Mark Brazil - The Japan Times

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Mark Brazil

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Mark Brazil

Mark Brazil, a Briton based in Hokkaido, has written about the natural history of Japan in his Wild Watch column for over 30 years. After careers in conservation and natural history television, Mark taught for nine years at a university in Hokkaido before going freelance. He now travels the world as a lecturer and leader on wildlife-focused expeditions.

For Mark Brazil's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Aug 15, 2007

Bliss for a Lazy Birder

Birders are often motivated by their species list — often something akin to their meaning of life.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jul 18, 2007

Putting 'rarity' into context

Stepping outside this morning, I heard a skylark singing above the open field adjacent to where I live. It's a rare event for me, but perhaps you hear skylarks all the time. Then again, perhaps you have never heard that silvery cascade of notes pouring endlessly from high in the sky.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jun 20, 2007

Gone are the geysers of Kamchatka

If a trip to the Valley of the Geysers on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Siberia had been figuring among your long-term travel plans, then I have sad news to impart.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

May 16, 2007

Seasons seen out of sync

I really thought I had missed out on spring this year. Having left Hokkaido when it was still blanketed with snow, I then spent a prolonged spell in South America before island-hopping across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. It all left me overly warm (you can have too much of heat and humidity!), but mentally ready for the delightful subtleties of spring colors.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Apr 18, 2007

Cuteness belies killers' true nature

Movement in the snow; the surface bulges, bursts, and out pops a creamy-faced creature with round black eyes like tiny beads and a stare that seems to say "I can kill."

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Mar 21, 2007

Viewing nature in the best possible way

Ibegan writing natural history notes back in 1968; the immature handwriting in my first dogeared notebook is a reminder that then I was just a lad of 13. I was growing up in semi-rural Worcestershire in central England, and that was the year when, asked by my parents what I would like for my birthday, I requested the biggest single-volume book on birds that was available at the time: "Birds of the World."

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Feb 21, 2007

A wildlife odyssey to rank with any

Being both a columnist and an author is to be constantly in the midst of a kind of battle -- between short-term bursts of effort and rapid gratification, and long-term strategic planning, exertion, and inevitably delayed gratification.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jan 17, 2007

Seasonal waves of gold

I am fresh back from an exciting wildlife watching adventure in the national parks of Madhya Pradesh and Assam, India (more of that in a subsequent column). Thanks to the latest Internet and satellite software, I can zoom in to view the very area in Assam that I visited last week on the southern bank of the mighty Brahmaputra River in Kaziranga National Park.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Dec 20, 2006

The swimming dead

The midwinter solstice is here again, and our nights have reached their longest and our days their shortest, driven by our planet's sun-centered rotation and the tipping of our orbiting Earth.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Nov 15, 2006

Lure of money set to empty the oceans

Afriend of mine who lives in the picturesque port city of Otaru, western Hokkaido, is a fish-hunter. He loves to dive, and hunts for fish with a spear gun -- seafood is his manna from heaven.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Oct 18, 2006

Slow down to savor the turning seasons

The autumnal season of change is upon us once more, with delights for eye, ear and nose. As the thermometer dips, rises and falls erratically, some days seem almost balmy as if it is late spring or early summer; others carry a stronger hint of the chill to come as winter approaches.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Sep 20, 2006

Nature's pulse at Asia's heart

It's September, autumn is around the corner, and here in Hokkaido where I live we have already had the first dusting of snow.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Aug 16, 2006

Flourishing on nutrients few

As the heat and humidity of summer build up, my favored relief is to head for the hills. Last weekend I even managed to slide down a snowbank, and that really cooled me off!

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jul 19, 2006

Home comforts in a natural idyll

It's 07:30 and I'm just back from hiking to the 1,860-meter summit of Mount Yashigamine, having set out at 4 a.m. and been soaked to the skin in the rain along the way, and I am slipping into a welcoming hot bath -- squeezing in a soak, as well as a mountain, before breakfast.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jun 21, 2006

Surprise sightings waiting to be made

As a child I dreamed of watching wild creatures, and especially mammals, but with no relatives or friends to learn from, I was left to my own devices to find ways to do so.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

May 17, 2006

Mud, mud, glorious mud

Loss: That sense of deep detachment when a loved one has departed; the bewilderment and displacement at finding something or somewhere treasured to have gone; the confusion of returning to one's childhood haunts only to find them changed beyond recognition. We have, no doubt, all felt these loses, but what puts them in context?

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Apr 19, 2006

Birds' amazing 'tweezers'

The chances are that you are reading this while holding The Japan Times in one or both hands. Alternatively you may be reading online after having tapped on various keys with your fingers to make images appear before your eyes. Either way, manual dexterity will have enabled you to access your daily read, while perhaps also holding a cup of tea or a slice of morning toast.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Mar 15, 2006

What's making a noise in the woods?

The cherry blossom wave has begun its annual northward sweep through the country, island-hopping up the archipelago from Okinawa in the wake of the delicately blossoming plum.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Feb 15, 2006

Underwater walker beggars belief

The winter's snow gathers first as a dusting on the riverside vegetation. The wiry dwarf bamboo bows slowly under the accumulating blanket; shrubs and bushes disappear beneath duvet-like domes of crisp whiteness. The surrounding Hokkaido forest becomes hushed; the trees white-coated, their branches laden and bowed almost to breaking point. Ice skirts the water's edge, then creeps out from still backwaters until it threatens to choke off the stream. Snow slanting into the fast-flowing current is washed away in the chill water, but it builds up and up on every exposed pebble, rock and boulder until rounded, curving whiteness is draped over the stream sides like a warming comforter pulled across a sleeping child's shoulders.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jan 18, 2006

Half-truths to the aid of conservation

Let's just imagine for a moment that you are a conservationist. You discover, or become aware of, the breeding location of a rare mammal or bird, or of a site where there is an endangered plant growing. What do you do?

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

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