Author: Milcah Hulen-Posnak | Major: Sociology | Semester: Summer 2024

Observation Deck of Tokyo

The Honors Passport to Japan was an incredible may intersession to be a part of. As an urban planning student interested in sustainability, it was the perfect place to study the convergence of historical preservation, new urban development, and natural landscape. I have always believed that it is possible to design with all of these concepts on equal footing, but I have never seen such a good example of success as I did in Japan. Even the most rural mountain of Koyasan had urban elements and the most urban city of Tokyo had natural elements. And in every town and city we visited there were temples and houses hundreds of years old side by side with brand new skyscrapers. It was eye-opening.
We arrived in Osaka, Japan late in the night on May 12th, exhausted but ecstatic. I remember looking around on the bus and seeing half the group fast asleep as we rode to the hotel in Nara. Even this early, only having seen the airport, roadside, and hotel neighborhood, I noticed how green it was. I wondered if that was the case everywhere in the country or if this was just scenes from the rural countryside, as it would be in the U.S. It was chilly and raining and we had to walk a bit to the hotel, but on the way we were greeted by the famous Nara deer, so it was worth it.
To fulfill the requirements of the class, we each had to research one of the sites we visited and give a presentation on it that connected to some larger topic. I was the second presentation of the trip and discussed the Horyu-ji temple site, the use of wood in traditional Japanese architecture and what that meant for the history of logging and deforestation in the country. Through my research, I learned so much about the significance of the natural landscape that we would come to view all over the country, even in the urban regions. This was one of the biggest takeaways I had from the trip.
One of my favorite places we visited was Koyasan, a rural mountain town in Southern Japan, where we stayed in a Buddhist monastery. We had delicious vegan meals, served alongside the monks and participated in their morning prayers, sonething I never thought I’d have the opportunity to do. It was also the first day that all of us students began to warm up to each other. During our evening free time some of us explored the monastery property and found a trail that led to a monk cemetery, shrine, and beautiful view. Then we took a walk through the town, got to know each other a bit, and tried the public bath. What a way to introduce ourselves ha!
Over the course of the two weeks we were in Japan, we visited Osaka, Nara, Koyasan, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Itsukushima Island, Naoshima Island, and Tokyo. The first photo was taken on Naoshima, commonly referred to as “Art Island,” an island filled with art galleries and outdoor art installations, including work by artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Claude Monet. We rode e-bikes across the island, saw so much art, and walked along the beach – it was a perfect day. The second photo was taken outside of Kyoto at the famed Torii gates which line the hiking trail leading to the top of Mt. Fushimi Inari. That day, I got 28,634 steps! The last photo was taken towards the end of our trip at the top floor of the Tokyo Observation Deck. I didn’t truly understand just how big Tokyo is (the largest city in the world) until I looked out across the 360-degree view and couldn’t see any end to the buildings in any direction. The Tokyo Observation deck is also home to the Mori Art Museum where we got to see a huge exhibition of Theaster Gates’s work, who happens to be one of my absolute favorite artist/activists. So, that was another incredible day.
There are always ups to downs to travel, with the sheer exhaustion and soreness and the stir craze that comes with spending two weeks with the same twenty people. However, despite that, this trip proved to be extremely enlightening and fun. I made new friends and learned so much about Japan both past and present. I hope to go back as a scholar in the future to study sustainable design more thoroughly. Until then, this trip was a great way to experience this beautiful green archipelago.