Following Canon's successful environmental conservation activities at Mt.Takao last fall, Canon - in cooperation with the Wild Bird Society of Japan - set up an outing called "Getting in Touch with Our Local Natural Habitat" for Canon employees and their families. On April 15, 2007, the participants carried out clean-up activities during a walk with Rangers from the Society through the Yokohama Nature Sanctuary.* Over the course of the day, the participants listened to explanations from the Rangers on the plants and animals that live in the sanctuary and learned about the Rangers' activities to preserve the natural environment.

Under the direction of the Rangers, a number of fun activities were held on the day in conjunction with clean up work. In addition to listening for the calls of the Japanese bush warbler and observing bird nests from close range, the families enjoyed catching tadpoles of Japanese brown frogs in a marsh frequented by Heike fireflies and learning about the tadpoles' maturation process. Other activities that helped both adults and children learn more about nature while enjoying the great outdoors included a game of searching for manmade objects in the sanctuary and "bug-searching," in which people drew pictures of the insects they found. The outing provided a chance to recognize again that there are many plants and animals living in our natural surroundings, a fact we often forget in our daily lives, and to understand firsthand the richness and importance of nature.

Some of the impressions the participants gave included: "The kids gained living knowledge about plants and animals that they would never get from a textbook at school." "From now on I want to protect the natural preserves in our neighborhood from garbage."