Engagement and Attendance (10%)
Students are expected to attend all activities and be fully engaged in TREK activities. If there is an assigned reading, please complete the reading on the day it is assigned.
Before departure, review and sign the agreement. [Done]
Assignments (90%)
Daily Journaling and Scrapbook 40%
Students will be provided with a notebook to be used for daily journaling and scrapbooking related to daily activities.
Blog entries in pairs 20%
Each day, beginning on May 21, one pair of students will be assigned to create a blog entry related to activities. Blog entries will include photos and reflections on daily activities.
Presentations 10%
Based on work done in the journal or blog, each student will present once to the group.
Final Essay 20%
Guidelines:
Submit by June 25, 2026 via email to both professors Ng and Bonk
Write a 5 to 10-page essay drawing on your experience in Japan. The essay should engage with two of the commodities we have examined (sugar, tea, textiles, and medicine). Compare an aspect of their ‘life’ (such as production, marketing, consumption, display, or disposal) and connect this to a broader theme that we have discussed such as labor, religion, consumption, national identity, embodied vs. abstract knowledge, imperialism, class and social structure, urban space, aesthetics, or gender. Be sure to base your essay on concrete details from activities during the trip and make use of historical background to ensure that you are not treating Japan as homogeneous or unchanging. Be attentive to significant differences, changes, and tensions in Japanese culture.
Use concepts, historical information, or frameworks from at least four of the articles from class:
- “Can Religion Be Based on Ritual Practice without Belief.”
- “How to Redraw a City.”
- “Yokohama Boomtown.”
- “To Love Sugar One Does not have to Eat It.”
- “Consumption of Fast Fashion in Japan.”
- “The Life Changing Magic of Japanese Clutter.”
- “Why Japan has such Good Railways.”
- “How Tea became Japanese.” (video)
- “A War Against Garbage in Postwar Japan.”
- “How Textiles Repeatedly Revolutionised Human Technology.”
- “Making it for Our Country.”
Formatting
Bibliography with at least four sources from the class. You may also refer to lecture notes. Do not use material from outside of the class.
Name, date, and course title
A title for your essay
Page numbers
Double-spacing, 12-point font
In-text citations (APA, MLA, or Chicago style citations)
Mandatory Pre-Departure Meetings (included in Attendance grade)