City Gardens

This post is an archive post from 2009 when I was studying abroad at Aoyama Gakuin Daigaku in Tokyo, Japan.

Even among the concrete of Tokyo it’s possible to find some green, you just have to know where to look. To get this photo I didn’t have to look hard nor travel far. In fact it was on the way home from school.

Everyday on my commute from the dorm to school and back, I pass by a large area of gardens. I’m not sure if they are community gardens because the gardens are fairly big, not individual 10×10 plots like we have in American community gardens. Unfortunately while I was there taking pictures none of the farmers/gardeners were around for me to ask. It’s possible that these people owned the land and just haven’t sold it for development because they want to garden on it.

On my ride home on the infamously crowded Den-en-toshi line I got off at Fujigaoka station and headed for the gardens. It was a nice summer evening, the humidity hadn’t hit too hard, the bugs were starting to make their noises and there was a slight breeze. I walked around looking into all the gardens hoping to see someone to talk to. When I realized I probably wouldn’t see anyone I slowed down a bit to admire the gardens and the atmosphere. It’s been a while since I’ve been around a garden so I needed to soak it up.

Some of the gardens had little shacks on the land, probably tool sheds. On one of the sheds I saw some gutters with an ingenious system taking the water from the gutter into a barrel and inside of the barrel were goldfish. I’m thinking that they used the water for the plants and the fish are there to eat mosquito larva, plus their poop in the water gives it some nutritional value for the plants. I’m a nerd for things like this so I sat there and looked the whole thing over for a good 10 or 20 minutes, all the while the Den-en-toshi rushing by every few minutes.

What did those people on the train think of me? Why is that weird foreigner looking around at the gardens and taking pictures? No I doubt they were thinking that, how could I be so self centered to even think they noticed me. I ride the same train every day, these people don’t pay attention to the world outside of the glass and metal twinkie.

As I was finishing up walking around I heard the loud distinctive sound of a saxophone. I decided to sit and listen for a while, I had time to spare, so I sat and took it all in. I took in the relaxing vibes, forgetting all the worlds problems and only focusing on the moment. Sometimes what we all need is to step back for a bit and just sit. Don’t think, just absorb.