Glorious Gardens

Japanese love picnics under the cherry blossoms

The Japanese have a very keen eye for beauty.  They love their gardens and use them well.  Gardens have a lovely combination of plants and structures.  No doubt the best time to visit the gardens is in spring for the cherry blossoms and in fall for the leaf color, but they generally have something blooming in all seasons.

Full Moon Bridge

Many of the old gardens were the residents of a famous shogun, priest or Emperor, or they were built to honor a shogun, priest of Emperor.  Other beautiful gardens are part of shrines or temples.

Gardens aren't complete
without water and koi

I wish I knew what this said!

My favorite part of the gardens are the beautiful structures, like pagodas, stone tablets and bridges.  I really enjoy the juxtaposition of the ancient gardens within the mega structures of Tokyo.

The contrast of the beautiful garden and huge buildings always amuses me

Japanese Technology is Amazing

The ever so talented toilet seat

The first thing you notice in Japan, usually before you get out of the airport, are the amazing toilet seats.  These seats can wash you front and/or back at varying pressure and, if you like, they can dry you.  If you don't care for others to hear you while you are on the pot, you can play recordings of toilets flushing to muffle your sounds.  And, of course the toilet seats are heated!  I priced them up the street here and they range from $200 - $1,000.

Even the port-a-potties are hooked into the sewer and water systems so they are clean and fresh.  (Port-a-potties were set up at most parks when we first got here to accommodate local Japanese flocking to parks to view the cherry blossoms, they have all bee removed now).

Port-a-potties plumbed with water and sewage disposal

 Scott's office came with a shredder that can also shred CDs and camera cards!

Don't know what to do with old CDs...shred them!

If your driveway is too small to turn around in, you'll need a garage turn-table.  Pull in forward, rotate yourself around and you are ready to pull out forward. 

Parking turn table

My favorite (well, actually the toilet seats are my favorite) is the reticulating parking structures.  These are like a vending machine.  The system will put your car where most convenient based on how long you will be away.  There are "parking spots" below ground too.

High density parking - the spots reticulate according to how long you will be gone

About half the women in our neighborhood have electric assist bicycles.  They wear high-heeled shoes and schlep the kids around with the help of a pug-in lithium battery.  I definitely want one!!

Most have room to safely haul all the kids!
Seatbelts and everything

Removable bike battery

Eating in Tokyo

There is nowhere in the world is food more readily available and reliably good.  From the grocery store, to the ubiquitous 7-11, to fine sushi restaurants, you can generally be assured of a good meal in Tokyo.  A friend who lived here for 17 years told me there was no reason to ever cook at home since good food was so conveniently available and inexpensive.  In three weeks, we've cooked dinner three times; twice was spaghetti and once was Thai food.

Typical Tokyo Restaurant

Restaurants almost never have English menus so you either order from the plastic display out front or from the pictures in the menus.  Both can be a little dicey and its easy to end up eating tongue or something less savory.  We generally eat sushi, BBQ or rice dishes for dinner and a variety of noodles for lunch (soba, udon or ramen).  A good lunch can be had for less than ¥400 ($4) and the receipt tells you the calorie count!

Plastic displays are very handy

Some are very detailed and realistic

Table-top BBQ with lots of sake

 Make no mistake you can easily drop $100 on a fantastic suhsi dinner with beers and sake, but it will be a meal you won't forget. I really can't believe how good the sushi is.  It  melts in your mouth and is very fun to eat!

Our neighborhood grocery store

We buy our food at a local grocery store called Peacock. It is about a 10 minute walk  form here. It is a lovely store, always impeccably clean and organized with a good selection of whatever you need (as long as you can find it).  The grocery store is also a great place to get dinner.

Take out meals from grocery stores are very popular

Lovely produce if you know what it is

For specialty food, toiletries or sundries we go to any number of little  streets lined with shops.  My favorite is the ¥100 Store (¥100=$1.00 exactly).

Typical street near our house for miscellaneous good

Our Tokyo Home

They are still building HUGE towers

 

Tokyo is the biggest city in the world! 35 million people live in the greater metropolitan area (compare that to 20 million in New York City). Japan as a whole is relatively small compared to the US and has about a third the population overall.  Travel in the city is by subway (train).  The subway system looks so complicated, but once you figure out the basics it is navigable.  There are probably 15 different rail lines that operate throughout the city.
  

Tokyo's subway/train system is incredible.  I got lost my first day out.

Our new digs-International House

We live on the campus of Tokyo Institute of Technology.  It is in the area or ward of Meguro about 7 miles southwest of the center of Tokyo.  Our apartment is not much to look at inside or out.  Their idea of "furnished" is more than sparse and I have had to spend a couple days setting up household.  They do have a store room of dishes, silverware, pots and pans, etc. that we have borrowed, but it is poor quality, to say the least!  We live on the south end of campus and Scott's office is on the north end.  He walks a mile to work.

Size comparison - Japan vs. USA

 

There is a lot of contrast in Tokyo.

Spring in Japan = Cherry Blossoms

Kiyomizu Temple-Kyoto

Sakura (cherry blossom) season in Japan is truly amazing!  Every one knows it and appreciates it.  Our first outing was to Kyoto the day after we arrived in Japan.  We took the Shinkansen with our friends Rob and Jason to take in the blooms.  Kyoto is west-southwest of Tokyo about 225 miles as the crow flies.  It was the ancient capital for approximately 1,000 years ending in 1867 so it is rich in temples and shrines (17 World Heritage Sites). 
 

Kiyomizu Temple-Kyoto

Celebrating the Sakura

Japanese and foreign tourists flock to parks, shrines and temples according to the very detailed cherry blossom forecast.  Women and young girls like to view the sakura in their favorite kimonos which makes for a really beautiful scene.  There is no doubt where the spring color palette comes from in Japan.

Back in Tokyo, the blooms are diminishing and recent wind and rain have beaten them off, but I was still able to take in a few more parks.

My favorite is the trailing trees

Kimonos at Imperial Palace

This famous tree is named, Shushiki (Ueno Park, Tokyo)

The Recovery-Christchurch

New Zealand has 4.4 million people in the entire country (a little more than Oregon). Christchurch is the third largest city with a population of about 375,000. There is no big brother, no huge federal aid program to sweep in and help out. What they have is what they have. This applies to financial assistance, insurance money, engineering services and contractors. Thus, the progress is slow and the people are tired.

Over a year of earthquakes culminating in the February 2011 rumbler that did the most damage. The downtown was devastated and 100,000 homes damaged. Two years later, everyone is still inconvenienced and many, many people are living in limbo not knowing what will happen with their damaged businesses or houses. So many buildings are half demolished and held up by scaffolding while the Earthquake Commission (EQC) and insurance companies try to decide whether to demolish and rebuild or to repair them. "Red Zones" were established by the government and cordoned off so people were not allowed in. This was a major inconvenience to business and home owners, but did keep things in check.

We met up with some old friends whose house is quite damaged. Sure they can live in it but the floor is sloped, doors no longer close and the walls are riddled with cracks. After two years, no one can tell them if their house will be rebuilt or repaired. They are tired.

But if there is one thing about kiwis, it is that they are creative and tough. They most certainly will perservere. We saw some of the most creative solutions, both physically and politically. I guess shipping containers are cheap because they have used them a lot. In Sumner an area with lots of bluff/cliff failures, they lined the roads with them. Then to add some interest, they covered them with canvas had allowed artist to go wild! The effect is fantastic. Near downtown, and in order to keep businesses going they set us an area they call Re-Start. It is an outside shopping mall completely made of shipping containers. We saw temporary bars made of scaffolding and tarps and outfitted with window seats and everything.

In Christchurch, as in Chile, the threat of earthquakes was generally understood and designed for. The numbers we heard for the cost-benefit of earthquake retrofit were that for every $1 spent on (sucessful) retrofit saved $8-$10 in repair or rebuild. In Christchurch, the long period between the initial shock of the first September 2010 earthquake and the devastating February 2011 earthquake forced people to prepare and that served them well. In Chile, the frequent earthquake events also continually remind them to be prepared. Even so, the damage to the economy and the psychy of the people is tremendous. I hope that Oregon will not soon forget and work diligently to retrofit and prepare.

The kiwis use shipping containers here to hold back the falling cliff. Several have canvases wrapped around them and painted for art. Note the house falling off the cliff above.

Another use of shipping containers was to make a retail shopping center!  Businesses were up and running in no time!

If you have land but no building, no worries, just set up a temporary bar!

The white sign reads, "Businesses open for normal business."  Never-mind the trenches and backhoes.

So many buildings looked like this; in limbo between total demolish and rebuild, and repair.

Christchurch Earthquake Damage

Ground rupture from Darfield quake

Christchurch suffered countless earthquakes and aftershocks in 2010 and 2011. Unlike Chile's recent subduction-type earthquake, and the one anticipated for Oregon, these quakes were relatively short duration (15 seconds) and emanated from shallow, crustal tears in the earth (some had significant surface expression evident by shifted fences and open cracks in the earth). They did not occur where expected and some of the faults that ripped were previously not identified. This type of earthquake does not generate tsunamis but it's intense shaking causes a lot of damage.

The historic Art Center being propped up

Two of these events caused most of the damage. The first was in September 2010. It was a 7.0 and occurred in the wee hours of the morning. This earthquake caused a lot of damage but there were miraculously no lives lost and few buildings were affected. The second earthquake was in February 2011. It was a 6.3 and occurred mid afternoon on a busy work day. The massive shaking and close proximity of the fault of this quake were devastating to Christchurch. The soil beneath much of the city is sand and the water table is just under the surface, the perfect recipe for liquefaction, a condition where the sand looses its strength almost completely and can no longer support foundations. Often the soils are variable over a very small area so that buildings sink differentially and tip over or break apart (this happened to a lot of houses too).

Most church spires fell and are being preserved.

Over 200 people were killed in the 2011 quake, mostly by collapsing buildings. The Central Business District was demolished. Christchurch had hundreds of 100 year old, beautiful brick buildings with spires and towers. Tourists flocked to the downtown to see the beautiful buildings, like the Arts Center, Cathedral Square and the many old churches that dotted the city. Most of these are now heaps of rubble. Nearly 100,000 homes were damaged and somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 were completely condemned, bought up by the government and are being demolished.

The Art Center Spire

Utilities were also wrecked. People were without power for days, but out of water and sewer services for weeks. I read a newspaper article that outlined the condition of lifeline services several days after the February quake. It suggested that people dig biffies in the yards (mind you the groundwater table is often only 6-inches below the surface) or make portable toilets using double plastic bags. There were dump sites set up in neighborhoods. Eventually port-o-potties were set up for neighbors to share. They are still very much in the process or repairing these systems. It seemed like the streets were ripped up at every corner to repair damaged pipes making travel through the city slow.