The SMBA group woke up on our last morning in Kiyosato to a splendid breakfast prepared by the KEEP Kitchen staff. With fresh scrambled eggs, fresh sausage, soup, and fresh rolls and butter, we headed into morning activities with the KEEP rangers. Masatoshi Ishikawa, ???, and ??? presented a power-point lecture on the research and conservation activities of KEEP for the dormouse, the endemic nocturnal mammal whose population had been dwindling in recent years.
This very small creature, whose weight is only 18 grams, has become a national symbol for Japan, as an umbrella species whose protection affords the conservation of habitat for many other species of wildlife. They are found to live near Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Oki in Japan; but differing genus of the same species are found in Europe and Africa. KEEP has established a Dormouse Museum as an effort to offer ways to research and conserve the dormouse, while offering education to the public.As Japanese culture and society has been growing, there was a trend in recent decades for development in the mountains as a way to spend wealth on recreation towards vacation homes. This factor coupled with general development led to an increase in the number of roads being constructed through dormouse territory, which fragmented their habitat, as the dormice tend to travel from tree-to-tree via the branches as an arboreal mammal. This has lead to lower populations from disturbed and fragmented mating areas.
KEEP has worked with stakeholders in the region to address this problem by constructing bridges for dormice and other animals to utilize as a means to cross over the roads, please see figure, device for animal pathway. Since the first bridge which was built in 1988 for $223,000 US, the Animal Pathway Research Council has worked to “build animal pathways that even small construction firms can build anywhere,” which has helped to lower the costs to $22,300 US on recent installation in 2007. The new design can even be applied to existing utility poles, which has helped keep the cost down. The bridges are wired to videotape with night vision cameras the passage from both sides and have shown that over a one year time, a bridge may account for 60 individual uses by dormice, as well as passage of squirrels, and other small filed mice. In 2008 the Japan Society for Civil Engineering awarded a prize to KEEP and the Animal Pathway Research Council for their design. In the conclusion of the lecture Mr. Ishikawa reminded us that “to protect the dormouse is to protect the forests, and to protect the forests is to protect us all.” 
After the lecture we donned rubber boots and rain gear in order to head over to the Dormouse Museum and then into the woods regardless of the rain that was affecting the schedule. Our activities were led by Mr. Ishikawa, as he hiked us into the woods to show us markings from both deer and dormice on trees, explaining how KEEP is researching many dormice in the wild. Hiking us further into the woods he explained how the undergrowth of the canopy is struggling for light and possibly being effected by viruses. He did point up that in some place the undergrowth is thriving and that we can view the process as cyclical. We were then instructed to prune some of the undergrowth, in order to provide the dual purpose to strengthen the tree and prepare cuttings to be used to make chopsticks to be used to eat our lunch. After almost two weeks of eating exclusively with chopsticks, it was now time truly understand the experience
It was best to search for a branch that was pretty straight, yet not to short or long. Ryan Baptiste, Ryan Bruzda and I had a disagreement over the adequate size of cutting to be used, since neither of us had done the activity before. In the long run of the activity, we all came out with adequate chopsticks, as Ryan Baptiste displays his craftsmanship. After another great meal at KEEP, we boarded the bus and headed to the Suntory Museum and Distillery in Hakushu, where Japanese whiskey and Mountain Spring Water are bottled.
Suntory was founded in 1899 in order to produce grape wine. Over the years their line has expanded to not only whiskey and water, but soft drinks, teas, and other beverages. The location of the Hakushu plant is within the watershed of Mt. Kaikomagatake, from which the Ojira River flows, the bottling source of this facility. On Our tour we were given a ride further into the plant to a water bottling facility. Our guide pointed out that Suntory does utilize solar power and is working to reduce their overall carbon footprint. They had real time metrics upon the wall to display how much was being currently generated by the solar panels and the cumulative over a period that I am uncertain of. The wanted to show us the bottling line, but unfortunately, we had come on a day off for the workers.
We were led back down to the museum area of the complex, of which I believe that I can recall being told that the land owned by the company was around 82 hectacres, that also serve as a nature preserve. After our tour we were welcome to a tasting of water and whiskey. Each was done individually, and it felt kind of odd, but when comparing Suntory Natural Mineral Water to French bottled water; I thought that there was a slight difference. The French mineral water tasted brighter, but do to translation, I cannot state why. After that we were given the liberty to enjoy a small amount of their 12 year Hakuhsu Single Malt whiskey. It was an alright day. The last photo is the carving on the end of very large barrel of whiskey, in the museum.
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