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Highway rest stop cherry blossoms. Unlike US, Japanese rest stops are immaculate.

April 23, 2012
Culture, Global cities, public space, trees
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きれいな桜がサービスステーションにあります。日本のは米国のより全然違います。

I love this elegant cherry tree in bloom at a highway rest stop. In the background, you can see a row of cherry trees lining the highway. I am rarely a car passenger in Japan, but I was my in-laws on a day trip last weekend.

In the United States, highway rest stops have a bad reputation: dirty, few food options, insufficient toilets, and an atmosphere of decrepitude and crime. In Japan, they are immaculate, constantly renovated, over-supplied with clean toilets, food options that rival a large mall, and endless rows of souvenir edible gifts for people you will visit or for friends and family back home.

“Flower blizzard” marks the end of cherry blossom season. With a tinge of regret, it is one of hanami’s most beautiful sights.

April 22, 2012
parks, public space, trees
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最近「花吹雪」という表現をおぼえました。花見の季節が終わるころ、道はピンクの絨毯になります。悲しいのに、ハラハラ落ちている桜の花びらもとても素敵です。辰巳で。

I recently learned the word hanafubuki (花吹雪), which means flower blizzard. At the end of cherry blossom season, city pavement becomes a pink carpet. Along with watching the petals fall from the tree, this carpet is one of the best parts of hanami.

This photo is from a small park in Tatsumi, between Tokyo Bay and the southern edge of Shitamachi. It also borders Yumenoshima. Now that I discovered an Olympic pool in Tatsumi, I will be spending more time in this strange zone caught between nature, industry, trucking and warehouses, new and old housing, and stacked freeways.

Another old house and garden surrounded by new construction in Shibuya

April 5, 2012
Corporations, public space, Residences
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この渋谷で見つけた自宅と庭園も昭和時代の生き残りです。隣の建物の規模とはとても対照的です。

I like how this Showa house, with its manicured garden, has somehow survived in Shibuya. Near NHK headquarters. The difference in scale with its neighbors is striking.

Early cherry blossoms across parking lot in Shibuya. Showa house and mature tree dwarfed by newer buildings.

April 4, 2012
public space, Residences, small streets, trees
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駐車場のおかげで、裏庭の桜が見えます。この辺りに、最後の昭和時代の自宅と庭なのです。渋谷のNHK本社の近くです。

Because of this parking lot, the result of another building torn down, you can see into the back garden of a Showa house in Shibuya, not far from NHK’s headquarters. The two story house is the last remnant of the older neighborhood that was replaced starting in the 1970s with taller, mixed use buildings. I’m glad this early blooming cherry tree has survived until now. It was a pleasant surprise after a Barbados lunch with @a_small_lab and @jessmantell.

Stunning pink flower repeats itself on 5 floor mid-rise vertical garden

April 3, 2012
public space
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素敵なピンックの花が５階にわたって繰り返されています。新宿御苑前の垂直庭園です。

This simple pink flower thrives in a former non-space on a typical mid-rise office building. Last summer I posted a photo showing the full 5 story, vertical garden column on this mid-rise Shinjuku Gyoenmae office building.

Recently I passed by and was drawn to this beautiful pink flower with lush leaves repeating themselves all the way up.

Update: @JasonDewees informed me that it’s a bergenia. Seems wells-suited to vertical city life.

Potted camellia brightens concrete patio dead space

March 30, 2012
public space, small business
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普通だけれどもたくましい椿は、コンクリートのテラスに命を与えます。だれがそこに置いて、剪定しているのでしょうか。

I like how this very common and hardy camellia brings some life to a concrete patio in a Nakano back street. I wonder who placed it there and keeps it well pruned.

I can easily  imagine a jungle growing between these older commercial buildings, a living food alley with scent and maybe a small creek bed. As it is now, this space between buildings functions as a giant chute for capturing rainwater, which then travels many kilometers and must be processed, alongside sewage, before being released into Tokyo Bay.

At least someone working or living there is decorating and enjoying the space.

Contrast between pre-Bubble and post-Bubble residences in Omotesando

March 29, 2012
public space, Residences, small streets, trees
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なぜは庭なしの新しい自宅が人気なのでしょうか。表参道では、バブル前と８０時代後の自宅の差が大きいです。

Walking in Omotesando, you can see the contrast between houses built before and after the 1980s. Unfortunately, most of the new houses occupy the entire lot, with no room for the sizable gardens in their pre-Bubble predecessors.

Getting close to the water in Shibaura. With mysterious tiny canal that pre-dates recent developments.

March 27, 2012
public space, Walking and transit
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三度目に芝浦に行ったとき、きれいな水に近づける運河を見つけました。道路と水の間を歩けます。地下に、小さな古い運河の出口も見つけました。

On my third trip to Shibaura, I discovered that there is one canal that provides wonderful, up-close access to water. It’s the first canal when entering from the JR Yamanote station. There’s even paths below the bridges and just above the water. On a drizzly afternoon, it was magical to be below the roadway.

Most of Tokyo’s rivers are buried, and the few remaining ones, including much of the Kanda and Zenpukuji rivers, are channeled 10 meters below street level to manage flooding. Sometimes I hear ducks echoing in these canyons, but the distance between people and water is a missed opportunity.

At the Shibaura canal, I found a tiny canal opening that seems to do pre-date the more recent developments. I like the old stones at the entrance. All that’s missing from this canal is space to get your feet wet, or even go in for a swim.

3.11 Anti-Nuclear demonstrators form human chain around Diet, the national assembly.

March 26, 2012
Community, Governments, public space, Visionary
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３．１１の一年目の追悼と反原発のヒューマンチェーンに参加して、写真をたくさんとりました。高齢者が多くて、コズプレもあって、悲しく、同時に色がたくさんありました。ポケモンを何人か見ました。数万人が国会議事堂を囲んで、非常に感動しました。

On the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, I spent the afternoon at a memorial in Hibiya Park, and then joined tens of thousands forming a human chain around Japan’s national assembly, the Diet. I snapped a lot of photos, along with @sub_fauna, who took some great photos.

It was great to see so many people coming together to ask for fundamental change to energy and politics. Striking were the number of seniors, the odd costumes including several Pokemon, the mix of the mournful and colorful. A few Japanese friends asked me what a “human chain” was, as if it were a complicated imported notion. It was very touching to see people holding hands around the center of government.

I was also impressed with how organized the entire demonstration and policing were. The long cross-walk in front of the Diet was occupied only while the light was red. The police remained very calm, and their main tools were rolls of neon police tape, megaphones, and fabric traffic barriers with rings for lines of police to easily hold.

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3.11 Tokyo Big March against nukes

March 10, 2012
Governments, public space
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日曜日に３．１１東京大行進の原発を止めるデモにほかにだれか参加しますか。１４：００に日比谷公園から始まります。銀座と有楽町を歩いて、国会議事堂の前で、ヒューマンチェーンを作ります。

Who’s going to Sunday’s 3.11 Tokyo Big March against nukes? It starts at 2 pm in Hibiya Park, with a silent prayer at 2.46 pm, and a march starting at 3 pm through Ginza and Yurakucho. By 5 pm, there will be a human chain around the Diet Building. I am looking to find hope on a grim anniversary. Info in English and Japanese.

Snowy cherry tree outside elementary school. Heavy snow makes Tokyo oddly quiet.

March 6, 2012
public space, small streets, trees, Walking and transit
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大雪のときに、東京は異常に静かになります。車も人の数も少なくなります。この桜は近所の小学校の入口で、もう一ヶ月くらいで咲くはず。

Less than one week later, it feels like a spring afternoon. Tokyo becomes oddly quiet during heavy snowfall. Fewer cars, fewer people outside. This cherry tree outside my local elementary school will be blooming in just one more month.

Thick gobs of snow pile up on plum blossoms

March 5, 2012
public space, trees, Walking and transit
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雪が降っているときは、東京は白黒映画みたいです。最近、この梅の木の夜の写真を載せました。先週の雪が木のかたちを大きく見せました。うるう年の日、２０１２年。

When it snows, it seems as if Tokyo is a city of black and white. Recently I posted a photo of this plum tree at night. Just as the blossoms are peaking, thick gobs of snow magnify the tree’s shape.

Leap Day, 2012.

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