands for a summer a couple of years ago.

I think one of the major factors that makes these two countries similar is population density. Netherlands - 395/km², Japan - 337/km² . Pretty close. Or actually, I was surprised to find that Netherlands is denser than Japan which is infamously packed with people.

Netherlands is a very small country with very dense population. However, Dutch people use land and resources very efficiently. They rank third worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind the United States and France! How could they manage to do this when the land available for agriculture is very limited? Netherlands is also dubbed as one of the greenest countries in Europe (or in the world).

Japan is also very small and dense. Although it is sluggish in environmental policy, it is advanced in energy efficiency technology and process efficiency. Prius and Kaizen are some of those examples.

Photo above is a market in Netherlands, below Japan. Similarly dense! People are just filling up the small space like this everywhere.

I can't stop feeling that this is where people start to internalize the concept of "efficiency" as a second nature.

Rohnert Park, Sonoma Co, CA

2008-07-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

Rohnert Park, Sonoma is the local government with very advanced sustainable strategies. It has already set GHG reduction target. It is promoting smart growth and sustainable development.

I happened to pass by the town the other day, and decided to cruise around to see if I could find anything sustainable.

I took a picture of a new development that apparently tries to promote mixed use. I think the first floor is meant to be offices/shops, and second floor and upward is for residential use. Each property is rather small, and built right next to each other.

If you are from old European or Asian (or probably other) communities, this is not extraordinary at all. Mixed use is a traditional way to use limited space efficiently.

But here in US, this is something rather new just because the land has never been scarce. Urban area has been sprawling horizontally, requiring more untouched land to be developed. It wasn't until recently that people started to question about the practices because it leads to waste of almost all the resources: land, energy, water, electricity, etc.... With current high gas price, more people/local governments should be interested in planning communities differently to reduce VMT (vehicle miles traveled).

City of Rohnert Park is one of the front-runners to explore the US version of smart growth. Stay tuned with them!

Super lunch! Bento box

2008-07-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Eating little bit of everything is one of the key philosophies of Japanese cuisine.

For presentation, it requires putting together little bit of everything in a coordinated manner. Beauty: well balanced nutrients intake, enjoyment of eating and aesthetics - it's almost an art.

Bento lunch box (to go) is a simple, daily-life version of little bit of everything. At home, Moms have been making Bento for family.

There are a lot of websites that talk about how to make Bento; authentic(like the pic), casual, fun and Bento for kids! Check them out. Or you will find whole bunch of information just by Googling by "Bento box".

Great alternative for brown bag.

Lunch in a box
Cooking cute
USAlifehacks (Japanese)

Eco-cute in English

2008-07-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.mayekawa.co.jp/english/g/e_g02.html
http://www.sanyo.co.jp/comp-unit/english/co2/ecocute.html
http://www.r744.com/products.view.php?Id=63
http://www.itomic.co.jp/english/index.html
http://ex-blog.panasonic.co.jp/exhibition/en/eco2007/

Don't ask me what I need to drink

2008-07-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

Soda is not sustainable. It's not sustainable for health.....just too much sugar.
It doesn't help reduce GHG emission either. Liquid is not compactible, so it takes space and it's heavy. We need to consume enormous amount of energy to transport so many millions (or more?) of bottles and keep them cold. A top of that, soda is accompanied with so much ice that needs more freezers on duty.

I am growingly annoyed when I go to the restaurants and asked "what would you like to drink?" even before I settle down comfortably! With this timing, I almost have to answer immediately! When I get really annoyed, I say "just water please". What I really mean is "Leave me alone and give me some time to think."

But otherwise, I imagine that many people would answer their favorite soda almost automatically. That means, you have almost automatically and unconsciously entitled yourself for 300Kcal or more extra sugar. To make the matter worse, in many places soda is free to refill.

I understand that drink is money making item for restaurants. And offering less soda might hurt business and might increase complaints from customers.

But really sustainable restaurants should be able to offer other values than soda. Plus, really delicious, tasty food doesn't go along with soda. Soda tastes too junky with good food.

Photo: Tea is an Asian alternative for soda. Tim Riley