Starlink ad embedded in an NYT article questioning SpaceX’s IPO valuation. Rockets and satellites work as great metaphors for unprecedented heights and galactic growth. Here, Mt Fuji sits in as another icon of scale and grandeur. And unlike a rocket, it won’t come crashing back to earth.

“Americans should be cleareyed about what the president is doing. He is taking their money and showering it on criminals.” There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/o...

This is a beautiful film about a fascinating figure, George Masa, who took his love of the mountains in Japan to the US, eventually landing in Asheville, NC, where he helped lead the conservation of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains and the construction of the Appalachian Trail.

Some good ideas here for classroom writing. What’s working for you? How A.I. Killed Student Writing (and Revived It) www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/u...

Here's my review of a deeply insightful reflection on the human and environmental history of Japan's most iconic mountain, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. doi:10.1017/S1356186326101539

New podcast! We talk to Harriet & Rob Fraser, environmental artist working collectively as SOMEWHERE NOWHERE about their place-based walking practices in #Cumbria #LakeDistrict shorturl.at/NHHjI #Poetry #Photography #Walking #Art #Placemaking @calebscarter.bsky.social

Had to get the iconic rural train rattling past sakura in full bloom shot

Still wondering if inequality is out of control?

New podcast! We talk to Harriet & Rob Fraser, environmental artist working collectively as SOMEWHERE NOWHERE about their place-based walking practices in #Cumbria #LakeDistrict shorturl.at/NHHjI #Poetry #Photography #Walking #Art #Placemaking @drpennybradshaw.bsky.social

Hunting senshafuda 千社札 today at the famous pilgrimage temple grounds of Naritasan Shinshōji 成田山新勝寺. [Dad voiceover] Hmm… for such a famous temple, where are the senshafuda…

I've signed a contract with Princeton University Press for my next book! Tentatively "Ascendance: Mountain Climbing and Spirituality in Modern Japan," I'll look at the passage of mountaineering from England to Japan in the early 20th c, esp. on various modern spiritualities that emerged through it.

Thanks to Bruce Winkleton for the kind review! It focused on the narrative analysis in the book, a pet passion and something an earlier version of the manuscript centered, until I pulled it back and refocused on Shugendō’s historical development (albeit via its frequent shaping through narrative).

This is an amazing resource if you’re on the academic job market, or teaching grad students, in East Asian humanities. All thanks to the voluntary efforts of @paularcurtis.bsky.social 👏👏👏 prcurtis.com/projects/job...

Day break in Itoshima, Japan

Join us for our first podcast! We talk with the amazing Alexandra Cotofana about landscape sentience in the Romanian Carpathians and the concept of xenophobic mountains. shorturl.at/DfOrj @calmandfearless.bsky.social @adambutterworth.bsky.social @katie-r-ives.bsky.social @annamfleming.bsky.social

After two days of immersing myself in Tim Ingold’s theories of movement through landscapes, I made an impromptu decision to move through my own for some contemplation in practice of his ideas. Mount Kaya is a dormant volcano overlooking the Genkai coast, 15 minutes from the house.

In the age of Instagram, increasing mountaineering accidents (worldwide) and in Austria, legal implications over a recent tragedy. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/w...

Excited to welcome Jolyon Thomas on Monday! For those in Fukuoka… Details here www.imapkyudai.net/events

Over the weekend, I got the chance to attend a gathering of senshafuda clubs and firefighter brigades celebrating 100 years since the start of the Showa period. Called a nōsatsu ōgai 納札大會 (“great gathering [for the exchange of] votive prints”), this was apparently the first of its kind since 1921.

A Christian doctor facing extradition from the US and years in a Japanese prison for dabbing oil on temple and shrine structures around Tokyo. Many details are left out of the article, but it does raise questions about religious practice at Japan’s sacred sites. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/n...

Upcoming workshop on spirituality at Kyudai this Friday For those in the area, let me know if you’d like to join us (sorry, in-person only)

First attempt at using Word's audio transcription in a while (just forgot to set it for Japanese)

Research update from the Japanese Alps (Karasawa basin, Kamikōchi, Nagano pref)

I've been working on this piece since last month! Please enjoy a dive into magnificent natural colours from Heian Japan, just published on #Caravanserai. majnouna.substack.com/p/kasane

Meanwhile elsewhere, a politician accepted a $400M plane from a foreign gov't, launched a crypto coin to accept million dollar bribes, had charges of a $50K cash-in-a-bag bribe dropped for one of his officials, and on and on (not to make light of sour grapes...)

Cosmos on the autumnal equinox, Fukuoka, Japan

Nuts! Fuji is one of those iconic mountains that has long attracted new climbing records (I've found a range of them from the late 1800s and early 1900s). I never thought I'd read this. www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2025/8/...

“The meek compliance of military leadership with the ban sends a chilling message to all service members — namely, that our ranks are open only to those who fit a specific ideological mold, regardless of their ability to serve.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/o...

No regrets on missing this for the No Kings Boston Pride parade

the story today is of a profoundly low energy military parade being met with millions of americans in nationwide protests denouncing the dictatorial pretensions of the president

🚫👑🚫

ICE arrested an Albuquerque man. He ended up in the hospital. Now no one knows where he is. sourcenm.com/2025/06/11/i...

Another cornerstone of American education and research severely damaged. I benefited from a Fulbright grant in 2012 that allowed me to research and later write a book about mountain religion in Japan. So much will be lost in knowledge production and international ties www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/u...

2023年に星野靖二先生と平藤喜久子先生が私を國學院大學でのシンポジウム「見られることで何が変わるのか--ツーリズムと宗教文化」に招待下さいました。なかなか魅力的なテーマで、やはりそれぞれの発表は大変面白かったです。 今月その報告書が出ました：https://k-rain.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2001633 その中で私は修験道の事例を上げ、どのようにツーリズムと交錯しているのかを考慮しました。⬇️ tinyurl.com/3z7v7w6m

A courageous guest essay. Intimidation of faculty and threats to academic freedom should concern all Americans. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/o...

Alleged relics of the Buddha up for auction at Sotheby's dating back to Asoka's era, if not earlier. These are priceless to Buddhist communities across Asia, not to mention world cultural heritage. Looted by British colonialists, now going to the highest bidder... www.sothebys.com/en/buy/aucti...

We’re not going to change our history. #ScrubNothing news.artnet.com/art-world/mu...

Go Harvard! This is what every university needs to be doing. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/u...

SAVE THE PENGUINS. STOP TRUMP’S TARIFFS.

Arlington, MA #HandsOff

The time for only shock, dismay, and despair is over. It’s time to get out in the streets. This Saturday.

As we slide toward autocracy, isn’t that $50 billion endowment meant to give you a buffer of independence? Use it. Stand up not just for Harvard but for our entire university system. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/u...

#HandsOff #April5 #rally #protest This is for everyone! Hands Off: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans, Education, National Parks, Federal Workers, Unions, the Environment, the Post Office and more! #Boston #NYC #DC #MoveOn #Indivisible #DemCast #SEIU #CWA

there's a rally near tufts today for any boston area people. i'd be there if i could

Shouldn’t faculty everywhere be out in the streets protesting in support of Columbia, academic freedom, and freedom of speech?

Inspired by this essay to do more than short-term boycotts (which are just symbolic if you return). Where are the boycott lists covering which companies to avoid and which to support on diversity issues? So far, I’ve switched from Whole Foods to Trader Joe’s 🛒 www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/o...

If you're an early bird at the Association of Asian Studies this year, come visit us on Thursday eve! There's something for scholars of religious studies, art history, anthropology, and environmental history. And oh yes, mountain lovers. #AAS2025

For my birthday, I’m ‘ungifting’ myself a Twitter/X account. After 13 years, I’ve just deleted it—cathartic 🤩. I’m salvaging this one 🧵, which introduces my book from 2022.