The “Satoyama Exploration (from Ninomiya Housing Complex to Odawara Kotake)” event, now in its third year, was held at the Ninomiya Housing Complex (Ninomiya Town, Naka District) on Sunday, October 12, and Professor Kaoruko Kurata served as the lecturer. This program involved walking through the housing complex and the satoyama while listening to explanations about the surrounding plants, and a total of 20 people participated in the morning and afternoon sessions. As a guided tour with lectures, participants walked the approximately 1.3-kilometer route from the Ninomiya Housing Complex to the bamboo grove in the Kotake district of Odawara City, learning about plant characteristics and their relationship with the environment along the way. Participants proceeded through the autumn landscape while exploring nature, carrying the “Satoyama Exploration Guide” with observation notes prepared by Professor Kurata, as well as the “Bamboo Grove Walk Bingo” designed for children.
After listening to Prof. Kurata’s lecture—which encouraged participants to think about environmental issues through familiar plants, including topics such as the vigorous propagation of kudzu and its connection to climate change—some commented that the experience “made me reflect on the global environment through everyday plants.” Participants also had the opportunity to try cutting bamboo, and children shared their excitement, saying, “It was so much fun to cut the bamboo!” and “I want to do it again!”
