The Industrial Lawn Complex

Imagine all the water you would save, chemicals you would avoid putting into the ground, and most importantly, free time you would have back if you didn’t have to worry about keeping your lawn perfectly green and manicured. Let’s face it, Americans' if nothing else have made the lawn industry quite profitable. Don't get me wrong, I love a green lawn, and the smell of freshly cut grass is hard to beat. But, we can’t overlook the fact that Americans' have over 20 million acres of private lawns to care for. Between energy, water, chemical, and manpower use, we have manufactured the industrial lawn. In the age of the green revolution, this industry surely deserves some scrutiny and its practices should be examined for sustainability.

Japan, on the other hand, finds little use for the lawn mower. Granted, we live in the city here, but most of the places we have traveled in Japan have similar landscape. For the most part, Japan chooses to live and build with nature and their native plants rather than manicure the perfect green lawn. There is one glaring difference between Japan and America – space. America has the great frontier and rolling plains – space-a-plenty. In Japan, however, that space is at a premium.

So, when you do see lawns or weeds that need maintenance here in Japan, it often looks like this:

Men or women yielding gas-powered metal weed-whippers to maintain the areas that need trimming. Personal lawns aren’t very common, but these weed-whippers are used to trim around rice fields, along roads by road maintenance, and in the case of the above picture, park maintenance.

Certainly, gas-powered weed-whippers aren’t much better than lawn mowers, but I think the key is the lack of lawns. Lawn space is more efficiently used for gardening, or native plants. A wise idea for those looking to reduce weekend chores and their carbon footprint!

Just Another Day at the Beach

When it gets hot, wasting the day away at the beach is hard to top. With that in mind, we decided to head southeast to the Pacific Ocean and the Tahara City beaches last weekend. It was about a two hour drive, which was a little frustrating due to traffic jams, but the view and relaxation once we arrived was worth it.

Well, minus the string banana hammock this guy was sporting.



My wife said it best, "It's like a train wreck. You really don't want to look, but...what is he thinking?" The funny thing is, he has two of these puppies, and thought it best to sport them on the same day. Prior to the white one, he had a florescent orange hammock on. Perhaps, he thought he needed to tone it down a notch, so he switched to the white mid-afternoon. Yeah, that'll draw less attention!

Well, despite the banana hammock setting up shop to our right, we enjoyed the warm Pacific water, a nice lunch, the beautiful view to our right, and the mountains behind us. We lucked out on timing as well because this isn't the beach season yet. Apparently, it starts with the beginning of summer next month. We did, however, see the crews setting up the stands and painting the docks for the crowds that are sure to flock to the beach when summer 'officially' starts.

The Subways Here are Filthy

Actually, they are the cleanest I've ever seen. I've been lucky to ride on the L in Chicago, the subway in New York, the Tube in London, the Metro in Paris, and the Person...I mean People Mover in Detroit. None of them stand up to the cleanliness of the subway's here in Japan. Ok, the People Mover is pretty clean, but that's likely more a result of its lack of use. I kid because I love ya Detroit!

On a few Saturdays, we've been lucky enough to see the reason why. These women mean business and seem to take a lot of pride in it. I have no idea where they come from, but it seems there's an army of them that silently, yet earnestly go about their work spreading elbow grease. No sticky piece of trash goes un-scraped, and no stubborn brake dust gets by them.

Photos taken at Issha station and Kakuozan station along the Higashiyama line in Nagoya.

'Hawk-eye to Rabbit, We Have a Parking Spot Open'

It's no secret Japan is dense. Lot's of people translates into a lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic to go along with car traffic. To manage this, many areas of Japan utilize parking lot attendants. My first impression of Japan was that there are way too many of these parking lot attendants/security/traffic officers. After living here for a while, I still think there are way too many of them, but I can see where they can be helpful in many situations. Pedestrian blind spots coming out of a parking lot or parking building, knowledge of the nearest open parking spot, and to look simultaneously cool and professional with a helmet and a parking guide tool/light saber, just to name a few.

On a recent road trip to Kyoto while our friend Marvin was visiting, however, I was blown away by the highway rest stop parking crew. Now granted, the rest stop seemed busy, but it was perfectly navigable. This was a situation where I thought to myself, "Yeah, one attendant makes sense to help guide us to the open spot, but 4 on the ground and one on the roof? Really?"

Yes, one attendant was actually on the roof for a bird's eye view transmitting that vital parking lot information to the ground crew.

Hiroshima

"A dragonfly flitted in front of me. I stood up took my cap in my hands and was about to catch the dragonfly when..." From Yoshito Matsushige, the sole surviving photographer who could only bring himself to take five photographs immediately after the bombing in Hiroshima.

When my wife recently asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday weekend, I replied that I wanted to go to Hiroshima. I've always been a fan of history, especially during America's coming out party of the 20th century. In fact, I think my minor in 2oth century US history allows me to call myself a 'scratch historian' (Hey all those credits had to earn me something right?). So, naturally, Hiroshima intrigued me. Upon arriving at the Peace Park in Hiroshima, however, my wife's initial response suddenly kept ringing in my head, "Are you sure you want to go there for your birthday?" Of course, it sounded like a good idea at the time, but then as I stood looking at the entrance to the Peace Park and the A-Bomb Dome I knew we were in for a long day.

The Atomic Bomb Dome, formerly the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, was one of the only buildings that survived the Atomic Bomb blast within a 2 km radius of the epicenter (survive being the interesting word here). It was actually 160m from the epicenter. Initially, many called for it to be destroyed as it was too painful to look at, but it was finally decided that preserving it as a monument would be a good reminder for future generations of the catastrophic damages war inflicts. Here is a 2km snapshot of Hiroshima before and after to give perspective. The arrow points to the A-Bomb Dome.



The portion in the middle has now been converted into a park, designated The Peace Park, where several monuments are located. It is quite an overwhelming feeling walking around this city and these memorials. Initially, it is quite a feeling of awe and despair. It's hard to fathom that where you walk and what you look out on was all destroyed some 60 years ago. But the monuments and the memorials have another goal that soon takes over. Hiroshima was destroyed, but they rebuilt. And they rebuilt with stories of survival and a conviction to eliminate nuclear arms. Striving for nuclear disarmament and a greater call for peace is a rather lofty goal, indeed, but don't we need that reminder? In fact, after walking amongst the monuments, and witnessing the destruction and rebuilding presented in the museum, how can you not feel anything but hope for their success?

I want to point out that it seems Hiroshima and the Japanese harbor no ill will. It is looked at as an atrocity of human nature, of which they arguably share some of the blame. America has its own painful reminder of the war - Pearl Harbor - and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum does an exceptional job of bringing that entire story to light. The point is, that this was a brutal war, with a brutal outcome for both sides. It is up to future generations to learn how to prevent them.

We met two gentlemen in the museum literally pointing at their houses in the "before" model. Yes, they were survivors. And they told us their story through a mix of horrible Japanese and English. Their stories were tales of luck, and they weren't angry about what they lost. They only wanted to tell their tale in hopes that there's something to learn from it.

I'm not about to brush off world politics with a broad 'call for peace' stroke, but I think we can look at the positive light of a city rebuilt from ashes into one of hope, with a mission to prevent any future catastrophe of the same kind. I mean what does it say that I am here in Japan now working alongside the same people that my grandfather fought against over 60 years ago? Isn't that a start, or a lesson in and of itself?

Tourist in Your Own Town

Don't let this economy get the best of you. Every night it seems the news is bad, at work it seems water cooler convos are blue, and during the day skies seem a little more gray than they should be. We're all tightening our belts, which is probably a good thing, but don't tighten so much that you squeeze out human nature's natural thirst to expand its outer limits and tickle its senses.

I'm not here to preach, but I am here to offer what's on the wall of my in-laws bathroom. Hanging amidst a sea of beautiful pastel leaf wallpaper sits a lonely frame with a few simple reminders for the day, "A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

With that in mind, I'd like to offer this suggestion, be a tourist in your own town! My wife and I had big plans about how we would spend our time and money here in Japan with a new exotic world to tour. The economy has forced us to scale back a bit, but it hasn't stopped us from seeing as much as we can with what we have.

I'm constantly amazed at my co-workers reactions here in Japan when I explain places we went to over the weekend - a museum, castle, shopping district, restaurant, park, historical site, etc. I'm amazed because usually these co-workers say they have never been, or last went when they were in grade school. I shouldn't be amazed because I think we all fall into the same category with our own hometowns.

But, we shouldn't. There are treasures in every hometown. I think about my hometown in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I bet I could make an entire weekend getaway out of our nearby metropolis, Detroit. Go ahead and laugh, but then reconsider. With the DIA, Fox Theatre, Henry Ford Museum, restaurants from every corner of the world, Detroit has plenty to offer. But the point isn't to promote Detroit, the point is to remind you that there's plenty in your backyard. In this economy maybe you can't afford to fly somewhere exotic, but it shouldn't mean you scale back completely. Be a tourist in your own town.

What the Heck is that Smell?

It took a few hours into my usual morning work routine before I realized that the musky, rotten egg smell I kept getting whiffs of was coming from none other than me. Not a great epiphany when you're sitting in a sea of desks surrounded by your co-workers. It happened to be a smell that haunted me throughout my Valentine weekend getaway with my wife, and now, as if to tease me...it was back.

Over the recent Valentine's day weekend, my wife and I thought it would be fun to getaway to the Japanese Alps - about 2 hours north of where we are living in Nagoya. We hadn't heard too much about the Alps other than the fact that Nagano was nearby (1998 Winter Olympic host City). Yearning for a little snow, and a new sight to see, we found a great B&B at the base of Mt. Norikura, and headed out for the weekend.

The B&B touted a nearby natural Onsen, which is a Japanese spa or bathhouse. Onsens are really popular amongst the Japanese and are deeply engrained in their culture. Americans don't normally bathe publicly, so it takes some getting used to, but having tried it a few times, I have to say I was really looking forward to escaping to a natural spa in the mountains!

I'm still new at this so, unbeknownst to me, Sulfur is a prominent bi-product of natural spas. I entered the spa house as giddy as a kid, but this being my first "natural spa" experience I was overwhelmed by the rotten egg smell that was hard to avoid. Needless to say, I tried to shake it off and enjoy my nice bath in the open mountain air. However, putting my clothes back on that had been baking in the Sulfur-rich air was not so nice.

I left the spa house feeling clean, but reeking of rotten eggs. I was hoping it would go under the radar and it was just a product of sensitive nostrils, but seeing my wife's face upon entering the room led me to believe otherwise. We put the clothes in a bag and sealed it for the weekend until the washer could tackle it.

Unfortunately for me on this odoriferous morning at work, the the sulfur was too much of a match for our washing machine...and I was wearing the T-shirt to prove it!