Kathleen Drew-Baker - the saviour of のり, and therefore 寿司 and おにぎり.

The Wikipedia article on Kathleen Drew-Baker in Japanese.

Everyone loves sushi. Well not my mum, but almost everyone else. Today I learned (from www.arstechnica.com) that nori was saved by an Englishwoman who got fired as a lecturer at a university in England for the heinous crime of getting married. No married woman lecturers they said. Read the story. It's very interesting. For those who want a breakdown, read on.

Nori was once called 'lucky grass', as the harvest depended entirely on luck.

Then the luck ran out full stop, the nori plants stubbornly refusing to develop past the initial stages of cultivation.

Enter pollution, industrialisation, and a string of bad typhoons and nori was no more. By 1951 it was all over. 

But wait, enter Kathleen Drew-Baker. She was studying a type of seaweed called laver (I've heard of it, but only vaguely), that the Welsh would grind up and eat, and still do.

She resided in a seaside lab, studying the laver during the winter when it grew, but also noticed in the summer a different species. 

The winter stuff is leafy green seaweed (nori), while the summer pink sludgy stuff is a different species called Conchocelis. They work together, as below

• In the summer the nori sends out spores that collect and grow as pink sludge (conchocelis) in shells on the sea floor. 
• In the winter, the conchocelis send out spores that collect and grow as seaweed (nori) on debris (and bamboo poles)

That's right. One needs the other. The chicken or the egg story all over again. But if there isn't one, there isn't the other.

Anyhow, she got published in 1949 and got noticed by one Segawa Sokichi, who worked at the Shimoda Marine Biological Station. He had a read of what she had written and thought (rightly as it turned out) that if it was true for Welsh seaweed, it may be true for Japanese seaweed.

Everyone was looking for nori seeds, but there are no such things. Nori comes from the conchocelis, which had been wiped out by destruction of the shellbeds in which it lived

They got the shellbeds back in place, and people were happy munching on sushi and onigiri soon after.

The story continues with a very, very interesting and detailed breakdown of how nori is grown.

Information from arstechica.com, Picture from Wikipedia.

わけーあり...a.k.a 'There is a reason'...ak.a....Ethical consumerism

Ethical consumerism is starting in Japan.

Go and have a look at what the Japan Times has to say about the birth of 'wake-ari', or 'there is a reason', or ethical consumerism in Japan. 
I love to see this. It's a great step. A very small step, but getting it out in to the consciousness is the way forward. 
Let's talk about the three Rs for a bit - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
First up, let me say that beyond any doubt for me, Japan does the best job recycling in the world. I get in trouble at home if I even put plastic in the recycling bin without washing it.
Recycling is sorted here. Other countries could take a leaf out of (a used) book.
But, and a big but, recycling is the final step of a three pronged attack (Shinzo Abe styles, three arrows.)
The first is Reduce, and I am afraid that it is not a pretty scene here guys.
The three areas I see for improvement in reduction is:

• Chopsticks - Yes, with bento on the road, the disposable wooden chopsticks are very convenient. One use and wasteful, but convenient. I am as guilty as the next guy when it comes to this. One use disposable chopsticks in restaurants though? Come on. We have to stamp this out and start insisting on proper chopsticks. Why the disposable chopsticks in a restaurant? I've never seen disposable knives and forks in any restaurant worth its salt.
• Bakery - Not the bread, it's all good, as long as it's all eaten, which I'm sure it is. It is the plastic-o-rama that is associated with a visit to any bakery. Each baked good has its own plastic bag, and they are grouped into a bigger plastic bag, until they are all finally put in a bigger plastic bag. They are eaten the same day, and those plastic bags are the evil, dirty, filthy, non-recyclable, straight into the landfill or incinerated variety.
• お土産 - I know I'm throwing a spanner in the works by bringing up the souvenir tradition, but surely we can realize that there is a power of plastic used in the individual wrapping of things. And it again is the nasty, non-recyclable stuff. This is a tough one, as it is such a foundation of workplace culture. I don't know. Does anyone?