iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Rich episode on mountaineering in Greece and globally, climate change, mountain indigenous communities, and more podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

podcasts.apple.com

Seven Summits with Vanessa Archontidou

Podcast Episode · Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures · September 10 · 33m

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Starlink ad embedded in an NYT article questioning SpaceX’s IPO valuation. Rockets and satellites work as great metaphors for unprecedented heights and galactic growth. Here, Mt Fuji sits in as another icon of scale and grandeur. And unlike a rocket, it won’t come crashing back to earth.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

“Americans should be cleareyed about what the president is doing. He is taking their money and showering it on criminals.” There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | There Has Never Been an Example of Presidential Corruption Like This

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

This is a beautiful film about a fascinating figure, George Masa, who took his love of the mountains in Japan to the US, eventually landing in Asheville, NC, where he helped lead the conservation of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains and the construction of the Appalachian Trail.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Here’s a good one: At UVA “Devin Donovan, who teaches writing and rhetoric, requires students to write on paper in class, and revise drafts using scissors and tape to cut up and reorder paragraphs. At the end of the semester, a final piece is polished and submitted via computer — a common approach.”

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Some good ideas here for classroom writing. What’s working for you? How A.I. Killed Student Writing (and Revived It) www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/u...

nytimes.com

How A.I. Killed Student Writing (and Revived It)

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Here's my review of a deeply insightful reflection on the human and environmental history of Japan's most iconic mountain, published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. doi:10.1017/S1356186326101539

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Typical… which country? Pay scales are standardized at J unis so sometimes you can get a reliable estimate if you ask

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Reposted by Caleb Carter

Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures @futuremountain.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

New podcast! We talk to Harriet & Rob Fraser, environmental artist working collectively as SOMEWHERE NOWHERE about their place-based walking practices in #Cumbria #LakeDistrict shorturl.at/NHHjI #Poetry #Photography #Walking #Art #Placemaking @calebscarter.bsky.social

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Had to get the iconic rural train rattling past sakura in full bloom shot

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Reposted by Caleb Carter

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Still wondering if inequality is out of control?

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Reposted by Caleb Carter

Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures @futuremountain.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Which do you prefer? The culturally significant sites, preserved from any alterations, or the ‘insignificant’ sites, plastered with senshafuda and other things that people leave behind? Which would compel you to visit Shinshōji?

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Well, structures without them are designated as significant cultural properties (重要文化財), and altering them in any way is not allowed (not to mention culturally taboo). But off the beaten path, you find them tucked away—everywhere. Unassuming gates門, small shrines, even some bigger halls (阿弥陀堂など).

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Here’s some, and more here, and here! Why tons in some spots and zero in others?

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Ahh, signs prohibiting them. Explains it. Wait, what’s this…

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Hunting senshafuda 千社札 today at the famous pilgrimage temple grounds of Naritasan Shinshōji 成田山新勝寺. [Dad voiceover] Hmm… for such a famous temple, where are the senshafuda…

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Wow! I’ll have to look that up. Sounds like an interesting project of your student’s

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Ooh he looks like fine 😆. I’ll have to look into his expeditions

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Now it just needs to get written... (so if you have thoughts or sources on the subject, send them my way!)

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

I've signed a contract with Princeton University Press for my next book! Tentatively "Ascendance: Mountain Climbing and Spirituality in Modern Japan," I'll look at the passage of mountaineering from England to Japan in the early 20th c, esp. on various modern spiritualities that emerged through it.

One of the many cool journal covers of the Japanese Alpine Club, this one from issue 2, 1914

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

The review appears in the latest issue of Japanese Religions. Congrats to guest editor Or Porath, editor Esben Petersen and all contributors on the second installment of a ‘full-bodied’ treatment of religious thought and practice in Japan. Excited to dive in. nccisjpnew.wixsite.com/nccisjp/volu...

nccisjpnew.wixsite.com

Publications | nccisjp

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Thanks to Bruce Winkleton for the kind review! It focused on the narrative analysis in the book, a pet passion and something an earlier version of the manuscript centered, until I pulled it back and refocused on Shugendō’s historical development (albeit via its frequent shaping through narrative).

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

This is an amazing resource if you’re on the academic job market, or teaching grad students, in East Asian humanities. All thanks to the voluntary efforts of @paularcurtis.bsky.social 👏👏👏 prcurtis.com/projects/job...

prcurtis.com

Job Market Data 2025

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Reposted by Caleb Carter

Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures @futuremountain.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Join us for our first podcast! We talk with the amazing Alexandra Cotofana about landscape sentience in the Romanian Carpathians and the concept of xenophobic mountains. shorturl.at/DfOrj @calmandfearless.bsky.social @adambutterworth.bsky.social @katie-r-ives.bsky.social @annamfleming.bsky.social

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

His air tag eventually placed him back at the car (a few kilometers away!), though as I neared him (albeit still out of sight but with olfactory proximity?), he raced back to greet me.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Being in the company of my dog Finn heightened my awareness of sensory perceptions (discussed by Ingold)—sound and smell being most acute for him, unlike sight for us. Contemplation took a back seat as I came off the summit and realized he was gone.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

After two days of immersing myself in Tim Ingold’s theories of movement through landscapes, I made an impromptu decision to move through my own for some contemplation in practice of his ideas. Mount Kaya is a dormant volcano overlooking the Genkai coast, 15 minutes from the house.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

In the age of Instagram, increasing mountaineering accidents (worldwide) and in Austria, legal implications over a recent tragedy. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/w...

nytimes.com

A Woman Froze to Death on an Alpine Trek. Is Her Boyfriend to Blame?

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Excited to welcome Jolyon Thomas on Monday! For those in Fukuoka… Details here www.imapkyudai.net/events

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

As one calligrapher reflected at the end of the day, “above all, we need to make it fun; otherwise there’s no reason to continue.” On that note, a wonderful execution.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

The day beautifully showcased Edo-based craft culture and those who carry it forward. How they will continue—and flourish—was a question raised throughout the day. It’s an anxiety that hovers over communities dedicated to traditional practices in Japan amidst an aging and rapidly changing society.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

The gathering was commemorated with original woodblock prints. Calligraphers, illustrators, woodblock carvers, and printers led the event and the production of the prints. Zōshōji, a major temple whose legacy is intertwined with the Edo period and its shoguns, provided the perfect venue.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Over the weekend, I got the chance to attend a gathering of senshafuda clubs and firefighter brigades celebrating 100 years since the start of the Showa period. Called a nōsatsu ōgai 納札大會 (“great gathering [for the exchange of] votive prints”), this was apparently the first of its kind since 1921.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

I’m with you there, but at the same, I think we should ask what constitutes the f***ing. Btw, I’m not taking a side here, as there’s much left out of the reporting

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Sacred sites around the world have often been shaped by competing interests and plural traditions—Japan included. Cultural properties protections are meant to preserve the site, but this can pit structure against practice in unforeseen ways. Is the legal system equipped to answer these questions?

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

What’s considered practice; what’s considered vandalism? Should it rest on who performs the act, or on what their faith is?

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

A Christian doctor facing extradition from the US and years in a Japanese prison for dabbing oil on temple and shrine structures around Tokyo. Many details are left out of the article, but it does raise questions about religious practice at Japan’s sacred sites. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/n...

nytimes.com

Accused of Desecration, a Doctor Faces the End of His Life’s Work

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Upcoming workshop on spirituality at Kyudai this Friday For those in the area, let me know if you’d like to join us (sorry, in-person only)

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

First attempt at using Word's audio transcription in a while (just forgot to set it for Japanese)

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Research update from the Japanese Alps (Karasawa basin, Kamikōchi, Nagano pref)

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Reposted by Caleb Carter

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 05/10/2025

I've been working on this piece since last month! Please enjoy a dive into magnificent natural colours from Heian Japan, just published on #Caravanserai. majnouna.substack.com/p/kasane

majnouna.substack.com

Kasane

The most refined art of wearing the seasons

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Meanwhile elsewhere, a politician accepted a $400M plane from a foreign gov't, launched a crypto coin to accept million dollar bribes, had charges of a $50K cash-in-a-bag bribe dropped for one of his officials, and on and on (not to make light of sour grapes...)

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Cosmos on the autumnal equinox, Fukuoka, Japan

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Nuts! Fuji is one of those iconic mountains that has long attracted new climbing records (I've found a range of them from the late 1800s and early 1900s). I never thought I'd read this. www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2025/8/...

guinnessworldrecords.com

102-year-old fights back from heart failure to become oldest person to summit Mount Fuji

Kokichi Akuzawa (Japan) has become the oldest person to climb Mount Fuji at the age of 102.

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Caleb Carter @calebscarter.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

“The meek compliance of military leadership with the ban sends a chilling message to all service members — namely, that our ranks are open only to those who fit a specific ideological mold, regardless of their ability to serve.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | I’m Not the Person You’d Expect to Oppose a Ban on Transgender Troops

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