Adventures and The Question

Posted on 25 October 2008 by Alex Leavitt

The adventure.

Tomorrow afternoon, I along with my friend and fellow traveler Matt Sabban will commence a journey of epic proportions, never before witnessed in the history of our study abroad program.

Shikoku, one of Japan’s larger islands south of the mainland, maintains eighty-eight (88) temples along the perimeter of the island. For hundreds of years, adventurers and thinkers have attempted to visit every temple along the island, starting in the northeast and ending around the whirlpools of Naruto city. They call it the pilgrimage of the eighty-eight sacred temples of Shikoku. Matt and I, setting out from Kyoto (on the map linked above, about halfway between Osaka and the northern coast), will mount our bicycles and attempt to visit fifty-nine of these temples. We plan to cycle from the first temple in Tokushima to the thirty-sixth, bike north across the island to the sixty-fifth, and end up at the eighty-eighth, entirely in six days. Is this possible? Is this crazy? Or is this necessary? We’re on fall break, so we’ve decided to ignore the answers.

This is the farthest I have been from the Internet in a while, since my seven-day canoe and hike through the mountains in Maine back at the beginning of high school. In Japan, you are never without a cell phone (if you want to send words of encouragement, reach me at a13x@softbank.ne.jp [no more than 140 characters]), but my primary tools will be a pen and notebook. I suppose I’ll see what results.

(photograph by Alex Leavitt, http://flickr.com/photos/alexleavitt/)

The question.

Dear Internet,

I hope that, at least once, every person is faced with a question or problem that changes his or her life. Last week, I may have been asked that question: Would you like to stay in Japan for another semester? Internet, if you have opinions, please relate them to me. If I stay in Japan, I will basically set aside classes, research, internships, conferences, friends, family. I must still deal with jobs, graduation, and grad school applications. On the other hand, I’ve already taken over a thousand photos, traveled around the country, and lost myself in and out of translation, and reveled in every minute of it.

As with any difficult question, I need advice. And if you’re willing to give it, I’d love to hear it.
Sincerely,
Alex

Japan

Posted on 6 September 2008 by Alex Leavitt

I have been in Japan for five days. Too much to tell.

However, internet culture here exists on a much different plane. No wireless. Most homestay families do not possess internet. Keitai (cell phone) purchases initially will be difficult.

I will not have internet in my room at my homestay, but I hope to write much while I have access at Kyodai Kaikan, my school building.

This Is Not a Blog Post

Posted on 1 July 2008 by Alex Leavitt

Instead, this is a small catalogue of books that I recently bought, borrowed, or brought to a close.

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Henry Jenkins (finished) – A mashed potato of a book that works much better if you separate the chapters and read them as essays. Pretty much an anthology of modern, cool changes in media. Recommended. Will blog (hopefully) multiple times about this at a future date.

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life, Mimi Ito, et. al. (borrowed from the BPL, just started) – If I had the linguistic skills, I’d definitely do some further research on mobile culture in Japan when I’m abroad in Kyoto in the fall and early winter. Reads sociologically, meaning interesting yet dull language.

Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, Lawrence Lessig (recently bought) – I figure that I need to start reading this, since I’ve firmly entrenched myself in this free culture thing for years to come.

The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yochai Benkler (recently bought) – Yochai laid the smackdown on Cass Sunstein at a forum/lecture that I attended via MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program. This is my thanks to him.

The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, Jonathan Zittrain (recently bought) – After Berkman@10 and two riveting JZ talks, I had to pick up this book. Besides, it’s at least a bit relevant.

Other relevant books that I want to read:
Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, David Weinberger
Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization, Ian Condry

Have you read any of these seven titles? Tell me what you think about them. Comment, btchz.