On Saturday, September 26, as part of our WOW program, we welcomed wildlife YouTuber Mr.Ugomeki, whose channel has 780,000 subscribers, for a special program entitled “Seeing Our Familiar School in a Whole New Way — Exploring the Wildlife of Ritsumeikan Uji with Nori Ugome —.” Nori Ugome travels throughout Japan and around the world in search of a wide variety of living things, including insects, crustaceans, and fungi, sharing their fascinating features through YouTube.

When Nori Ugome appeared at the venue, the students greeted him with loud applause and cheers. Many of them regularly watch his videos, and the excitement of seeing someone they had previously only known through a screen standing right in front of them filled the room as the program began.

“The More You Know, the Higher the Resolution of the World Becomes”

During the mini-talk in the first half of the program, Nori Ugome answered questions submitted by students in advance and spoke not only about his current activities, but also about what first inspired him to begin sharing his discoveries on YouTube.

One comment that particularly resonated with the students was, “The more you know, the higher the resolution of the world becomes.” As an example, Nori Ugome showed the road in front of the school that students walk along almost every day. Without any particular knowledge, it may simply look like a familiar landscape of trees and grass. However, once you know the names of the plants, the insects associated with them, and the connections among different living things, more and more information begins to emerge from the same landscape: “Maybe this kind of creature lives here,” or “Perhaps there are signs of this creature on this tree.”

“You can live your life without knowing these things. But knowing them makes your world richer.” Knowledge is not simply something to memorize; it enables us to see things that were previously invisible to us. Through Nori Ugome’s talk, the students discovered the joy of learning and knowing more about the world around them.

Seeing, Touching, Smelling: Experiencing “Real” Nature with All Five Senses

After the mini-talk, it was finally time for fieldwork around the school grounds and at Taiyogaoka. Since there had been several rainy days leading up to the event, numerous mushrooms had sprung up right next to the school. In places they would normally have walked past without noticing, the students discovered mushroom after mushroom in shapes and colors they had never seen before. “Mr.Ugomeki, what kind of mushroom is this?” “Amazing!” “There’s another one over here!” The students could hardly contain their excitement.

This fieldwork was about much more than simply “finding” living things. The students picked up leaves and smelled them, asking themselves, “What does this smell like?” They touched the creatures they found, looked underneath leaves, and carefully examined tree trunks and the ground for tiny traces left behind by living things. Seeing, touching, smelling — they engaged directly with the nature in front of them using all five senses.

Rather than learning only through photographs, videos, or textbooks, the students saw things with their own eyes, touched them with their own hands, and experienced their scents firsthand. It was an authentic experience that could never be fully replicated through a screen. As the students watched up close where Nori Ugome directed his attention, what he noticed, and how he searched for living things, they gradually began to look more carefully at the ground beneath their feet and the trees around them. Nori Ugome took an interest in every discovery the students made, stopping each time to thoughtfully answer the many questions that came his way.

Toward “I Want to Know More”

In their reflections after the activity, the students shared a variety of thoughts.

The students’ comments showed that the experience did not simply end with “That was fun,” but instead sparked a new sense of curiosity — a desire to “look more closely” and “learn more.”

The purpose of this WOW program was not simply to find as many unusual living things as possible. The more we know, the more we are able to see. By actually touching, smelling, and observing nature, the world around us becomes more familiar and meaningful. And perhaps becoming aware of the living things around us can also lead us to appreciate and care more deeply about the nature that exists right on our doorstep.

“Seeing Our Familiar School in a Whole New Way.” Through this experience, the students may well have raised the “resolution” of their world just a little.

Finally, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mr.Ugomeki for traveling such a long distance to visit Ritsumeikan Uji, for sincerely engaging with each student’s discoveries and questions, and for sharing in the excitement of searching for living things together. Thank you very much for giving our students so many new discoveries, inspiring them to want to learn more, and providing them with an opportunity to see familiar surroundings through fresh eyes.