The upcoming Festival of Life (Inochi no Matsuri) in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture takes as its theme "symbiosis," or the coexistence of humans with all other life forms.

From natural childbirth and human rights to environmentally conscious homebuilding and women's international peacemaking, the nine-day event in the Japan Alps (Aug. 1-9) will feature solar-powered music performances, camping, activities for children, meditation, art installations and workshops on women's health.

Perhaps the most important feature, though, will be the chance for people from all over Japan to share ideas on how to make human interaction with the Earth less destructive than it has been before.

Says festival organizer Masanori Oe, "The mystery and fascination of life is based on creativity, which is the source of the dynamic order in nature. Every human being also has the creativity of his or her own nature. The 20th century was a century of the destruction of nature. We want this event to be a place where we can find solutions, so that the 21st century can be the century of living together with nature."

New ideas for sustainable living of all kinds will be presented at the festival. One that's recently becoming quite popular in the United States is building houses out of bales of straw. Thick bales of rice or wheat straw for the walls, bound together and covered with plaster outside and in, solve a number of ecological problems in one stroke. Not using wood or cement drastically reduces the cutting of trees for lumber or the tearing down of mountains for gravel and lime. The well-insulated buildings require less electricity and fossil fuel because they stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. A straw-bale workshop will be held at the festival in which participants can learn how to make such housing themselves.

Yoshikazu Kawaguchi, an internationally known pioneer in organic, no-cultivation agriculture, will present a lecture on his method of natural farming (shizen-no), explaining how to grow food without killing other plants or even pulling weeds. Much of the food available at the festival will have been grown with this method.

Other workshops and lectures include holistic medicine, alternatives to nuclear energy, natural midwifery, water recycling, handicraft work and a symposium on the impact of war on women, featuring a lecture by researchers who documented the Japanese army's use of "comfort women" during World War II.

Says Wakako Oe, the coordinator for this and many other women's events, "We will learn what we weren't taught in schools about Japanese history, and we'll have a women's circle by the spring - where, of course, we women used to talk in ancient days - to find out how we can prevent such things from ever happening again."

There will also be a theater area for plays, dance, poems and movies, a campsite for women only, an area with NGO booths, a kids' area with environmental education and nature games, a meditative healing area and a sacred Native American sweat lodge. There will also be an all-night rave dance party, and on the night of Aug. 8, Native Americans from the Mexican Huichol will hold a shamanic ceremony by the side of the river.

One of the special features of the festival is the use of chiiki tsuka (local currency). Many economists today have linked the degradation of the Earth to the reduction of all interactions between people to the sole reliance on internationally traded currencies, whose value fluctuates without any apparent connection to the true value of products, resources or services that are being exchanged.

Initiatives in local currency have sprung up all over the world over the last decade, whereby people can fulfill many of their basic needs by exchanging with each other on the basis of their skills or abilities without having to resort to the use of cash.

"Making money without have to work for it, as is done in the stock exchanges all over the world - there's something not quite right about that," says Masanori Oe. "That's one of the reasons we are experimenting with local currency at this event. We think local currency is a better, more green alternative. Local currency should, of course, be used for a longer-term period than just the eight days of the festival to really provide solutions, but at least we will be provided with a crucial opportunity to rethink the nature of money and the problem of our conventional money system."

During the festival, some of the trade in the site will be done using the festival currency, ginga, and there will also be lectures and workshops on the use of local currency in general. Ginga can be used in many of the markets that will be held at the festival, including a flea market for secondhand goods, an antique market, a craft market and an organic-food farmer's market.

Accommodation at the festival will be for the most part camping, but a limited number of double-deck beds in the lodge of the ski resort will also be available. The admission fee covering all nine days is 5,000 yen for those over 18.

Oe extends his welcome to all. "Please bring your ideas and join us for the fun of creation at this festival!"