Bearded Dragon Food In Throat

Ephemeral Gardens neighborhood obsolete

Japanese cities include all their slum called Shitamachi (下町). A popular class, often elderly living there, with its outdated stores, its canteens, shopping streets, which gradually became depopulated, often decked out in the name a bit pompous Ginza (银座). They are called "Shutter-gay" (シャッター 街), the streets of shuttered. These gardens, subject to the imagination of their owners, are changing. They are also those neighborhoods because older people are probably dying out. They will be replaced by tall buildings offering apartments comfortable, secure, with parking and terraces which will also cover certainly flower pots, but the atmosphere will be different.

The Shitamachi people are certainly modest, but integrated into society. Crime is virtually nonexistent. It is not uncommon that the doors are ajar on the street, and that traders are absent in the backroom of their store, leaving their shops open. I suspect they sometimes take a nap, especially by the slow afternoons of summer. The atmosphere is quite happy, and we discusses some of its window directly with the neighbors also stayed home time, or the latest gossip of the village. It must be said that the next house is walls and 30 centimeters of neighbors: one could pass the salt from window to window.

These gardens are designed around small spaces. Sometimes it only borders a dozen centimeters wide around houses, and, for the more ambitious, a small patch of five square meters. Some also create a small terrace on the roof of scrap their home. Then it is best to develop, by installing numerous flowerpots, sometimes on the pavement. Sometimes found old baby baths or other containers of plastic originals. The pots are sometimes protected by transparent plastic bottles filled with water are scaring the cats that might otherwise overthrow plants. The inhabitants grow hardy plants such as aloe.

Japanese temple gardens are best known abroad, but these ephemeral creations aisles lower towns are just as touching. They make nice neighborhoods that are often a little stale and isolated. These districts are now the preferred place to walk of "bobos" Japanese, and sometimes also the author of this blog.

After more than two years Uchimizu (打ち水), this article is a good place to explain the meaning of this word in Japanese. This is actually a popular Japanese custom which is still found frequently, especially in slums. It is to throw water on the street in summer, often in late afternoon to cool the atmosphere. If not the effectiveness of a violent air conditioning, the energy required to evaporate the water effectively lowering the temperature a few degrees.

Additional information

Photographs of this article were taken respectively in the districts of Tsukishima (月 岛 2 negatives) and Nakaya (中 谷, a cliché) in Tokyo, and Shimizu (清水) near Shizuoka (2 shots), and Kagurazaka (神 楽 坂), also in Tokyo (1 shot).