feature

When Yoko Tashiro arrived in Shintoku, nearly six years ago, her only thought was to get away from a hectic and oppressive lifestyle in Tokyo, the capital city where she was born and raised but in which she felt stifled.

Away from the mainland, in the tiny, picturesque town of Shintoku on the northern island of Hokkaido, Tashiro enjoys a stress-free life, fresh, unpolluted air, and a closer affinity with nature - things she desperately missed in the concrete jungle and cramped environs of Tokyo.

Being here has allowed Tashiro's creative juices to flow. The 33-year-old has been organising the Shintoku Kusunomori (Forest of Daydreams) Film Festival for the past three years, and is trying her hand at film-making - directing a personal documentary.

Now on its sixth year, the nature-friendly festival attracts film-makers and viewers from mainland Japan, itinerant musicians, and the odd visitor struck by the cheerful banners announcing the 'Forest of Daydreams'.

Like Tashiro, they are taken in by Shintoku's quaint railway station, the picture postcard quality of the town of about 3,000 residents, the nearby mountains, and the lush green surroundings.

Prospective brides

These elements are enough to ensure that Tashiro has no regrets about dropping out of law school and losing an opportunity to become a part of corporate Japan. When she is short of cash, she gets work as a seasonal agricultural labourer.

''This is the Japanese countryside,'' says Tashiro as she drives along an endless sea of green fields, dotted with piles of hay and grazing cows.

Residents still drive Pajeros and carry mobile phones, but there is little sign of big industry. The town even boasts a 'Farm School for Ladies'.

''So far, it's the only one I know of,'' says Yukihisa Fujimoto, film-maker and one of the founders of the film festival. ''While the school has attracted city-bred women interested in agriculture, I don't think it has been very successful in accomplishing its main goal. ''

Shintoku elders decided to establish the ladies' farm school in the hope that it would allow local farmers to meet prospective brides with similar interests in the land.

''As many local women leave the country to work in the city, there's a dearth of marriageable women. City women do come to the school and some of them stay. But they're more interested in the countryside and land than in the men,'' says Fujimoto, who moved to Shintoku from Tokyo almost a decade ago.

Organic farming

Fujimoto's documentary, 'Nature in Perpetual Motion', screened at a number of international festivals last year, highlights the area's various species of flora and fauna, and makes a natural environment of considerable charm come alive.

''Many, many more people want to live in a stress-free environment, so they come to live in rural areas, where they feel very comfortable,'' says agriculturist Nozomu Miyajima, a guest speaker at Shintoku film festival.

After completing agriculture studies in America in 1978, Miyajima opened a farm in Shintoku town under the name of 'Kyodogakusha', which means 'a home for working, learning and living together'.

One of seven such farms set up around Japan, the kyodogakusha in Shintoku is home to 33 people, including seven families, who make a living from running a dairy, making cheese, and growing organic vegetables.

''Our plan is to promote the honmono (true value) of food through an organically controlled farming system, and to sell our products directly to local consumers,'' says Miyajima, who believes the true value of food should be in its safety and quality as a product of the natural environment.

At the kyodogakusha in Shintoku, carbon filters are used to purify the water. To control temperature and excessive heat, kyodgakusha members placed two tonnes of carbon under the main house and three tonnes of carbon under the cheese factory.

Below standard

This 4,000-5,000 year-old traditional method has been used in buildings like the Imperial Palace and in many shrines and temples to provide cool, dry air. More recently, it has been used by local hospitals.

The charcoal posts absorb the ion particles in the ground and energy from the sun and release them in the area of the home, making for a healthier environment.

According to scientific experts, 1 cc of air should hold 700-1000 ion particles. But in urban, industrial areas like Tokyo, where infrastructure of power companies absorb the ground's ion particles for technology's sake, the amount of ion in the air is far below the required health standard.

''Tests have shown that at the Kyodogakusha, the ion content in the air is well above the required level," says Miyajima who expects the charcoal posts to work for 300 years.

The above article was first written for the Inter-Press Service (IPS).