It’s been five years since we, collaborating with Ama Lab at Showa Women’s University, launched our “Quest for Happiness on Route 17.”
In February 13th, we held the presentation and workshop at Ii-Office, Ueno.
This is our fourth effort to focus on the Route 17, a unique highway starting at Nihon-bashi in downtown Tokyo, crossing the whole width of Honshu Island and reaching Niigata, a port city by the Sea of Japan. We drastically changed our field work method this year, employing a hand-drawn cart as the medium to reach and interact with the local people more broadly than we previously did. The method was so new to us, however, that many trial and errors made our project stretch from the usual six-month period to a nine-month endeavor.

Like traveling vendors, we parked our cart at two Tokyo locations (Nihon-bashi and Nezu) and other two in Uonuma, Niigata, and talked to the locals who stopped by. In our Presentation, the students shared their vivid interaction with, and their genuine impressions from those random people. In the Workshop part we then discussed with our guests about potential ways to enhance our cart, regarding both on what to offer and how to operate, for our next project.

We thank you very much for coming and contributing to the discussions!
We definitely keep peddling our cart into the next academic year. Anyone interested in, please don’t hesitate to contact us – we can go peddling together.