It’s been four years since we launched our “Quest for Happiness on Route 17.”
With our hand-drawn cart as the medium of fieldwork, we have shifted gears from the previous three years and are trying to interact with the locals more intensely and proactively, much like what a travelling vendor does.

Our crazy research ideas at the beginning have been gradually replaced by more realistic fieldwork plans. We have been having a tough time finding the place to unpack our cart and open our shop. This October, however, we did find two excellent locations in Uonuma, a mountain region along the Route 17 best known for its delicious rice and sake.

Our two-day fieldwork started at a corner of the arcade street located at the old district. The next day we opened our shop in Katakkuri, an indoor playground for kids and family. In both places the Ama Lab students unpacked the cart, displayed their “merchandise,” and interacted with the locals.

What did the students actually discover from this participatory observation? In our final reporting workshop, which became a tradition of our Route 17 project, we will show you a plenty of fieldwork visuals including videos describing how the students interacted with the locals, and tell you our findings.
The workshop, being held in November in the last three years, will take place sometime earlier next year. We will announce the date as soon as it gets concrete, so please stay tuned for any updates!

For those who are interested in supporting our project, please direct your inquiry to:

Ama Lab (Amagasa Laboratory, Showa Women’s University)
http://amagasa.info/lab