Water, Rice, and ORF | Kazunori Takashio, Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance
November 28, 2023
If I have delicious rice, I don't need anything else.
For the past few years, thanks to a fortunate connection, we have been using the western region of Tottori Prefecture as our field site. We bring in the various research outcomes from our lab (Sociable Robots Lab.) and engage in empirical discussions aimed at social implementation.
Our first field site was the Sakaiminato Yumeminato Terminal in Sakaiminato City. As part of the Local 5G Demonstration Project promoted by Tottori Prefecture (the Local 5G Usefulness Demonstration Project in the With-Corona Era ), we helped realize the "New Experience Concert Achieved with Tech x Classical Music." This project, which started in 2021, saw its demonstration experiments postponed not just once, but two or three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After waiting for over a year, we were finally able to hold a classical concert at the cruise ship terminal in February 2022. We advocated for an "experience made possible by transcending space" and built a space-transcending live viewing system that allowed people to move freely between a VR space and the real concert venue. The footage recorded at that time, showing a pianist and a violinist wearing MR gear performing while interacting with audiences in both spaces, is likely a world-first piece of content.
One of the key people connecting us with Tottori is Professor Takita (Representative Director of WebDINO Japan), with whom I co-teach a course called "Open Design Practice" at SFC. We had often talked about the Camp for Designing the Future, so in the summer of 2022, with the cooperation of Tottori Prefecture and WebDINO Japan, the Camp for Designing the Future in Daisen was realized. We held a workshop on the theme of "Envisioning the Near Future of the Town with XR and Robotics." With the field site set around Daisen, our targets were tourism and industry. We stayed on-site for about 10 days, including the Camp for Designing the Future, and prototyped a realistic vision for the town's future with high school students, technical college students, and local stakeholders.
By the way, it's a secret that this was the most luxurious Camp for Designing the Future ever. It was held under continuing restrictions, and with support from the prefecture, all participants were given single-use hotel rooms.
And this year, for our 2023 field site, we chose Nichinan-cho, a town bordering Shimane, Okayama, and Hiroshima prefectures. We launched a new project to support healthcare for people living alone using XR and robotics. One of the major social issues facing Nichinan-cho is its "aging population." The aging rate in Nichinan-cho is a staggering 51.2% (as of January 31, 2021). Although the town has a fine hospital, in reality, doctors, nurses, and physical therapists travel in multiple cars to provide home-visit medical care. Our summer base was a stark contrast to the previous year: a training camp facility further up in the mountains from the town center. We could barely get a signal from a certain mobile carrier and secured our internet connection with Starlink. We proceeded with fieldwork and system development while battling insects daily. Early in our stay, we held our second Camp for Designing the Future in Tottori on the theme of "Creating Community Healthcare Services Emphasizing Humanitude." This year's camp was the longest ever, at three days and two nights. We had high school and technical college students from various regions participate in four ongoing projects.
The center of our fieldwork was the aforementioned Nichinan Hospital. Both the hospital staff and the people they visited for home care welcomed us warmly from our very first inspection visit. The hospital staff openly shared with us valuable knowledge gained from their many years of experience, as well as concrete ideas related to medical care and rehabilitation. They truly engaged with us as if it were their own concern. Not once during our stay were we looked upon as outsiders. Towards the end of our stay, when we had the opportunity to visit the hospital again to demonstrate our results, everyone made time in their busy schedules to gather and sincerely consult with us about the next steps. I am truly grateful.
And then, this month.
We visited Nichinan-cho again during the ORF period (November 23 to 26). We conducted more fieldwork and explained our updates since the summer to the hospital staff. While we were at it, we borrowed the Nichinan Town Hall Community Hall and set up an ORF satellite venue for Tottori. We maintained a constant live feed with the SFC venue and reported our project's results to both the people of Nichinan-cho and the visitors on campus. I had an event on campus on the morning of the second day of ORF (the 26th), so I could only stay until the night of the 25th, but on the first day of ORF, we were able to stream a mini-session from the Nichinan-cho venue to the SFC venue.
I was the mastermind behind bringing ORF back to campus. At the same time, I don't think we need to confine ourselves to campus. Many faculty members are active not only at TTCK but also at various bases and field sites all over Japan and around the world. Although this was an experimental attempt, I believe ORF would be even more enjoyable if we connected all such satellite locations via live feed for the exhibition.
Now, about the rice from the beginning. In fact, Nichinan-cho is one of Japan's leading producers of delicious Koshihikari rice. It became even more famous after being certified by the renowned Yanmar Marche as "Yanmar's Select Rice." Nichinan-cho is located at an altitude of about 500 meters, and the temperature difference between day and night created by this high elevation is said to make the rice delicious. The water from the Hino River that enriches the rice paddies is also important. The snowmelt from the surrounding mountains is rich in minerals and is said to be essential for the rice's growth. Shocked by how delicious the rice was there, on every visit I buy "Umi to Tenchi no Megumi Mai" (Rice from the Blessings of the Sea and Earth) at the roadside station and carefully carry it onto the plane (this is not a stealth marketing plug). It's not just Nichinan-cho; the water in western Tottori Prefecture is delicious, and so is the sake. And the local beer. I'd love to cook the rice with water from Nichinan-cho, but that's obviously difficult. Perhaps it's best to eat it locally after all.
I am writing this manuscript right after my stay in Nichinan-cho (for the ORF schedule) ended. To be honest, I arrived on-site full of excitement this time too, but perhaps because it was the new rice season and it was more popular than usual, it was completely sold out at my usual roadside station. I could have cried. My schedule was packed, so I had no time to look elsewhere and returned to Tokyo in defeat. This is my only regret from this trip.
Next time, in February, I'll make sure to get the rice before anything else.
P.S. That said, "commuting" from Yonago on the Sunrise Express (departing Yonago after 8:00 p.m., arriving in Yokohama at 7:40 a.m. the next morning due to a delay) is tough. Traveling overnight without a time difference really messes with your brain. It's like, "Why am I on campus this morning when I was having dinner in Yonago last night? When was yesterday again?" To secure a ticket, I also experienced my first-ever "10 o'clock dash" a month in advance (lol).