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Imagine a realm where the seasons' rhythms rule - where centuries of agriculture and fishing have re-shaped the land, yet where people and nature remain in harmony. Sangoro Tanaka lives in just such a paradise. At 83, he's a guardian of one of Japan's secret water gardens. Here - over a thousand years - towns and villages have developed a unique system to make springs and water part of their homes. From inside these homes, the streams pour into Japan's largest freshwater lake, Lake Biwa - an area 5 times the size of Paris - near the ancient capital of Kyoto. This is a habitat so precious the Japanese have a special word for it: "Satoyama" - villages where mountains give way to plains. They are exceptional environments essential to both the people who maintain them and to the wildlife that now share them.
Many cultures have crossed the narrow Straits of Gibraltar separating Western Europe and Northern Africa. Much of Spain's art, music and even food still reflect influences from North Africa and beyond. Its architecture often bears unmistakable characteristics of Islam. Moreover, influences from the early Roman Empire and the ancient Teutonic Goths are also abundant throughout Spain even today. In this two-part NHK documentary, we explore some of the 38 World Heritage Sites on the Iberian Peninsula, and examine the rich mixture of cultures and civilizations that created them.
