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Project Practice inMount Fuji

From 7 to 11 July, inFujinomiya City, Shizuoka, at the foot of Mount Fuji (or in fact　already on theMount Fuji), the Global Negotiation Programme Project Practice “World Heritageand Local Identity” was held in collaboration with the Nature Conservation Programme’s “Nature Conservation Study Tour 1”, with a focus on Interpretationand Eco-tourism.

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What I learned duringthis program; there are mainly three points. These are ecotourism,interpretation, and Mt. Fuji.

<Ecotourism>


Mr.Shintani, thelecturer in this course is an interpreter/eco-guide of Mt.Fuji and hasparticipated in ecotourism projects in the world. We learned interpretationthrough examples of his works.

Mr. Shintani saidthat ecotourism is a solution for cultural and environmental problems. Inecotourism, tourists can see or experience indigenous nature and or culture inlocal areas, where local people or community participate in the tour as guidesand performers. Therefore, ecotourism contributes to spread understanding ofnature and culture, and contribute to economic benefits needed for the localpeople and the conservation of nature. Moreover, local people can strengthentheir identity. The subjects of ecotourism are indigenous things in the localarea. Since these are always near to the local people, they may think thesethings are ordinary and don’t care very much. However, by being exposed infront of the viewpoints of visitors, they can realize the value of the natureand culture. They can understand the importance and rareness, and be proud of them.

Tourism isinteresting and exciting, but I have been worried about an aspect of tourismthat external producers occasionally form images of the area as resources forbusiness, and tourists see the place through the filter made by external people.I doubted whether they could really understand the nature and culture through suchtourism. Also, the filter puts burden on local people. Perhaps tourism throughthick filters as such cannot convey local people’ message or what they think asreally important. I consider that a proper ecotourism can solve the problemlike this. In ecotourism, the main producers are local people themselves, andit enables to shorten the distance between what tourists see and experience andwhat local people do so.

On the other hand,ecotourism should be executed cautiously. Ecotourism have great influence onlocal people and community. It can change the community and people. An ideal ofecotourism may be that all people of local area can receive the favors, beproud of their culture and nature, and participate in conservation. However, Ithink that in reality the benefits are not distributed to everyone equally. Forexample, there is a possibility that ecotourism makes economical differences betweenthose who are engaged in ecotourism and those who are engaged in agriculture,or between the local area where ecotourism is executed and other areas aroundit. Moreover it is also possible that ecotourism affects on the culture itself.For example, local people might decide that they make the content of theirperformances more dramatic to show to visitors, or an aspect of culture maychange unconsciously through the contact with outsiders. If there is suchphenomenon, local people who relate to traditional culture or the industry oftradition cultures are forced to change their lifestyles. Ecotourism focuses onproblems in the local area and attempts to solve them through their action, soit becomes a solution for them, indeed, but at the same time, we shouldremember that it can change the structure of local community and local people’slives and such change can cause new problems. We must consider deeply not onlygood influences but also bad ones when making a plan of ecotourism, and we mustmonitor the condition of the area during and after execution.

<interpretation>


Before this projectpractice, I didn’t understand the concept of interpretation very much, but Ifelt thatI could grasp the general outline through this practice. There are somedifferences between interpretation and a mere providing of information. Whatcounts is “message”, as I understood. Interpretation is an action that conveysa message behind culture and nature. This point is an important difference froma mere information providing. Then, it is expected that visitors receive themessage and deepen the understanding of nature and culture. Therefore,communication is important in interpretation. Interpreters extract conversationwith visitors by effectively throwing questions about nature or culture for themto think and react, or appealing to the visitors’ five senses. Through these methods,visitors can understand the ‘message’ and have deeper interests, which is notmomentary. At the same time, interpreters change their attitude and ways ofcommunication according to the visitors’ character and reaction. They alsolearn something from the visitors, and always try to brush up their way ofinterpretation based on the learning. Therefore, interpretation is mutualaction between interpreters and visitors.

After entering thisgraduate school, I learned that it is not sufficient that natural and culturalresources are protected to exist. What is important is how to show theresources to people. I think what I had learned about it since this April weremainly about arrangement, institution, zoning, restoration and so on, that is,the side of protection of resources. On the other hand, in this practice, Ilearned about the side of the receiver such as interpretation.

I thinkinterpretation realizes both the satisfaction of visitors and conservation ofresources, and it plays a great role in tourism. At the same time, I also thinkthat the way of interpretation can apply to other situations. For example, in schooleducation. Duringthis course, I felt that my feelings and senseswere similar to the ones during class on Pedagogy. ‘Message’ is important inschool education too. Teachers must establish the important ‘message’ (theme)and make a plan of the classes along the ‘message’. It is ideal that theystimulate their students’ curiously and make them have continuous interest. Theideal of interpretation is similar to that of school education. What is more,Mr. Shintani said that it is importance for an interpreter to think of the positioning(where to stand) and the way of speaking. These skills are also important in schooleducation. Therefore I think interpretation and education can create mutualbenefit by cooperating with each other.

Furthermore, I thinkwe can also apply interpretation on a more micro situation. During this course,for the exercise on interpretation, we respectively introduced our ownimportant things. Through this practice, I realized that the method ofinterpretation makes it easier to convey more effectively and smoothly what Iwant the audience to know. With interpretation, we can learn what a personthinks and what is important for him/her. In a mere self-introduction, interpretationis valid. It becomes a tool for mutual understanding among people.

<Mt. Fuji>


I hadnever been to Mount Fuji until this project practice. When I went to Fuji anditssurrounding, I actually understood the greatness of Mount. Fuji. First, Iwitnessed the real size of Mount Fuji. Actually Mount Fuji was very huge, butit was not just a huge mass. I felt certain solemn atmosphere about Mount Fuji.

When I climbed themountain, I realized very strongly the greatness of Mount Fuji. When we startedto climb, the weather was fine, but on the way to climb, it suddenly changed.When around having arrived at the Houei Crater, fine rain began to fall and thewind became stronger. Then, according to the judgment of Mr. Shintani, westarted to go down. During descent from the mountain, we were enveloped by fogand the temperature went down. When climbing, we could see the blue sky and itwas even hot. However, when going down, our fields of vision were obstructed byfog and I felt it was cold. I might understand the sense of people who are lostin mountains. The situation changed completely in 20 or 30 minutes. If it werenot for Mr. Shintani and other teachers, I would have felt extremely uneasy. Iwas astonished by the changeable weather and realized the severe part of natureeven though I only stayed on Mount Fuji for few hours. However, I think itbecame beneficial to experience even slightly the two sides of Mount Fuji.

On the day we climbedI became worried about the safety of mountain climbers. There is an expected increasein the number of climbers who have little experiences in climbing because of the inscriptionof Mount Fuji on the World Heritage List. I realized that even around the sixthstation, people could meet danger like bad weather, landslides, and fallingrocks. I fear that climbers are injured because of their shortage of knowledgeor carelessness. Mass media is advertising the climbing of Mount Fuji, but Ithink they should be prudent. Then, I thought that interpretation would beeffective to ensure climbers’ safety.

Last of all, I wantto mention another thing I was concerned about. During this course, I reallyfelt the impact of the inscription of Mount Fuji on the World Heritage List bysigns, flags or posters. What I was concerned about was a poster in Sengenshrine. It was hung on the “torii”. Torii is the gate of the shrine. It plays arole as a border between sacred place and worldly place. I think that the toriiis sacred itself. On the other hand, poster is a worldly matter. So I think thepresent situation of the main torii of the Sengen Shrine cannot embody themeaning which torii primarily has. I want the concerned actors of the site toconserve not only its tangible value but also the intangible value.

Reported by Kazusa Miki, Masters’ Programmestudent in World Heritage Studies