【ARTICLE】The City Repair Project and the Village Building Convergence

This is an article I wrote with my friend Adelaide on my favorite urban permaculture/social change movement, City Repair. The article was for a crowdsourced book called Sustainable (R)evolution (click to check out this amazing project!). I also wrote articles on the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead, the ecofarm movement in Thailand, a brief overview of the natural farming movement in Japan, and on chinampas.

 

Mark Lakeman and the community of City Repair 

Ariel view of one of the Intersection Repairs

Intersection Repair during the Village Building Convergence (a must experience!)

 

Urban retrofitting during the Village Building Convergence 

Young volunteers learn from seasoned green builders to install light-straw clay insulation for an old home (aka The Planet Repair Institute)

The Planet Repair Institute from the street

The pointy tower is the Cat Palace

The iconic Mermaid Bench

This is one of the many cob benches made on private property for the public (faces the street not the house)

＊This is the closest to our final draft, and the pictures are different from the book

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The City Repair Project and the Village Building Convergence

By Kai Sawyer

Established: 1996

Land (Location/Site Details/Facilities): Various intersections, residential and commercial sites, and open spaces throughout Portland, Oregon. 

People (Residents/Participants): City Repair projects are accomplished by a mostly volunteer staff and thousands of volunteer citizen activists.

Water (Source, Systems)

Shelter (Housing Model, Building Techniques): City Repair emphasizes low-cost, low-tech and ecologically sustainable building techniques such as: cob, straw-bale, light straw clay, and timber-frame. Several living roofs have been installed.  Whimsical and artistic structures are also encouraged such as a mermaid cob bench, the chicken and cat palace, and a beehive shaped newspaper dispenser. Building structures is an important opportunity for skill-building, and volunteers help build as they learn green building techniques.

Objective (Aim/Focus/Purpose): “City Repair is an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live. City Repair facilitates artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world.” From the City Repair website.

Food (Sources, Systems): City Repair initiatives have reclaimed paved spaces for gardens (“Depave”) and installed urban food forests. They have sprouted gardens and food forests throughout Portland, from sidewalks to schools. Some residents have aquaculture systems and are raising bees, chickens, and rabbits in their backyards.

Energy (Sources, Systems)

Education (Programs Offered, Systems ): City Repair hosts various community workshops throughout the year. Once a year, they organise the Village Buildling Convergence (VBC) where free workshops are held in conjuction with neighborhood improvement projects throughout Portland for 10 days. Concurrently with the VBC, the Village Building Design Course is offered which explores placemaking indepth and trains future placemakers.

 

Governance (Decision Making): Creative community-centered consensus often involving residents around specific intersections.  Most projects are decentralized and organized by site-based groups of people. The Board of Directors, composed of committed CR volunteers meet regularly run the City Repair non-profit. Projects such as Shift to Bike, Depave, and the Village Building Convergence are supported by CR until they become autonomous organizations.

City Repair

City Repair (CR) is a community-led urban regeneration movement rooted in “placemaking” that first spread throughout neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon, and is now moving beyond. From transforming street intersections into public gathering places to planting urban food forests for public grazing, the diversity and scope of the CR movement is extraordinary. Through a collaborative mix of permaculture, green building, art, and celebration, a growing number of empowered citizens are reclaiming urban space to create public place. CR defines placemaking as “a multi-layered process within which citizens foster active, engaged relationships to the spaces which they inhabit, the landscapes of their lives, and shape those spaces in a way which creates a sense of communal stewardship and lived connection.”

To contextualize the need to “repair” American cities, CR co-founder Mark Lakeman explains that while most European and Latin American cities are built around plazas, and small villages around central squares, the US was constructed following the Roman grid and thus few towns and cities in the US have central meeting places.  A practical advantage inherent in the Roman grid, the design imposed on places conquered by colonial powers starting with the Romans, is that people can be more easily externally controlled because there is no place for them to come together and create the power of community.

CR emerged from the idea that “localization - of culture, of economy, of decision-making - is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community-oriented places, community members plant the seeds for greater neighborhood communication, empowering our communities and nurture our local culture.” (City Repair[MS1] ). The movement sprouted in a backyard tea house made from recycled material and piled with cushions that hosted weekly potlucks and festivities. Mark recalls, “it was just a place for neighbors to sit down and say hello and interact.” The gatherings grew to several hundred people before the city condemned the illegal structure. This government intervention helped catalyze the first CR action known as “Intersection Repair,” where a community transforms an urban street intersection into a public square.

Failing to gain the City Hall’s understanding and permission, residents decided to reclaim an intersection by getting together to paint a beautiful mandala and build little structures on each of the corners. Children inspired the beehive-shaped cob dispenser for the local newspaper (The Bee) and a kid’s clubhouse[MS2] , where toys can be exchanged, built from drift wood. Residents also built a 24-hour tea station, a community bulletin board, a little library, a stage, and a family-sized cob bench. Lakeman explains, “what we were doing was we were seeding a garden of the village, we were regrowing the village heart, with all of the functions and amenities that you’ll find.”

When city officials realized the benefits of Intersection Repair, such as beautifying the city, slowing down traffic, reducing crime, and building community through increased neighborhood interaction, all without spending any tax money, “the City Council legalized this whole process for all 96 neighbourhoods of the City of Portland. Several dozen intersection repair and other placemaking projects have have since been accomplished, some in other states.  These projects include installing gardens and cob benches in schools and the construction of the Portland’s first straw-bale dwelling at Dignity Village, a community of formerly homeless people. Many of these projects are accomplished during the Village Building Convergence (VBC) that began in 2000.

Village Building Convergence by Adelaide Nalley

Billed by CR as "an annual ten-day placemaking festival that combines crowdsourced activism, creative community development, hands-on education and celebration", the (VBC) is where most of CR's endeavors come together.  

During VBC days, individual communities work to physically manifest their collective visions.  These projects are unique to the communities, based on their needs, culture, taste, and collective identity, and have included such things as: neighborhood composting centers, a naturally refurbished public pottery studio, corner free boxes, outdoor classrooms and food forests at local schools, a tool lending library, and a neighborhood playhouse for children.  

While projects are designed by the community, in an effort to empower each community in their work, City Repair offers pre-VBC facilitation, planning, fund-raising, and technical support.  During the VBC, skilled volunteers lead the construction and both visiting and community volunteers come out to help turn the idea into reality.  In exchange for their time, volunteers learn new skills, receive locally donated food, build relationships, and have fun.  

There are also a number of free and low-cost workshops for participants to attend throughout the VBC.  In the evenings, participants from all of the different sites come together to celebrate their accomplishments, listen to guest lecturers, eat a locally produced meal, dance to live music, and develop an even more extensive community.  In this way, the VBC is creating a number of small villages within the city of Portland and then supporting their interconnection with one another.  

A number of out-of-town visitors come to the VBC each year and have the opportunity to not only participate in all of the neighborhood efforts, but also to stay with local host families.  Many visitors have been so inspired by the annual event that they have brought it back to their own communities.  Versions of the VBC can now be found in places like Asheville, NC, Seattle, WA, Brookfield, VT and Ottawa, CA.  Throughout the years, the VBC has been recognized for creating community, promoting sustainability, and increasing neighborhood safety, and as a result gained strong support from city officials.    

【ARTICLE】The Bullocks Permaculture Homestead

This is an article I wrote with my friend Scott on my favorite place to be, The Bullocks Permaculture Homestead. The article was for a crowdsourced book called Sustainable (R)evolution (click to check out this amazing project!). I also wrote articles on the City Repair movement in Portland, the ecofarm movement in Thailand, a brief overview of the natural farming movement in Japan, and on chinampas.

The Bullocks Permaculture Homestead culture

Small section of the forest garden (fruits, nuts, medicinals, nitrogen-fixers, pollinators, fuel, dynamic accumulators, you name it!)

chinampa!

＊I think this was our final draft, and the pictures are different from the book
More about the Bullocks internship experience here with tons of pictures

Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead

Orcas Island, Washington, USA

Through a combination of acute observation skills, passion for homesteading, love of hard work, and a stream of helpers, the Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead (BPH) functions as a home to the Bullock family, a thriving nursery, and a training site for skilled and inspired international permaculture practitioners. From the extensive utilization of “waste”, to the homestead culture of joking, love of food, and generosity, there is much that can be learned about living sustainably at the site. BPH is located on Orcas Island, part of the San Juan Archipelago, which lies in the rain-shadow of the Olympic Mountains and sits near the northernmost extension of a cool maritime/ mediterranean climate zone. The property features a variety of preexisting microclimates and soil types, rocky dry south-facing hillsides, a marsh and a wet valley bottom. Since acquiring the original five acres in 1982 and an additional five acres a few years later, the Bullocks have transformed this piece of land from one dominated by briars across much of the arable land into an innovative, productive and verdant paradise.

Tools/Technology: Energy Redefined
Instead of thinking about energy solely in terms of amps and watts, the Bullocks take a permaculture approach that broadens the conventional definition to include ‘energy flows,’ feedback loops, human and animal labor and other various forms utilized through the organization of overlapping systems.  Recognizing that the cheapest form of energy comes from tasks being built into the natural flow of the property, feeding the chickens or going out to pick a favorite fruit becomes an opportunity to stack functions. While the larger goal might be eating a delicious peach or plum, along the way they are able to actively engage with their system. By doing this, they are able to achieve greater efficiency because their system continues to be finely tuned.

Animals incorporated into the farm ecology increase the fertility of the soil, keep vegetation in check and limit pests. The Bullocks consider these energies to be vital to developing closed-loop cycles because they translate into an overall reduction of inputs needed from more traditional methods such as tractors to move manure.

As for heating and electricity generation, the site is mainly solar-powered and wood-heated, with a small amount of energy coming from the grid. Electricity for domestic use and agricultural water pumping is generated by a few large solar arrays. A small generator is used when electricity is needed remotely.

Water is stored in the landscape in as many locations as available, convenient and as high in elevation as possible in tanks and ponds. These reservoirs are fed using photovoltaic pumps with a gasoline-powered pump serving as backup if needed. Water stored high in the landscape acts like a battery, both by feeding water into the system when the sun isn’t shining and as an emergency source in the event of a fire. The distribution of water through piping from source to storage is divided regionally, partially to protect against total system failure in the event of a leak, but also because the nature of scavenging for equipment has led them to use smaller pumps common in the early part of this century. These pumps have lower power, but they match well with the “array direct” format of water pumping used on the property. These regional systems are linked by valves, so water can be fed from one to another when needed.

The greenhouse at the BPH is an instructive example of how energy can be generated and stored creatively through a stacking of functions. During the winter, residents use the greenhouse as their kitchen, dining/living room, workshop, shower, propagation space, etc. Cooking, activity and the wood stove provide heat. The wood stove, while heating the greenhouse itself, also can heat an attached sauna which doubles as a food dehydration room. A wood-fired water heater is used for needs in the kitchen and for showers (solar showers are used in the warmer months). Propane and wood are mainly used for cooking although the Bullocks have been experimenting with rocket stoves and gasification stoves in an attempt to cook with local fuel.

Culture/Education: Learning through Experimentation
Although originally intended as a private home for the Bullocks family, the homestead has evolved into an educational space with regular visitors, a ‘skill builder’ program and two regular courses each year. Visitors are welcome most weeks of the growing season to experience permaculture living along with the skill builders. Each year the seven-month skill builder program hosts twelve participants, who learn gardening, composting, grafting, plumbing, building, welding, teaching, and communal living. Each skill builder is assigned several garden beds, which provides them an opportunity for them to experiment with, for example, chicken tractors, natural farming, and vegetable varieties. As education is usually associated with the work needs of the homestead, skill builders learn by doing. An intensive three-week design course, taught by a team of highly experienced permaculture instructors, focuses on the fundamentals of permaculture, systems thinking, and integrated living, with shorter sessions, often led by visiting practitioners, on animal tracking, permaculture in public schools, urban and social permaculture among others.

Building: Take Advantage of What You Can
When making decisions, the Bullocks brainstorm about all of their possible needs, stacking as many functions as possible into each new component of their system. This is reflected in the structures built on the property, complete with food storage, propagation areas, and passive solar heating. In replacing the failing foundation of one existing home on the land, they took advantage of the opportunity and constructed a bedrock-cooled root and wine cellar. A variety of natural building styles are employed on the property including one home built with salvaged lumber, insulated with light-straw clay walls, and finished with natural plasters. The small houses are designed to be energy-efficient through the use of wood-fired stoves, insulation and double-paned windows oriented towards the winter sun.

During the warmer months, with long days and mediterranean-style, temperate dry weather, most aspects of life can be conducted outside. Through the use of open-air structures, the Bullocks adjust living arrangements according to the seasons, as they have distinct warm dry and cold rainy months. In the summer, the family and skill builders set up outdoor kitchens and a tipi-style gathering space called the Aloha Lodge, where meetings, meals, and lectures take place. Permanent structures, built for year round residents, are designed small to contain heat and conserve resources, while the simple summer structures are roofed and open-air to maximize comfort.

Land/Nature Stewardship: Creating a New Culture around Food
Food is considered a central element of the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead and much thought and enjoyment is put into every part of the process: planting, harvesting, preparation, consumption, and waste. The Bullocks take the permaculture principle “Share the Surplus” to heart by hosting frequent large meals with the skill builders and weekly potlucks for the surrounding community. Skill builders operate on a schedule where they each take part in cooking for the rest of the group.

Although the homestead is not self-sufficient in terms of food, it is full of many practical examples for food security and serves as a “plant bank” for their region. The Bullocks are passionate about fruit and nut trees and have a diverse collection of edible, medicinal, and special-interest trees. Since the property sits in a rain shadow creating slightly drier conditions than most of western Washington, they are able to grow a wide range of plants, some requiring maximum heat exposure and others needing a moderated position. Their careful study of the land allows them to isolate tiny microclimates that are only warm enough to work for a certain species. Their plantings consist of hundreds of food-producing shrubs, vines, trees and perennials from around the world and include multiple varieties of popular species. For instance, several dozen varieties of apples and plums serve to lengthen the harvest season, bolster resistance to pests and diseases, diversify uses (e.g. preserving, cooking), and enhance snacking experiences.

Extensive use of grafting allows for quicker harvests and other desirable properties. Malus fusca, commonly known as Pacific crabapple, grows like a weed on the property and the fruit is usually unappealing. Since these trees thrive in the area and have established root systems, the Bullocks have utilized them by grafting these trees with tastier varieties of apples, and can sometimes enjoy the new fruits the following year. They also have experimented with intergenus grafts, a technique by which a twig of one genus is grafted onto a different genus’ rootstock. For example, tasty pear varieties are grafted onto the tops of the prevalent hawthorn, which has the advantage of being deer-resistant and  not requiring irrigation, planting or fencing.

While planting trees for current and future generations of people, the Bullocks are also providing habitat for animals. Brush and stone piles and small zones are left wild throughout the property to create habitat for the snakes and lizards that work to keep pest populations down. The birds have the abundant fruit trees and shrubs (local birds prefer smaller fruits) to snack on in the early summer. With nut trees continuously being planted around the property the Bullocks have also seen a large rise in the squirrel population; they are trying to come up with a solution to this problem. The marsh, used by previous owners for cattle grazing and growing potatoes, is now teeming with life, and is a popular spot for bald eagles and blue herons. Chinampas (see p. x) , which were developed originally by the Aztecs, have been adopted by the Bullocks and constructed in the marsh and along the bank from prunings and excavated soil to create productive islands that further increase the biological activity of the marsh.

The continued success of BPH is due to the spirit of observation, experimentation and accepting feedback infused into the culture of the farm. Novel approaches are constantly being tried— some fail horribly and some succeed dramatically. The Bullocks make an effort to incorporate new ideas on the homestead, with innovation often coming from combinations of seemingly disparate elements.

Reporting contributed by Scott MacDonald and Kai Sawyer

Peace and Permaculture Dojo in Japan part 1

Happy 2017 (according to the Gregorian calendar)!

It has been a long while since I wrote in this dear blog. Most of my efforts has been toward my Japanese audience and I do wish I had the capacity to write bilingually with joy and ease.

Much is brewing in my journey with Tokyo Urban Permaculture (which is the name I started with but in many ways is misleading). The most recent big experiment is the Peace and Permaculture Dojo that has started in Isumi, Chiba. My fellow dreamers (TUP free agents) and I now have a 10 year lease on an old Japanese homestead, about 2.2 acres (0.9 hectares or 2700 tsubo), 2 hours outside of Tokyo.

The vision is to co-create a refuge/retreat for peace activists, and train the next generation of integral nonviolence practitioners. I want to put everything that I have been learning and practicing into this space, and live the change we wish to see in the world!!!

Things that we will explore, experiment with, and practice are

• permaculture
•  (inspired by Bullocks Permaculture Homested, City Repair Portland, etc)
• integral nonviolence 
• (inspired by Casa De Paz, Possibility Alliance, Gandhian Iceberg, NVC, etc)
• mindfulness
•  (inspired by Plum Village and Thich Naht Hanh, etc)
• gift ecology 
• (inspired by EARTH, Goenka's vipassana centers, Vinoba Bhave, Service Space, etc)

My main collaborator Nao Suzuki's big inspiration is Asia Gakuin (Tochigi prefecture).

.....and many more inspirations from around the globe.

Anyways, hopefully I'll have time in the near future to post more info in English. For now, I just wanted to beak the silence (in English) and give a short update of our biggest experiment yet!

We are crowdfunding to fix the giant thatched house since it is quite beat.
Check out the crowdfunding site for pictures and videos
https://motion-gallery.net/projects/TUPcrowdfunding2 




Below is a video of the property





The Vision as an Illustration 
by Fujisan (university student)

Japanese style permaculture!


Our tentative plan is

2017
Crowdfunding (until Jan 31st)
Fix the main house. Renovation workshops (Jan ~ March)
Property maintenance
Start garden
Observe and design the property, educational program, and social dynamics
Do some workshops and retreats on nonviolence and permaculture
Party?

2018 official apprenticeship program starts

We aren't prepared to have guests yet, but hopefully soon we will.

Warmly
Kai

Tokyo Urban Permaculture Website is up and running

Hello from Union Station in Chicago

Just flew in a few days ago to visit my brother at Tillers International (check it out), where he is learning how to farm with oxen, handle horses, weld, make rope, brooms, the list goes on. Yesterday, we went into Detroit and had an insightful tour of economic collapse and urban grassroots renewal by Richard Feldman of the Boggs Center (check it out).  And now heading to the Possibility Alliance (check it out) where my brother used to live, and that I have heard much about. PA seems to be a hub of inspiring people living in sacred integrity with the earth. No electricity, no fossil fuels, simple hand-and-earth-made living. Hard to find much info on them online but I've come to realize that the really amazing things cannot be found easily online.

Meanwhile in Japan, we signed a lease to start a Peace (nonviolence) and Permaculture Dojo for 10 years in Isumi, Chiba prefecture. The educational programs, nonviolent communication 6-day immersion training and permaculture design course have already started on my friend Phil Cashman's site in Southern Chiba. We're going to start renovating the old Japanese thatch-roofed kominka (means old house) and turn it into a guesthouse by April 2017.

The 2.5 acre lot was an old Japanese homestead with a mini cow barn, bamboo grove, fruit trees, rice paddies, and garden. Still off-grid too! More to come about that, but I'm hoping for it to be a refuge and training site for ecologically rooted peace activists. Part of my vision for growing social change infrastructure in Japan. Really hoping to keep the country from fully engaging in war. But, the military-industrial-complex is powering up and the government is trying their best to change article 9 of our pacifist constitution. We're going to have to get really creative!

And we now have a website! Its mostly Japanese but I squeezed in some English.
http://www.tokyourbanpermaculture.com/

Here is the English message


Welcome to you English-reading friend!


GRATITUDE FIRST
Thank you for finding your way to this website!
Thank you internet for making this connection possible!
Thank you Earth for being a most generous host!


ABOUT Tokyo Urban Permaculture
Tokyo Urban Permaculture (TUP) is a project that Kai Sawyer started around 2011. He was a second-year permaculture apprentice at the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead when the Fukushima nuclear meltdown tragically occurred. He decided to venture into the heart of the problem, Tokyo, to explore what seeds of hope he could grow in the busy radioactive world that he was born in.


You can read more about Kai and the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead on his first blog: Living Permaculture (about)


TUP started out as a place for Kai to share permaculture, compassionate communication (aka Nonviolent Communication), mindfulness (based on Thich Naht Hanh’s teachings), systems thinking through games, gift economy, and creative activism from primarily from the Bay Area of California. Workshops and presentations are primarily offered as a gift (more about the gift economy here) and anybody is welcome to join. Interventions and experiments such as guerrilla gardening, street meditations, youth climate change actions, and developing community gardens have been a central part of TUP activities.


2015
A crowd-sourced and crowd-funded book-like zine, Urban Permaculture Guide, was published and has become one of the most read permaculture books in Japan. See Living Permaculture (book) for more.


2016
After several years of soil-building, TUP has now blossomed into a community of social change growers exploring how can we co-create a culture that is moved by love for the earth and peace. Activities are not limited to “Tokyo”, “Urban”, or “Permaculture”, but the focus is on regenerating Tokyo into a urban culture that supports life rather than consuming it.


Some concrete projects include
this website!

• nonviolent communication activist training retreat
• 
  
• PAWA Permaculture Design Course (with Phil Cashman and Kyle Holtzer)
• 
  
• Commune Garden: a rooftop community garden in Omotesando, Tokyo
• 
  
• Japan-centered permaculture design manual in Japanese (just sprouting)
• 
  
• Permaculture and Nonviolence Dojo for training Japanese activists (just sprouting)

For most recent updates see the Tokyo Urban Permaculture blog.


In some ways, TUP is just a name, a blog and website, a flag where people can come to for healing, hope, and action. The movement in Japan is much larger than TUP, and we are just another branch of an inspiring earth-wide movement. Nothing more exciting than this!


Since our focus is on supporting non-English-literate Japanese, most information is in Japanese…until we find someone passionate about translating for us. We love connecting with the English-literate too so feel free to write us or support us in any way! Just be warned that few of us are bilingual and so our responses might be rather slow. Reminders are welcome if you don’t get a response in a week or something like that. Since we are all volunteers slowly building up our social infrastructure, our capacity is still quite limited.


Thanks for reading and happy to be on the planet with you!


moved by love
Kai and the inspiring TUP team

​
---
When you understand, you love. And when you love, you naturally act in a way that can relieve the suffering of people. -Thay (TNH)

Farming is a way of life in which one constantly reaffirms the source of life. - Fukuoka Masanobu

Work is energy. Two crises of our times are intimately connected — the climate crisis and the unemployment crisis.....To make the energy transition beyond oil, we need to bring people back into the economy, bring human energy back into production, respect physical work, and give it dignity. - Vandana Shiva

JULY 24, 2016 Karma Kitchen Tokyo & My mini update

QUICK UPDATE (Karma Kitchen is below)

Hey all
So much to share but just haven't gotten around to posting in English. Sorry! But, if you use google translate and check out Tokyo Urban Permaculture, you might get a glimps....or maybe its finally time to learn Japanese!

I recently visited Satish Kumar at Schumacher College, spent over a week at Plum Village France, went to an AWAKIN CIRCLE in Paris, and finished it off with my first visit to Hunderwasserhaus! So much inspiration.

When I came back the community garden I decided to start the day before I left for my trip was bumpin with food! Yes! How to design yourself out of projects you start, that has been the edge I'm exploring. Nation elections were also happening so I helped anti-war, anti-nuclear power, peace and democracy advocate Miyake Yohei (reggae musician) try to get votes. He didn't make it but he has sparked an interesting youth-centered participatory democracy movement. And and, it looks like we are going to seal the deal soon with the landlord of the future Peace and Permaculture (nonviolence) Dojo in Chiba. Next year I'm hoping to take on some interns, and do a few longer-term workshops like a PDC, nonviolent communication retreat, mindfulness retreat, etc. Japan is happening!!!!!

Oh yeah, Tokyo Urban Permaculture Website is almost in full swing!

Love
Kai

(English below)
カルマキッチンとは、恩送り（ペイフォーワード）が
体験できるランチイベントです。

居合わせた人と交流しながら食事をするイベントですが、
普通のレストランと違うのは、お客さんがお店に着くと、
「あなたの食事のお代は、前の方からいただいています。
ですから、支払う義務はありませんが、
次の人に優しさを送ることもできます」
と言われるところです。

カルマキッチンでは、まず前の参加者からの
「優しさの贈り物」としての食事を楽しんでください。
食事後には、次の人に「優しさ」を送る人もいるし、
ボランティアをする人や自分の特技を見せることで
「優しさ」を次の人に送る人もいます。
それが恩送りの体験になります。

このたび、そんなカルマキッチンを、
手話が公用語のスープカフェ「Sign with Me」で
開催することになりました。
お子様連れも、外国人も、手話が第一言語の人も、大歓迎です。

※予約をいただかないとお入りいただけない可能性があります。下記の予約フォームにてお申込みくださいませ。

カルマキッチンHP　http://karma-kitchen.jimdo.com/

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
日時　：7月24日（日）

時間帯（2部制）：　
第1部　11:00〜13:00
第2部　13:30〜15:30

場所　： Sign with Me 2号店　
※場所が変更になっております。ご注意下さい！
（都営三田線・大江戸線「春日駅A2出口」徒歩2分、
東京メトロ丸ノ内線「後楽園駅4b出口」徒歩5分
東京メトロ南北線「後楽園駅6番出口」徒歩5分、
JR水道橋駅東口徒歩15分）
地図　： https://goo.gl/maps/f49a4bVoxaQ2

メニュー（お申し込み時に選択してください）　：
1.焦がしペッパーの焼きバーグシチューセット　
2.一日分野菜の北海道スープカレー（肉なし）セット

お申し込み　：
第1部（11:00〜13:00）:
https://ssl.form-mailer.jp/fms/6cc5690a353938
第2部（13:30〜15:30）:
https://ssl.form-mailer.jp/fms/05828054378317

☆お申込みいただいた時間は、あくまでも目安です。
時間帯内で、ゆっくりと来ていただいても問題ありませんので、
当日ご都合のいい時間にお越しください。

☆会場の許容人数の関係上、予約をいただいていない方は
お入りいただけない可能性があります。
ご参加予定の方は、ぜひ予約をお願いします。

☆お席に限りがあります。当日参加できなくなった方は、
キャンセルをしていただけると、
お席を参加できる人に譲っていただくことになるので
ありがたいです。
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
Warm greetings! You are cordially invited to join us at the 14th Karma Kitchen event on 24th July. This is a lunch event where guests interact with each other over a meal. Step into the restaurant and you will be treated to a meal, paid by our previous customers. You have no obligations to pay, but you are free to send your kindness and regards to the next customer. Experience “paying forward”.

At this Karma Kitchen event, all you need to do is to receive a gift to you from previous participants and enjoy your meal. After your meal, you will be given an envelope. You are free to put in any amount of money you wish to pass on, or you could express your gratitude in any shapes and sizes, by performing a song, doing a good deed and so on.

The 14th Karma Kitchen event will be held at a soup café called “Sign with Me”, where the lingua franca is Japanese Sign Language. Don’t worry, of course, if you don’t know sign language. It is also an opportunity to experience diversity. Anyone and everyone is welcome! 

(Please note that you are required to fill up the form below for official registration.)

Karma Kitchen Homepage: http://karma-kitchen.jimdo.com/

Date: 24 July (Sunday)
Time:
Early Lunch: 11:00 ~ 13:00
Late Lunch: 13:30 ~ 15:30
Venue: Sign with Me second branch
※ The Place has been changed.
2 min walk from Kasuga Station A2 exit (Toei Mita Line, Oedo Line)
5 min walk from Korakuen Station 4b exit(Marunouchi Line)
5 min walk from Korakuen Station 6 exit(Nanboku Line)
Map: https://goo.gl/maps/f49a4bVoxaQ2

Please choose your menu when you sign up for the event:
1. Grilled pepper patty stew set
2. Hokkaido vegetables soup curry set (Vegetarian)

Sign up by choosing early or late lunch and fill up the form below.
Early Lunch（11:00〜13:00）:
https://ssl.form-mailer.jp/fms/6cc5690a353938
Late Lunch（13:30〜15:30）:
https://ssl.form-mailer.jp/fms/05828054378317

The time stated above is for general reference.
Feel free to drop by any time of your convenience once you have signed up.

Do note that you may not be allowed entrance without reservations, due to the limited space in the restaurant. We highly recommend you to sign up if you wish to participate.

Please cancel your reservation if you are not able to make it due to any reason, so that we can allow more participants to join us.

Hope to see you on 24 July!

Tokyo Urban Permaculture 2016 Plans!!!

Update on plans for 2016!!!

Permaculture, nonviolence, gift economics, and more!!!
(most links are to Japanese pages)

I’ll just share the highlights for now since the longer I write the less likely I’ll finish the post. 

I’ve been putting a lot of energy into teaching things I love (e.g. permaculture, NVC, mindfulness, etc), doing experiments (e.g. guerrilla gardening in Tokyo, gift economy inspired book and tour), and connecting with lots and lots of people. Now I think we’ve done enough soil building to start planting a forest garden of social change.

From Tokyo Urban Permaculture (which is not actually limited to Tokyo, Urban, or Permaculture) being “my” project, I am shifting it to be a more community-based endeavor. A fun three-letter umbrella that can be used to connect people, provide legitimacy for projects, and propagate the idea that permaculture is not just about rural self-sufficiency.

What happens under the name of Tokyo Urban Permaculture (TUP) is a mix of 

(urban) permaculture 

nonviolent communication

mindfulness

gift economics

political activism

media activism

youth empowerment

and most importantly fun!

This year, we (TUP) are hoping to creating more opportunities for people to activate, get their hands dirty, and know there is a physical place they can go to (so far its just been my blog). 

MARCH

I will return from India! 

Currently, I’m in Goa in an area lightly developed for tourists (not a hint of the rave scene that most people associate with Goa). What has been quite pleasant to see is cows roaming around, even in the main street, and lots of fruiting perennials. Tons of coconut trees in gardens, common spaces, and along roads. Many mango trees, guava, banana, papaya, pomegranate, cashew, and other ones I don’t know. Wonderful to be surrounded by fresh food (the fruits not the cow)!

PERMACULTURE UPDATE

MEDIA

＊(perma) Culture-Building＊

Murmur magazine (who published the Urban Permaculture Guide) will publish a special on permaculture. They have a young alternative dedicated readership so I think it will boost curiosity and commitment. They’ve also interviewed Masanobu Fukuoka’s grandson in the past, who inherited part of Masanobu’s legacy but has made some fundamental changes. No time to discuss that now.

We’re also planning to make a comprehensive permaculture manual featuring traditional and emergent Japanese designs (ethno-ecological and socio-cultural) in the next year. Not sure yet if we will design the book for just domestic use or for an international audience. We will see.

Permaculture has been featured more and more in the media, even in Casa Brutus (a mainstream magazine that is sold in most convenience stores….meaning almost everywhere in Japan). We just need more physical examples to inspire people.

PAWA PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE

＊Collaborating with All-Stars＊

Phil Cashman, Kyle Ho, and I will be launching a PDC at PAWA in Chiba! I think only Permaculture Center Japan (PCCJ) has been offering PDCs in Japan, so this will be a great chance to add diversity and increase opportunities to learn about permaculture design. Phil and I have been talking about how many opportunities related to permaculture are coming to us, but we don’t have time and energy to receive them all. The problem is the solution! We need more permaculture teachers and designers. Yes!

I’ve also wanted to collaborate with Phil and Kyle for several years so this is a dream come true! It’s going to be a multi-cultural PDC in Japanese with permaculture home stays at 3-different sites. The course filled up soon after we posted the ad so looks like we’ll need to do another one soon. At the same time, all three of us are more into hands-on stuff then lecturing about design, so we’ll see what happens after this first one.

Here is the ad in Japanese

COMMUNE 246 URBAN GARDEN PROJECT

＊Micro Community Garden in the Heart of Tokyo＊

Commune 246 is a Portland inspired multi-purpose space in the heart of the youth fashion district in Tokyo. It’s more commercial than I enjoy, but it’s a dynamic multi-cultural gathering place with many young creative professionals. The space is a mix of Portland-style food carts designed by architecture students at Tokyo University, a co-working office space, and Freedom University (like free school in the sense of “free” topics but Tokyo prices). 

After a year of talking about urban permaculture, building relationships, thinking and proposing designs, we finally got the green light to install a roof-top garden! Yah mun!!! They already have food carts and a marginally used worm bin, so all they need is a bump`n garden. The design will focus on inspiring aesthetics (looks are essential here), producing edibles for the food carts, and cycling organic matter (food-cart, compost, garden, food-cart). My hope is that this will lead to more opportunities to make community gardens in Tokyo, and mobilize media, social and financial capital. 

Homepage of Commune 246

Here is the ad for the garden making class (also filled up in a few days)

PERMACULTURE AND PEACE DOJO

＊The Next Phase＊

I’ve always wanted to have a physical place to grow a forest garden and learning community. Inspired by places like the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead (Washington), Casa De Paz (California), Plum Village (around the world), Schumacher College (U.K.), and Pun Pun farm (Thailand), it’s time that I start a longer-term land-based project. My focus is to explore what Satish Kumar phrases as the trinity of our time, soil, soul, and society.

Like the Bullocks, I want to offer a skill-building residential program particularly for youth, which in the permaculture field seems to be non-existent in Japan. I also want to explore and practice ahimsa or nonviolence, and experiment with social activism (i.e. changing educational, political and economic institutions). So, this will be a big experiment, to integrate permaculture, NVC, mindfulness, giftivism, and FUN! A place to be the change we wish to see in the world.

At the moment, I’m looking for land on the East-side of the Boso Peninsula, Chiba. Mainly because I want to work with Phil who lives in that region, and I want to have access to Tokyo (my target population). But, Shonan (South Kanagawa) is tempting and is also a possible area. More on this to come.

OTHER BIG PROJECTS for 2016

Empathetic Communication (basically NVC) 6-day retreat at Permaculture AWA (Phil’s place) 

A chance to explore nonviolence in practice, and jam-out with those dedicated to NVC in Japan, in a permaculture setting. Hoping to organize regular retreats and practice groups in the future. April 17~22

Awakin Circle Tokyo

Awakin circles have deeply moved me and I think it will really help the development of my consciousness around nonviolence and giftivism (gift economy). It’ll be another great chance to practice giving from the heart, and developing the gift economy in Tokyo! Starting April or May?

Satish Kumar Tour UK

Tour to learn with Satish Kumar at Schumarcher College. Satish has been a huge inspiration to me since my days at University of California Santa Cruz, and now I have a chance to take people to spend a week with him. June 5~11

Plum Village France Retreat

Then an optional tour to Plum Village France for part of the 21-Day retreat exploring engaged buddhism. They also have started garden/permaculture projects which I’m quite curious about. June 12~21

West Coast Permaculture Tour

Annual tour to the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead, Portland’s City Repair and ecovillages, and Seattle’s urban permaculture scene. One of my favorite things to do! Many of my close collaborators in Japan are former tour participants. 

Traditional Japanese Living and Permaculture tour for English-speakers

Lots of cool places I’d love to share like Yoshiki Hayashi’s projects in Kamogawa, Chiba, the Kabata culture featured in  the documentary Satoyama, and the premier natural farming school Akamejuku. I was thinking of a 10~14 day tour in October. What do you think?

Or I might help out with a tour to take Japanese activists to Bioneers, and tour around Bay Area activist hubs. Hmmm….

End of the year I will probably go to Thai Plum Village to translate and help with sangha building. Hoping to also visit Pun Pun farm again and facilitate an empathetic communication retreat.

URBAN PERMACULTURE INSPIRATIONS! part 2

日本語はこっち

Here are some inspiring TEDx talks on urban gardening and more! I think its really important to propagate not just gardens and gardeners, but stories of possibility. Growing a culture that encourages life! And while these are both amazing projects with powerful speakers, there are billions of stories and acts of active hope that are happening across the globe. Keep spreading the stories, and planting seeds.

RON FINLEY: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA — in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."

PAM WARHURST: How We Can Eat Our Landscapes

What should a community do with its unused land? Plant food, of course. With energy and humor, Pam Warhurst tells at the TEDSalon the story of how she and a growing team of volunteers came together to turn plots of unused land into communal vegetable gardens, and to change the narrative of food in their community.

BRITTA RILEY: A Garden In My Apartment

Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food (in her tiny apartment). So she and her friends developed a system for growing plants in discarded plastic bottles — researching, testing and tweaking the system using social media, trying many variations at once and quickly arriving at the optimal system. Call it distributed DIY. And the results? Delicious.

more to come.....much more!

URBAN PERMACULTURE INSPIRATIONS! part 1

a few inspirations from around the world.

more to come from Tokyo this year!



URBAN ART X NATURE



MOSS GRAFFITI



UPCYCLE GARDEN





MOBILE GARDEN



VERTICAL GARDENS



ROOFTOP FOREST GARDEN



ROOFTOP OASIS



GUERRILLA GARDENING



SEED BOMBS!



TOKYO GUERRILLA AQUAPONICS



GUERRILLA DAIKON RADISH

under the asphalt and concrete is life waiting to spring back into action!

when we stop paving it over, Tokyo will return to forest....or a field of daikon.