Giant Skies For Tiny Earths

Upon returning from Halifax, I had four days to prepare for the next stage of a whirlwind year.I had sublet my apartment to a friend, so I crashed on my own couch while  I packed, exchanged money,  and visited as many friends as possible, before boarding a plane to Japan. The initial purpose of the trip was to attend the International Student Summit on Food, Agriculture, and the Environment in Tokyo.  I attended the conference with classmate Emma Avery, and Professor Andrew Riseman. The conference was student run and organized, and the first few days were about experiencing Japanese culture and work shopping and discussing the format of the presentations. Living in close quarters, we quickly befriended many of the other students who were attending from countries all around the world. One immediate challenge was the language barrier. Despite being held in Japan, the entire conference was conducted in English. The majority of participants where non-native English speakers. Even in light of the immense talent of these students, as two of only 5 native English speakers, we had a distinct advantage. We had the advantage of understanding more quickly and thoroughly what was being said, and the advantage of speaking without hesitation or self doubt. This often meant that unintentionally, we often had more of a voice and a say in the proceedings.  This was a first hand demonstration of the privileged being a native English speaker brings in this world.  We tried our best to be aware of this privileged, to mediate it and not to abuse it.

I was lucky enough to stay in Japan for 3 and a half months in total. After the conference I traveled for a bit, and then worked on a number of organic farms. Farming in Japan was my favorite part of my trip by far. I lived with some families and was treated extremely well. It was so interesting to learn about organic farming in Japan, to see how it was different and similar to farming in Canada, and to feel welcomed into the lives of such amazing farmers.