Archaeology and Travel in Japan (ATJ)

Jomon Japan - the future was then?

2006-05-31T05:27:00.000-07:00

Here's an idea - the most important formative period in Japanese prehistory was the Jomon era, lasting approximately 10,000 years from 12,000 BP to 2,000 BP.

It can be argued that the acceptance of intensive rice production techniques and a more-obviously hierarchical social system - from around 2,000 years ago - depended on the fact that cultivated plants and sedentary living were already established in Japan well before the Yayoi era that began 2,500 to 2,000 years ago. To sum up: in Jomon Japan, the future was then.

It can also be argued that before the Jomon period (approximately 30,000 to 12,000 years ago), technologies and populations were so little developed that their influences have not persisted very strongly up until the present.

The relatively sudden expansion of human populations throughout the archipelago during the Jomon era may therefore provide a reasonable central focus for a future eco-travel industry centered on archaeology in Japan.

So perhaps the present Jomon Japan website can have a new future not as a site just for fans of Jomon archaeology, but as a place to introduce the archaeology of all periods throughout Japan.

A possible renaming of the site would be:

Jomon Japan: Archaeology and Travel (or "How to Get Here from There")

Taking the argument to extremes, it might be fun to play the role of a Jomon-era villager taking visitors on a journey to see the past, present and future of Japan. But... so little is known about the life of any Jomon-era villager. How can we possibly play the part?

Perhaps the only justification is an educational and playful one: it is fun just to imagine what life was like in the distant past, and how we reached our present life from there. To make all the connections possible, we need to cover the full course of Japanese prehistory, as well as we can. Dish it all up, but delicately, in an appetizing manner.

If we cannot take pleasure in just tickling the imagination, then what hope is there for us now, and in the future?!

Archaeology tours

2006-01-19T05:43:00.000-08:00

The Archaeological Institute of America provides information on tours and fieldwork worldwide.

The Institute has previously offered opportunities to visit Japan in the company of experts.

Please use the 'comments' button below to tedll us about any archaeology tours organised inside Japan (for speakers of Japanese, and for speakers of other languages).

Many museums

2006-01-19T05:23:00.000-08:00

Take them slowly.

Here are some guides to museums all over Japan:

Japan Information Network
Museum Information Japan
Yakimono Network
Japan Reference
My-edu2.com

Guides and interpreters

2006-01-19T04:37:00.000-08:00

There are many guides and interpreters who can help visitors to Japan, though not many guides or interpreters have special knowledge of archaeology.

University students who are studying archaeology might be able to offer occasionalhelp voluntarily or for some fee, according to the work involved. Contact the student affairts administrative office of any university to make enquiries - and please let us know (confidentially) if your approach is successful (or not).

Please enquire if you would like us to try finding an interpreter, or if you can offer help as a guide and interpreter, and would enjoy explaining Japanese archaeology to visitors (see contact details in footnote).

For the Osaka region and Kansai generally, we can recommend KI-Net, the Kansai Interpreters Network, as a possible source of assistance.

Mark Smith, is a translator working in Osaka, Japan, and can also be contacted for enquiries about visiting the Asahigaoka site in Ashiya, and other sites in Kansai. Contact: interlingual at gol dot com

Peter Matthews, a researcher living in Kyoto, can offer advice and a map for archaeological destination around the city. Contact pjm at gol dot com

For assistance with interpreting or translation see also The Research Cooperative NZ

Travel links

2005-12-06T01:44:00.000-08:00

Home-stay and home-visit opportunities can be found all over Japan. There also many international exchange organisations that are affiliated with local governments. These organisations can advise on opportunities for accomodation, study, cultural exchange, work, and so on (the aims vary).

An excellent guide to study and travel in Japan is provided by Edutraveller.com. To get close to the ground, join the Willing Workers On Organic Farms, and WWOOF your way around Japan. For a more recreational and physical experience, look at Outdoor Japan.

For the ecologically minded the Green Purchasing Network (Japanese language only) may have information on hotels that are attempting to be eco-friendly. Nation-wide hotel information and online booking is offered by Rakuten Travel(in English).

The Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) is probably the largest travel company in Japan, and may be good for travellers who need assistance while travelling here. The Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) is orientated towards people seeking organised tours and upper-end accomodation (hotels and ryokan), and visitors from North America in particular.
International travel information sites can offer considerable detail about Japan - see Virtual Tourist, or Japan Visitor, for example.

Websites with personal travelogues are popular in Japan. Here is a good example entitled "Wandering about ruins and shrines". (J only, with photographs, by Masahiro Asano). Virtual travellers may also enjoy Nakasendo Highway: A Journey to the Heart of Japan (an introduction to the historical highway for foot and horse traffic between Kyoto and Tokyo).

As a matter of policy, ATJ regards small-and-local destinations as equal in importance to large-and-famous destinations. Small fish can sometimes outshine big fish. If we can cast our net wide, travellers will more easily discover the wealth of Japan's archaeological heritage.

Welcome

2005-11-16T06:11:00.000-08:00

For foreign travellers in Japan, not much information is available about the history of this country before about 1,000 years ago.

People have lived in what we now know as Japan since tens of thousands of years ago, from the late-Pleistocene geological period and throughout the last 10,000 years of the Holocene. The Jomon period refers to a ceramic era beginning about 12,000 years ago and lasting until the arrival and spread of an agricultural system that was based mainly on rice cultivation, about 2,000 to 2,300 years ago.

Jomon Japan is a geographically organised website that introduces the archaeology of the Jomon period all over Japan.

The present weblog provides more general information and a forum for comments and questions by travellers and others who wish to learn about archaeology in Japan.

If you are already travelling in Japan, and would like to contribute stories or photos, please contact Peter (email: pjm at gol dot com).

Thank you

Photo: a Jomon pot (courtesy Wikimedia 2005)