Yamagata days: Ways of being
Words, voices and images: Connecting to cultures around the world
“We must manage change for the good and for the survival of mankind”. Dr Taleb Rifai
We gather at Governor Mieko Yoshimura’s welcoming reception for the UNWTO at the Bunshokan Former Assembly Building in Yamagata City, now beautifully restored. It is early February and the snow is all around us.
We want to cover two subjects. The first is food and the second is a world that works together, in some ways the two are intertwined. Here in Yamagata as always and with Governor Mieko Yoshimura we find warmth and hospitality.
First we look at the extraordinary work of Master Chef Masayuki Okuda. What I particularly like about Masayuki san’s story is his use of local ingredients. The life of a chef can be much more than cooking, it is also about culture, and that is precisely how Masayuki san’s career has evolved and includes his roles as the goodwill ambassador of Shonai: Food Capital. In 2014 Masayuki san contributed to Tsuruoka’s certification as a UNESCO Creative City for its gastronomic culture.
Our master chef has also made a significant contribution internationally, his book Tabemono Jikan was awarded the Grand Prize, Culinary Heritage Section, in the 2017 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. His many international contributions to food culture include cooking supervisor at Japan Night at Davos, Switzerland and advisor on gastronomic culture for Yamagata and Tsuruoka City at the 2015 World Exposition in Milan, Italy.
One probably unexpected aspect of Japan, and in Japan always expect the unexpected, is just how good Italian restaurants are. The point here is that what Masayuki san has achieved is to promote Japanese regional cooking styles and the use of local ingredients to a global audience, while in Japan he has contributed to European gastronomic culture, firstly as a chef specialising in French cuisine, before discovering Italian cuisine and creating his Italian restaurant Al che-cciano in Tsuruoka City. Here we find a fusion of local ingredients with Italian style and we all know how successful food fusion can be.
Local dishes at the reception included Hoshigaki (dried persimmon), Kujira-mochi (rice cake), Shimi-mochi (frozen rice cake), Tamma-konnyaku (bell shaped konnyaku – made from the plant Konjac Amorphophallus konjac) and Yamagata style imoni (a traditional regional soup).
As we travel Japan we have become increasingly interested in the range of vegetables and fruits and the recipes for these. We keep on finding new things so this is a wondrous investigation.
We want to cover two subjects. The first is food and the second is a world that works together, in some ways the two are intertwined. Here in Yamagata as always and with Governor Mieko Yoshimura we find warmth and hospitality.
First we look at the extraordinary work of Master Chef Masayuki Okuda. What I particularly like about Masayuki san’s story is his use of local ingredients. The life of a chef can be much more than cooking, it is also about culture, and that is precisely how Masayuki san’s career has evolved and includes his roles as the goodwill ambassador of Shonai: Food Capital. In 2014 Masayuki san contributed to Tsuruoka’s certification as a UNESCO Creative City for its gastronomic culture.
Our master chef has also made a significant contribution internationally, his book Tabemono Jikan was awarded the Grand Prize, Culinary Heritage Section, in the 2017 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. His many international contributions to food culture include cooking supervisor at Japan Night at Davos, Switzerland and advisor on gastronomic culture for Yamagata and Tsuruoka City at the 2015 World Exposition in Milan, Italy.
One probably unexpected aspect of Japan, and in Japan always expect the unexpected, is just how good Italian restaurants are. The point here is that what Masayuki san has achieved is to promote Japanese regional cooking styles and the use of local ingredients to a global audience, while in Japan he has contributed to European gastronomic culture, firstly as a chef specialising in French cuisine, before discovering Italian cuisine and creating his Italian restaurant Al che-cciano in Tsuruoka City. Here we find a fusion of local ingredients with Italian style and we all know how successful food fusion can be.
Local dishes at the reception included Hoshigaki (dried persimmon), Kujira-mochi (rice cake), Shimi-mochi (frozen rice cake), Tamma-konnyaku (bell shaped konnyaku – made from the plant Konjac Amorphophallus konjac) and Yamagata style imoni (a traditional regional soup).
As we travel Japan we have become increasingly interested in the range of vegetables and fruits and the recipes for these. We keep on finding new things so this is a wondrous investigation.
A world that works together
As well as discussing snow culture, travel and tourism we are here to consider how the Tohoku region has recovered following the great eastern Japan earthquake of 2011, the largest to hit Japan in recorded history, and the ways forward from here. We learn a lot from these discussions. We also learn yet again of Japan’s resilience and the capacity of its people to bounce back from the most difficult and tragic of circumstances.
Travel is an immensely important activity in the 21st century. We travel to other cultures to learn about peoples and places, this process enriches our lives and brings understanding of other people’s cultures. It makes us more capable of being in the modern world. I am talking about sensitive types of tourism here, based on understanding and improving knowledge of both human cultures and of the natural world. As travellers we take with us great responsibilities.
This very much describes the work of Creative cowboy films in connecting cultures, the idea of pulling down the walls that divide us all. This work is about improving understanding and encouraging friendships around the world and perhaps most importantly of all, as there is no future at all without it, is improving knowledge about the natural world and why we should care for it.
Dr Taleb Rifai makes these points, which precisely parallels our thinking on these matters. "Addressing our challenges does not mean building walls or banning people from travelling. This increases tension and increases security risks and ultimately serves the agenda of those trying to divide us all, they want us to stop travelling, they want us to mistrust and hate each other. This is their agenda, it should never be our agenda and we should continue to travel.
Stopping people travelling to affected destinations and issuing travel advisories are in reality punishing the victim and rewarding the aggressor. This does not only apply to regions of natural disasters but man-made disasters also. What we are doing is punishing the victims twice, once by being subjected to the consequences of the man-made or natural disaster and second by us inflicting further damage by shunning them by not travelling to these destinations. We need to think intelligently about what agenda we are serving here. We have to continue to travel".
The sometimes absurdity of travel advisories can be described by our own experiences in Australia, which is very keen on issuing them, not for their own, but for someone else's country, and can be simply described by our numerous and highly dangerous adventures, that include shootings, threats, assaults, theft of our property and severe vandalism of our buildings. We all have our problems. We all need to travel intelligently.
If travel is managed well, and this means making sure that the growth is inclusive and flows through to local communities whose wishes are first and foremost, then the opportunities are significant. The regional opportunities including sales of local produce (buy local), the wealth with which to better protect natural and cultural heritage, the opportunities to create better and higher paid and knowledgeable jobs and the opportunities to better know and respect each other.
I want to reflect on the wise words of former Secretary General of the UNWTO Dr Taleb Rifai, the keynote speaker of the UNWTO’s International Conference on Tourism and Snow. I will quote Taleb Rifai here:
“The distinction between the past and the present and the future is only a stubbornly persistent elusion”. Albert Einstein
Although we can acknowledge the past we cannot change the past and although we cannot predict the future we can shape it. As global leaders responsible our task will be to continue to steer our ship in the best possible way in what is beginning to look like an increasingly uncertain future. Despite the challenges of the present we need to ensure we shape the future that we want and we can do that. Taleb Rifai then goes on to discuss some of the global issues that impact us all.
“It looks to some of us that the world is falling apart and nothing is working well”.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” Charles Dickens
Despite these complex challenges we indeed live in the best of times, so why do we feel otherwise? Today we are more connected and more informed, we are more involved, we know more about each other, we are more connected, so we care more about each other. Because we care more I want to suggest we are a better people, our feelings are more human, more global, our standards are higher. Our expectations are therefore higher and higher.
What Taleb Rifai is doing here is setting out a global agenda for a world that works together.
As we are in Japan, and movingly so, Taleb Rifai describes his impression of contemporary Japan and the Japanese culture, that is kindness, humbleness and a great pride in culture. While these things are complex, and not everyone in Japan may have a similar experience of life, what Taleb is saying here is very much our own measure of Japan since we first arrived on these shores nearly 40 years ago.
So there are many lessons to be learnt here, the post war transition from a whole range of social and cultural disasters, with considerable assistance from the USA, and the incredible capacity for Japan to mix modernity and technology with tradition to name but two. These two achievements are important to the world and because of this, Japan has a lot to give, through its contemporary leadership and global interactions. We all need Japan to continue on its path of peace.
I want to take a step sideways for a moment and talk about Dr Taleb Rifai, who we met in Yamagata. His list of achievements is long, but here is a brief summary. From the creative industries he was a Professor of Architecture at the University of Jordan and a practising architect and urban planner before serving in several ministerial positions including Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Minister for Information and Minister for Tourism and Antiquity. He has been awarded Al Kawkab, Jordon’s highest medal for public service as well as several high level decorations from France, Italy and many other countries.
It is difficult to mention Jordan without thanking the people of Jordan for their immense contribution to assisting refugees, Jordan has the second highest (2017) refugee or displaced population on Earth, that is 89 persons per 1,000 of population, 90 per cent of these refugees are from Syria. In 2017 Jordon ran the largest global resettlement program in the world. Jordan also has the first refugee camp to be powered by renewable energy.
We should all be very grateful.
Top: Her Excellency the Governor of Yamagata, Mieko Yoshimura, with executive advisor Nahoko Furuta and Kenji Osawa, Director General Tourism, Culture and Sports Department, Yamagata Prefectural Government, in background.
A world that works together
As well as discussing snow culture, travel and tourism we are here to consider how the Tohoku region has recovered following the great eastern Japan earthquake of 2011, the largest to hit Japan in recorded history, and the ways forward from here. We learn a lot from these discussions. We also learn yet again of Japan’s resilience and the capacity of its people to bounce back from the most difficult and tragic of circumstances.
Travel is an immensely important activity in the 21st century. We travel to other cultures to learn about peoples and places, this process enriches our lives and brings understanding of other people’s cultures. It makes us more capable of being in the modern world. I am talking about sensitive types of tourism here, based on understanding and improving knowledge of both human cultures and of the natural world. As travellers we take with us great responsibilities.
This very much describes the work of Creative cowboy films in connecting cultures, the idea of pulling down the walls that divide us all. This work is about improving understanding and encouraging friendships around the world and perhaps most importantly of all, as there is no future at all without it, is improving knowledge about the natural world and why we should care for it.
Dr Taleb Rifai makes these points, which precisely parallels our thinking on these matters. "Addressing our challenges does not mean building walls or banning people from travelling. This increases tension and increases security risks and ultimately serves the agenda of those trying to divide us all, they want us to stop travelling, they want us to mistrust and hate each other. This is their agenda, it should never be our agenda and we should continue to travel.
Stopping people travelling to affected destinations and issuing travel advisories are in reality punishing the victim and rewarding the aggressor. This does not only apply to regions of natural disasters but man-made disasters also. What we are doing is punishing the victims twice, once by being subjected to the consequences of the man-made or natural disaster and second by us inflicting further damage by shunning them by not travelling to these destinations. We need to think intelligently about what agenda we are serving here. We have to continue to travel".
The sometimes absurdity of travel advisories can be described by our own experiences in Australia, which is very keen on issuing them, not for their own, but for someone else's country, and can be simply described by our numerous and highly dangerous adventures, that include shootings, threats, assaults, theft of our property and severe vandalism of our buildings. We all have our problems. We all need to travel intelligently.
If travel is managed well, and this means making sure that the growth is inclusive and flows through to local communities whose wishes are first and foremost, then the opportunities are significant. The regional opportunities including sales of local produce (buy local), the wealth with which to better protect natural and cultural heritage, the opportunities to create better and higher paid and knowledgeable jobs and the opportunities to better know and respect each other.
I want to reflect on the wise words of former Secretary General of the UNWTO Dr Taleb Rifai, the keynote speaker of the UNWTO’s International Conference on Tourism and Snow. I will quote Taleb Rifai here:
“The distinction between the past and the present and the future is only a stubbornly persistent elusion”. Albert Einstein
Although we can acknowledge the past we cannot change the past and although we cannot predict the future we can shape it. As global leaders responsible our task will be to continue to steer our ship in the best possible way in what is beginning to look like an increasingly uncertain future. Despite the challenges of the present we need to ensure we shape the future that we want and we can do that. Taleb Rifai then goes on to discuss some of the global issues that impact us all.
“It looks to some of us that the world is falling apart and nothing is working well”.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” Charles Dickens
Despite these complex challenges we indeed live in the best of times, so why do we feel otherwise? Today we are more connected and more informed, we are more involved, we know more about each other, we are more connected, so we care more about each other. Because we care more I want to suggest we are a better people, our feelings are more human, more global, our standards are higher. Our expectations are therefore higher and higher.
What Taleb Rifai is doing here is setting out a global agenda for a world that works together.
As we are in Japan, and movingly so, Taleb Rifai describes his impression of contemporary Japan and the Japanese culture, that is kindness, humbleness and a great pride in culture. While these things are complex, and not everyone in Japan may have a similar experience of life, what Taleb is saying here is very much our own measure of Japan since we first arrived on these shores nearly 40 years ago.
So there are many lessons to be learnt here, the post war transition from a whole range of social and cultural disasters, with considerable assistance from the USA, and the incredible capacity for Japan to mix modernity and technology with tradition to name but two. These two achievements are important to the world and because of this, Japan has a lot to give, through its contemporary leadership and global interactions. We all need Japan to continue on its path of peace.
I want to take a step sideways for a moment and talk about Dr Taleb Rifai, who we met in Yamagata. His list of achievements is long, but here is a brief summary. From the creative industries he was a Professor of Architecture at the University of Jordan and a practising architect and urban planner before serving in several ministerial positions including Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Minister for Information and Minister for Tourism and Antiquity. He has been awarded Al Kawkab, Jordon’s highest medal for public service as well as several high level decorations from France, Italy and many other countries.
It is difficult to mention Jordan without thanking the people of Jordan for their immense contribution to assisting refugees, Jordan has the second highest (2017) refugee or displaced population on Earth, that is 89 persons per 1,000 of population, 90 per cent of these refugees are from Syria. In 2017 Jordon ran the largest global resettlement program in the world. Jordan also has the first refugee camp to be powered by renewable energy.
We should all be very grateful.
Top: Her Excellency the Governor of Yamagata, Mieko Yoshimura, with executive advisor Nahoko Furuta and Kenji Osawa, Director General Tourism, Culture and Sports Department, Yamagata Prefectural Government, in background.
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