We arrived in Oguni after a long day of rafting and travel by train and bus from one end of Kumamoto Prefecture to the other. We checked into Minshuku Yūheim and were treated to a delicious meal upon arrival, a hamburger covered in shimeji mushroom sauce, potato salad, broccoli, miso soup, rice, and other small dishes.
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| Minshuku Yūheim, located in Oguni, Kumamoto Prefecture |
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| Dinner at Yūheim |
The rooms at Yūheim are simple, with tatami floors and DIY futons. The evening's heavy rain didn't deter some from catching up on laundry, but no one ventured out to enjoy the Oguni nightlife, which is surprisingly active, with a number of interesting bars around town.
Day six (a Sunday) began with a nice breakfast, followed by a lecture from Dr. Daichi Kohmoto, lecturer of Geography in the School of Tourism at Kobe Shukugawa Gakuin University. I first met Dr. Kohmoto in 2007 at the annual meetings of the Association of Japanese Geographers, held at Kumamoto University. We attended a fieldtrip to Minamata, where I first learned about all of its environmental efforts.
Dr. Kohmoto lectured on the two concepts of ecotourism and green tourism. These ideas, which may seem interchangeable, actually have different pasts and meanings, each having been utilized by a different ministry within the Japanese government. However, despite their different uses by officials, one finds entrepreneurs using the terms without consideration of their particularities, which we discovered later in the day.
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| Dr. Kohmoto lecturing on green tourism and ecotourism. |
The lecture was an ideal opportunity to get students back into the academic mindset after a day of playing in the Kuma River, as well as a chance to hear from a Japanese scholar, instead of just me. Dr. Kohmoto has studied green tourism throughout Japan and has advised villages hoping to draw visitors to their agriculture or forestry-based destinations.
After the lecture, we departed Yūheim to see some local ecotourism firsthand.
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