On 15 and 16 June, I participated in the conference OF SOILS, ROOTS, AND STREAMS: A SYMPOSIUM ON ECOLOGY AND JAPAN held at UC Irvine and organized by Mimi Long and David Fedman.
It was a wonderful meeting. I showed the 20-minute documentary film on Minami Soma "Memories of Water, Memories of Land" (dir. Yohei Kogi, 2016) narrated by yours truly. Then for closing we had Yoh Kawano's 50-minute documentary shot in the same area "Human Error" (2017). In-between were dense presentations and discussions on environmental history of Japan and such. All in all, very meaningful.
Irvine is such an artificial city I kept laughing! Without a car there is absolutely nothing you can do but exercise in your hotel room. One of the buildings on campus were named after Murray Krieger. At one time back in 1980s I almost applied to this graduate school to major in literary theory...
But I liked the atmosphere! Ojala que yo pueda repetir la visita. Thanks to all my friends, old and new, whom I saw and met. Happy summer solstice to you all.
