iSummit 2008 Impressions: ii) On reaching Sapporo, Japan

My flight arrived at Sapporo airport early in the morning around seven. The day was partly cloudy and it was raining. I was quite relaxed, as the organizers had arranged for pick up from the airport. I approached the counter and informed them about my arrival. Since the first bus was supposed to start at 9 am, I had to wait for almost two hours.

Finally, with all the participants who had arrived by that time, the bus started for the Sapporo Grand Hotel. As usual, I looked out of the window most of the time. Compared to Tokyo, Sapporo was smaller and most of the roads were four-line, i.e., two lines on each side of the divider. Again, the roads and streets were so clean as if somebody had recently washed the whole town. The same was true about the houses!

Another remarkable thing about the city was space utilisation. I had heard about Japanese obsession with everything 'small' and 'optimum utilisation of resources', but what I saw was quite awesome. Every vacant plot (no matter whatever its size), lying in between the houses was used for onion or potato cultivation. Not a single plot of land was lying barren or unutilised. The roads, too, were decorated with beds of beautiful flowering plants on both sides. And of course, all the houses had little gardens in the front. As I had mentioned earlier, it was spring season, so, the whole city was in full bloom and looked more like a garden city to me- my dream city!

I completely enjoyed the journey from the airport to the hotel. Since day one was actually a zero day, meant for CCi Legal deliberations between the organisers and their partners, I stayed back at the hotel. I was quite tired because of the long journey and the rest gave me the much needed respite. Next day, the real iSummit began. In retrospect, I can say that it was quite different from the other workshops that I had attended. Even the participants were quite different with people from the media and the art world. They were unique personalities- people with unique tattoos, body art, hairstyles, looks and dresses. Overall, the whole atmosphere appeared quite funky to me!!

Everyday, the workshops or 'Labs' as they were known at iSummit08, were interspersed with social events, like the Japanese tea ceremony; origami or Japanese paper folding art demonstrations and lessons; Japanese calligraphy demonstrations and lessons; ski jumping demonstrations and dinner at Okurayama Ski- Jump site; reception hosted by the mayor of Sapporo city at the Park Hotel, Sapporo; a concert at Xanadu, Sapporo by Digital Garage, and an excursion to Moerenuma Park. Except the concert, I took part in everything and attended all the social events.

The Okurayama Ski- Jump site was very beautiful. We were welcomed on the beats of drums. The drums sounded somewhat familiar to me, more like the Indian drum beats. I didn't know anybody in the conference! I was looking for some Indian faces and found one, Prashant Iyenger. Another person I approached was from Jordan, but he looked very Indian. He was a nice guy and I used to talk to him every now and then throughout the iSummit. I also met a person from Sri Lanka, Thiru Balasubramaniam, who was working in Switzerland. And of course, I met Cynthia Jimes, the researcher from the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), who were leading the iCommons iCurriculum project.

Other nice people I met at the iSummit were Shinya Ichinohe, a gentleman from Japan, who shared a lot of interesting things about the commons, Japan and Japanese people. Kim Tucker was a co-participant at the education lab, who shared similar concerns about the commons and the developing countries. Jaroslaw Lipszyc and Grazyna Czetwertynska, both from Poland, were also co-participants at the education lab. I also befriended a lady from Japan or rather she befriended me, who had spent some time at Kolkata in India. She recognised my Indianness from my Bindi. She gave me company in between the breaks.

I also learnt the Japanese calligraphy and chose to write 'Woman' in Japanese. After two or three trials, my teacher was satisfied with my work and stamped my paper for accreditation. Its very precious for me and I have saved it. I also participated in the 'tea ceremony' and made some mistakes even after good instructions from the nice lady in 'Kimono'. I was supposed to turn the cup only three times before sipping the tea, but I turned it too many times. Anyway, it was all new and exciting and I was a very happy person in the end.

The actual iSummit started on the second day with a plenary that had some very interesting presentations by Heather Ford, Jimmy Wells, Joi Ito, Mohamed Nanabhay, James Cairns, Johanna Blakley, Erin Mckean. Linking the virtual 'commons' movement with the physical 'commons' of the yore, such as the pastures, forests over which the rural community exercised free access rights, Heather's presentation provided an overview of the movement and its penetration into unique knowledge areas, like fashion, media, art, business and so on. After the plenary session, I was a much enlightened person. I had no idea that the virtual 'Commons' trace their roots back to the 'Commons' or the 'Common Property Resources' as we know them in India.

iSummit 2008 Impressions: i) the Journey from Delhi to Tokyo

The opportunity to attend the iSummit 2008 at Sapporo, Japan from July 29 to August 1 came as a BIG surprise to me. I had never expected any such overseas travel although there were a number of opportunities to travel within India when I was doing the Indian case study for the iCiC project.

This was my first trip to Japan and I was a little apprehensive, especially about the language as many well wishers had warned that English wouldn't work there very much. Anyway, my enthusiasm was too overwhelming to leave any scope for worries or apprehensions. The ticketing and visa was not a problem as I received a personal invitation signed by the Mayor of Sapporo city. The invitation, written in Japanese, was more like a piece of art and that's why I have treasured it till date.

I left Delhi for Sapporo on 27th July by Japan Airlines. It wasn't a direct flight to Sapporo; I had to take another domestic flight from Tokyo's Haneda airport. Even my baggage wasn't booked for Sapporo directly. My travel agent had informed that I had to reclaim my baggage at Tokyo's Narita International airport and then proceed to Haneda, which was approximately 0ne hour bus-ride away from there. As I was travelling alone, I was a little anxious and could actually feel butterflies fluttering in my stomach!

I arrived at Narita International airport in the morning (28 July) around 9.30 am. After reclaiming my baggage, I went straight to the enquiry counter. My homework for the trip had shown that I would find all the help there. Since I had a lot of time at my disposal, they suggested two options: I could either take the train or the bus to Haneda. I preferred the one hour bus ride as I wanted to see Tokyo city at a leisurely speed as compared to the train. It cost me only 3,000 yen. The first thing that struck me about the Narita airport was that everything was precisely organised; there was no scope for any kind of confusion.

The weather at Tokyo was the same as that of Delhi. My bus ride was fantastic and provided a good view of the city and its suburbs as we passed from one district to another. I looked out of the window most of the time. Tokyo didn't look any different from other metropolitan cities. But the small towns on the way were amazing with beautiful and small residential buildings surrounded by little gardens. The traditional ones looked awsome, just out of this world! And strangely, none of them looked discoloured or worn out as if they had been recently whitewashed.

Finally the bus stopped at Haneda airport and I followed my co-passengers to the departure terminal. Here again, the information counter did the trick and I had a trouble free check in and security check. To while away the waiting time, I just moved around the departure lounge and relaxed preparing myself for the rather short journey to Sapporo.

Sapporo is the favourite holiday destination for the Japanese and because it was the Spring Season, so I could see a number of Japanese families heading towards it. Most of them were young couples with two kids (yes, not any more or less!). The babies looked almost like dolls! I had a good time watching them playing, laughing, crying, tugging at their parents' dresses and being stubborn or just refusing to move from one place!

They kept me engaged for a long time and soon it was time to board the plane for Sapporo. Looking out of the window, I spotted a very strange kind of airplane. It was bright yellow with Pokemon characters painted all over its body. I could see Pikachu on the side facing my plane! It seemed as if it was taking off for Pokemon land. This was really surprising and made me wonder... are the grown ups also as obsessed with these characters as the kids! Imagine... a Pokemon plane!

So, enough for the journey! My next blog in this series will take up some serious issues around understanding the "commons" concept and its various manifestations.