So much for frequent updates...

Hi all! So obviously my resolve to update every few days was shoved by the wayside soon after it was established. But now I'm back with a vengeance!...at least for now since I am sitting in Hong Kong International airport with free wi-fi and a 3 layover. In any case, I'll try to cover everything that's gone on since my last post. I believe I left off in Berlin.

My last few days in Berlin were quite fun. I met a few very nice people who were staying at my hostel, including an Australian couple with whom I was able to watch the Germany-Australia match, and an American student who was finishing up a semester of studying abroad. We spent a lot of time just talking at the hostel, all hanging out together, which was very nice. I'm glad that I've been able to meet a few people along the way!

My last meeting in Europe was with Hartmut Gassner, a lawyer by profession and the president of the German Geothermal Association, and Nicola Moczek, the director of the organization. We had a great chat about German energy policy over lunch in a small cafe in the lobby of their office building. I had a typical German kids' meal, which I won't even try to remember the name of. Essentially it was a kind of potato salad with a hot dog-type sausage. We discussed a lot about the potential of future development in Germany, and discussed a bit about the structure of the feed-in tariff system and how it might change when it is put up for reevaluation in 2012. Both were extremely good-natured and also provided me with some further reading materials about current projects.

My last touristy day in Berlin was spent on Museum Island. I spent the most time in the Pergamon museum, which is awesome, and I highly recommend to anyone heading for Berlin. The scale of the artifacts in the collection is phenomenal--some highlights including the Pergamon altar itself, the Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate and Procession of Babylon--all well worth seeing. I also picked up a few books to take along with me since I had a horrendously daunting leg of travel ahead of me--Berlin to Tokyo over the course of more than 24 hours (7 hour time difference included).

The trip was insanely long and at an annoying hour. I had a layover in Doha, Qatar for several hours and didn't depart for Tokyo until 1 am. After that I had a brief hour or so long layover at Kansai in Osaka before finally arriving at my final destination, Narita International Airport. Since my rail pass would only be valid for a week, and I needed to save those rides for the Shinkansen to and from Kyoto, I held off on validating my rail pass and took a fairly inexpensive local line to my hotel. Japan has pretty cheap economy hotels for business travelers, so I was able to get a really cheap room for about the same price as a hostel in Minami-Senju, a small area in Asakusa, about 15 minutes away from Tokyo Station. It took about an hour and a half to get there from Narita. The hotel was tiny and sort of tucked away in an alley. Add the fact that Japan doesn't really do street names, I walked by it several times before finally realizing where it was. As it was nearly 10:30 pm by the time I arrived and settled in, I was exhausted and promptly passed out. The room was tiny, as is customary for Tokyo (literally just enough room for a bed and small tray table), but it had air conditioning and internet access, which is all I needed.

The next morning I had my meeting with NEDO, sort of the equivalent of Iceland's Orkustofnun (National Energy Authority)--the administrative and fund distributing arm of METI, which handles renewable energy industries. Also present at the meeting was a representative from Kyushu Electric, one of the 12 electric companies in Japan. I was very nervous, because I had to give a presentation on the current status of geothermal in the U.S. as well as current policy mechanisms being employed in the U.S. I also gave a brief summary of my findings in Europe and an overview of the remaining stops in my project. I had to hire a translator due to the rather complex nature of discussion. My translator was superb and extremely helpful. He even treated to me a delicious soba lunch after the meeting. The presentation went very well, and the meeting was extremely informative. A good deal of what I learned overlaps with and supports with some of my later meetings, so I'll detail my conclusions at the end.

I stayed in Tokyo another two days, but didn't really get to doing much sight seeing as I was rather exhausted. Though I'm not usually affected by jet lag, my sleeping schedule was hugely interrupted by the entire day of travel and sudden 7 hour time change. Having just gotten over a cold in Berlin, I didn't want to push things, so I took it easy, opting to just kind of wander along a nearby river and spent some time reading in nearby parks. I spent a lot of time sleeping off my jet lag and catching up some much needed rest in wonderful comfort of my air conditioned room. If you've never been to Japan in the summer, you wouldn't know about the heat and general mugginess--but take my word for it, it's bad.

After my brief rest it was off to Fukuoka, which is located on Kyushu, the southern-most island in Japan. Even on the shinkansen (bullet train), it was about a 6 hour ride from Tokyo to Hakata. I had forgotten how fast the shinkansen is! I left in the morning and arrived at around 3:30 in the afternoon. I opted for a hotel right outside Hakata station since I was only staying for a night and would need easy access to transportation. Almost immediately after arriving I had my first meeting with Professor Ehara of Kyushu University and the Geothermal Research Society of Japan. We met in the lobby area of my hotel, as he was on his way home from giving a lecture. Our discussion was extremely interesting, focusing primarily on the reason for the lack of development in Japan and the challenges that the geothermal industry faces. We discussed quite at length the relationships between the academic/research arms of the geothermal industry and the onsen (hot spring) industires. The following day I had an hour bus ride to Kyushu University's new Ito campus, where I met with Professor Ehara's colleague, Professor Itoi. Again we discussed the geothermal industry generally and talked more in depth about the national park laws and the relationships with onsen owners. He briefly showed me some of the student facilities, and introduced me to a few fourth year students in the Earth Sciences program.

It was then back to Hakata station where I immediately hopped on the next shinkansen back to Tokyo. 6.5 hours later, I checked into another economy hotel, though this one was much nicer (I got a great deal online!). Again, exhausted, I shot off a few emails and passed out. My last set of meetings called for even more travel and a rather stressful schedule. First thing in the morning I headed to the American Embassy where I met with the Machi Dilworth, who handles the National Science Foundation in Tokyo. She also called in her colleague who works for the DOE at the embassy to sit in our meeting. We discussed general S&T Policy in Japan and the various funding mechanisms for individual programs. It was interesting to get a broader picture of how such programs are funded by the government, as well as to contrast general societal difference between Japan and the U.S. and how that affects the renewable industry.

After that I had a quick meeting with Dr. Matsunaga, who works for AIST, the research-focused partner to NEDO (kind of like ISOR is to Orkustofnun, except that AIST is still part of the government). I had to meet Dr. Matsunaga en route to Tsukuba, where AIST Central is. He was on his way down to Hiroshima from Tsukuba, and I was on my way up to Tsukuba from Tokyo. We met briefly at Akihabara station over coffee. Dr. Matsunaga is one of the few people I had to the opportunity to meet with who also has specific expertise in enhanced geothermal systems, or as the projects were termed in Japan, Hot Dry Rock. Our discussion focused primarily on the two former national projects, both of which were shut down, and what it would take for Japan to reexamine a EGS projects.

After our brief meeting, I dashed off to catch my train up to Tsukuba, which is a little over an hour away. At AIST central, a rather sprawling complex (relatively speaking), I met with three people in the geothermal department of renewable energies. I received a brief history of geothermal in Japan, and got a quite a bit of information regarding the current status of geothermal in Japan--including written statistics that should prove very useful.

Overall, through my many meetings in Japan, it seems that there are several barriers to geothermal. The two that have received the most consensus are the resistance from the onsen industry and problems with the national park laws. The onsen industry in Japan is huge and most owners are hesitant to allow development for fear of temperature loss for their water resource. However, as I've learned, the onsen aquifer is actually a distinct resource, often separated by capstone from the geothermal reservoir seated deeper in the earth. There is still a degree of uncertainty from what I understand, regarding the effects of sustained production, but it seems that it can be done without significant effects to the onsen aquifers. In recent years, the communication between the academics of the onsen and geothermal fields have been expanded, and hopefully the increased transparency between the two entities will pave the way for a better mutual understanding of the science affecting both resources. The other major problem that the majority of high potential land (more than 80%) for power production lies within national parks, which face strict regulation for development. As a result, it is extremely difficult to develop power plants under current legislation. These laws are currently under review by the Ministry of Environment with the possibility of revising certain portions of the law to allow for geothermal development with the use of directional drilling. Also being considered is a revision of the feed-in tariff system in Japan, which currently only include solar PV. There are discussions going on between METI and the Ministry of Environment to expand the system to other renewable technologies, including geothermal. Details of the systems, including a general or technology-specific price determination, have yet to be decided. The new tariffs are expected to be announced in the fall.

My meetings completed, I returned to my hotel. The next morning, it was off on a 3 hour shinkansen to Kyoto to meet Uncle Gene, a close family friend. I got to see Honzan, and wander a bit around that area while he finished up at the Hongwanji International Center. I stopped in for a drink at a Lawson's and ended up chatting with the clerk for a good 15 minutes about Hawaii. I even gave him a bit of an english lesson. I've rather enjoyed these little opportunities to practice my Japanese. Last semester I passed my proficiency exam at school and will no longer be taking Japanese, though my visit frequently reminded me that I am far from fluent.

Around 5:30 Uncle Gene and I began the journey back to Wakayama, where his family lives. Because its a rather far trip (over 2 hours in total), he only commutes back and forth once a week. It was nice to see Makiko, his wife, and two children Shiho and Ryuto, both of whom are adorable. I spent the weekend with them, which was a welcome break from all the back and forth travel. I got to go to Shiho's kindergarten reunion (in Japan kindergarten is not part of elementary school, and students attend for 3 years before starting first grade at different elementary schools). In the afternoon I went to a department store with Makiko and finally got a new pair of sneakers (mine broke in Europe and I was holding out for a cheap pair)ーーUncle Gene and Makiko were generous enough to treat me since I wasn't able to any omiyage with me. It was Uncle Gene's birthday, so we celebrated with some cake and then I played with the kids for a while. I also spent some time chatting with Makiko's older sister, Reiko, who had come over with her daughter Aya to play with the kids. We took a quick walk aroudn the neighborhood, and returned home in time for dinner. The next day we did a bit of sight seeing. We went up to Wakayama-jo, the castle, and took a nice drive to coast area. It might be odd of me to notice, but I really love bridges in Japan. They're always so impressive-looking! And since there are rivers and islands everywhere, there's always cool looking bridge nearby.

Since my flight was out of Narita rather early in the morning, I had to head back to Tokyo that evening. One last night in Tokyo was spent squaring away my arrangements for the Philippines. Now I'm sitting in Hong Kong, waiting for my flight to Manila. Japan will be greatly missed. It's an interesting society. I think it'll be nice to be out of Tokyo. I'm not a very big fan, especially in the summer. It's just too crowded and busy for my liking. But I will miss the polite people, the safe city, and the delicious food. Even 100 yen nigiri were a welcome meal after being deprived of good rice and nori for so long.

Well my battery is getting rather low and I think this post is certainly long enough for now. My flight boards in just under an hour, so the next time anyone hears from me, I'll be in the Philippines! 日本、ありがとう！じゃまたこんどね！