Shizutani School. One of the first public schools in the world. Imagined by Lord Mitsumasa in 1666, it was finally completed by his successor, Lord Tsunamasa. Two Chinese Pistachio trees are planted in the school grounds. The seeds were brought from China specifically because Confucious regarded them as “academic trees.” When we visited Shizutani School two weeks ago the trees were still bare. In Autumn the leaves will become red and yellow and many people come to see those colours. There was no mention on any of the tourist brochures about the emerald colour of the water in the nearby moat but I felt its colour could easily rival that of the trees. When we visited the water must have had a special kind of algae blooming, or the sun must have been shining on a specific angle, because the moat glowed with a preternatural rich green hue. I wanted to drink from it.





In the 1990′s Russia began giving five gram tablets of an algae called spirulina to children affected by the radiation from Chernobyl. After taking an optimum dosage for an optimum length of time the level of radiation in their bodies was roughly 50% lower. A Chinese research team first studied the power of spirulina on radiation in 1989. They found that a radioactive mouse which is given spirulina will become less radioactive (HERE).