The climate fight, but make it sexy.
No, the title is no joke. These are actual words used to describe renewed efforts towards fighting climate change by Japan’s new environment minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, doin’ a straight Tyra Banks. On my final few days in Osaka however, I’ve been forced to reckon with a poor history and experience of recycling a la Japan.
Before arriving in Tokyo almost 6 weeks ago now I had developed a plan for my own “ethical” living abroad, preparing extensively for the role of “good tourist”. Much of this however, was more an extension of an already heavy consciousness. From the age of ten I’d been a vegetarian, having never really enjoyed the taste of meat (I’ve never eaten a steak), and scarring myself one night with a BBC documentary on the life of factory pigs. I cried, a lot, and gave up any remaining meat I was eating immediately; breaking this once in the last 13 years for a Big Mac – there’s photographic proof out there so I can’t deny it.
In addition to this, I’ve been big on recycling and limiting my plastic usage for a long time, switching to bar soap/shampoo/conditioner, and taking my collection of reusables with me when I left; water bottle/coffee cup/canvass bag and bamboo cutlery. Yup, I was going to be as ethical and conscious as bloody possible and whilst I couldn’t reverse what Brexit had done to the international perception of my “home” and the long LONG shameful history colonialism has left us, I could be the best version of me – sappy right? In Japan however, this has been a bloody effort AND A HALF.
As preciously explained being a vegetarian/vegan, and the ethical/environmental benefits that go along with this, has been near impossible without risking my health. I mean perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration but I still have vivid memories of feeling crap, waking up hungry in Tokyo and living off of 7-Eleven for the first few days. After months of a super healthy/green predominantly-vegan diet at home, I could physically feel my body turning on me, also it was just plain sad to be living off of effective co-op microwave meals – in Japan of all places! My best answer to this (sorry for the repetition if you’ve read far enough back) was going pescatarian, a decision that was both easy and hard. Easy, because fish is obviously massive here so this opened up a whole new park of culinary experience to me, thank christ. Hard however, because I’ve had to compromise my own morals and ethics to make this happen and as far as fishing and the ocean go (fishing at the current international levels = bad), I’ve been fraught with guilt. Negative one for being an ethical traveller in Japan.
In contrast to this however, I have made an considerable effort to direct myself as an “ethical consumer” (aka buying in a way that is more beneficial to the world/not corporations). In this respect I’ve focused my food purchases towards “the little guy”, or small vendors. At least if I’m going to go back on my morals, I can support local people and their efforts to live a little more easily or independently. I know this is fairly insignificant to most people but this is how my mind works – antagonistically against my own inner peace… – but seriously, I’m always trying to think about the consequences of my own actions, especially now that I’m on the road following many people who won’t have carried themselves with as much care as I intend to.
For any strictly vegan and vegetarian friends or readers I’ve added a map that I was given in Tokyo marking out vegan places. There are more out there than my last few blogs have eluded to but be warned that most of them are out of the way of cheaper accommodation, so if you’re going to stay vegan I’d advise you to seek accommodation in Shibuya or Shinjuku where most vegan restaurants are based!
But food has only be the tip of the ethical iceberg for me. Japan is great in so many ways, believe me I haven’t even started on the toilets, but without a doubt this country has an over-packaging problem and issue with single-use plastics (chopsticks/cutlery/plastic bags and wet wipes. This is great if you’re not prepared for literally any daily event (acknowledge the sass here please), but not great for the environment. More than anything I think I’ve realised that this practice is more about the excessive politeness relative to Japanese cultural norms, particularly where turning down plastic cutlery with a 7-Eleven meal gets you a really cold reaction – like a combination of they don’t think you’re capable of having your own cutlery and you’ve literally lobbed your yen in the cashier’s face. The best response I’ve found to this practice is to simply be on the ball with responses and bring your own reusable items. Cashiers here are quick to lob out single use items everywhere you go and only a few places I’ve been to have a charge for plastic bags. So memorise a few staples; Bango = No, and I usually have a comically overt gesture that I make to my canvas bag. The responses to this will unfortunately always be awkward and a bit uncomfortable but for the sake of minimising single-use plastics I’d urge you to be aware of this caveat to ethical living and to ACT ON IT! I’m aware this is coming across a little preachy but if the last 2 years hasn’t freaked you out with all the climate news then wth are you doing reading this blog. Leave.
Yet, you can commit to this kind of “activism” and still struggle in Japan because things here tend to be suffocated in plastic. Most of my regular meals, outwith eating out and making things from scratch here, are sealed at the lids x 2 and all vegetables and fruits tend to be packaged by plastic – some even individually! Fraser has an addiction to bananas, which has led us to one too many places that only sell individually plastic-packaged bananas and even a de-peeled orange, wrapped in plastic and cardboard… I’m aware my white woman privilege may be showing here but the intentions are good, I swear. My advice here is simply to be an ethical consumer once again and seek out places that don’t use plastic packaging because many do! In fact, we found that the further out of the cities we went, the less plastic we found – hallelujah!
I’ve read online that some supermarkets are cool with you leaving the packaging of veg/fruit there if you want to, but I have yet to try this given the responses I’ve had to simply turning down cutlery lol.
Aside from this the recycling system here is, in a word; wack. So Japan burns the majority of its recyclables, it would seem, separating their rubbish (in the majority of the places I’ve been to) between burnable and non-burnable. A quick google search seems to rate this quite highly as more items are burned in incinerators than dumped in landfill – something the UK is not nearly as good at. But this leaves me with questions about how much much energy is used for the burning and ultimately judging this situation where most environmentally-conscious platforms promote buying and producing fewer materials, like plastics, rather than relying on recycling or waste management alone. In this regard Japan is not doing all that well, but again the urban populations of Japan are enormous, so recycling was never going to be an easy feat.
What Japan lacks in recycling however, it makes up for in second-hand clothing. God damn, the whole country is a awash with second-hand stores stocking every brand and item imaginable. The “trend” has really taken off here to the point where I would argue that it’s the best place I’ve EVER been for used clothing. Harajuku in Tokyo has a street with about twenty back-to-back, Osaka has about five on every shopping street and even in less-urban areas like Nara we’ve found several quirky and varied second-hand stores. Both Fraser and I have found both necessities and desired items from these and as such have only bought new when totally necessary. Japan may screwed me for vegetarian/vegan food but it has not disappointed here, so seriously waste no time here browsing new stores, look for second hand stores and get lost in both the actual stores (they’re huge) and the euphoria that comes with ethical purchases – its real and I know it well now.
SO in a few words, Japan has not been the easiest to navigate with my own ethics regarding meat and the environment. As such I’ve had to work harder here to appease my own sense of correctness than I would have at home, but such is the payment for seeing the world I guess. To any future travellers it is possible to live consciously here, but much like living frugally with your money, you will need to make a few concessions! Prep yourself before arriving with reusable items and soaps and you should be good to go, but unless you know a considerable amount of Japanese and can explain your choices you’ll get a few concerned faces along the way.
Fu***ing off; a personal tale of travels, triumphs and travesties. 