The end of an era

Our neighbourhood is home to a lot of apartments provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Housing Commission in practice but lacking the ghetto atmosphere that can characterize government housing. When I first arrived in the neighbourhood, there also used to be a reasonable amount of company housing for employees of national government bureaucracies - mostly the Ministry of Finance, much of that has now gone, the land sold to private developers. The era of mass migration from rural areas has ended and accommodation in large companies is increasingly being left as the responsibility of individual.  Public housing however is still being built and rebuilt. 

Although the Met. Gov. Housing was dilapidated, and I am sure not particularly comfortable, with only basics provided, there was some kind of charm about them. Four or mostly five stories (no lifts),some of them had thriving gardens, often a mix of flowers and vegetables tended very carefully by residents for whom it was a close and convenient, hobby.  They didn't seem to need to mandatory "grass picking day" that our apartment building has, lots of retired people lived there and they enjoyed it.

It's with mixed feelings I'm watching them gradually being torn around on three sides of us.  The replacement housing will offer a better standard of accommodation for the new residents, but at the same time 5 story buildings are being replaced with ten stories, and it remains to be seen whether the "danchi" - ( estates*) nearby will retain space for gardens or increase the public area to offset the increased height.   The buildings will have lifts - a great help for the elderly, but taller buildings, more aircon, less wind movement, will need to be offset by more green, more trees, more public space, more gardens to be an improvement.......
I wonder...



* I am not sure if estate is the best translation, the danchi here don't have connotations of crime etc - just a collection of apartment buildings built together in the same style, at the same time, by the same company, as part of the same project.

Public housing 

The same building above being demolished

Demolished

Demolition

Public housing - with savagely pruned trees in front.
This will be soon to go I imagine.

The new style - 10 floors replacing 5 - function
rather than aesthetics takes priority

The new buildings are wheelchair accessible

Just before reopening - there didn't seem to be any
solar power, water tanks, or garden on the roof.

Arigatou - Thank you for all your help

This is a video from school children in Onagawa, Higashi Matsushima, and Ishinomaki Miyagi, some of the worst hit areas from the tsuanmi, thanking Japan and the world for all their help. The romaji and English translation are below.  (The song was a theme song from an NHK drama.)



Translation from:
http://www.jpopasia.com/play/28263/ikimonogakari/arigatou.html

Lyrics in romaji

arigatou ttetsutae takute anata mo mitsu meru kedo
tsunagara tameni te wa dare youni mo yasashiku 
hora kono koe mo uke temeteru

mabushii yasani niga warashite sa
anata ga madou akeru mai konda mirai ga
hajimari o shiete mata itsumo no machi e dekai keru yo

dekoboko no mama tsumiage tekita futari no awai hibi wa
koboreta hikari wo daiji ni atsumete
ima kagayaite irunda

anata no yume ga itsu karaka 
futari no yume ni kawa tteita
kyou datte itsuka tai setsuna omoide
aozora mo naki sora mo hare wataru youni

arigatou ttetsutae takute anata wo mitsu meru kedo
tsunagareta migite ga massuguna omoi wo
buki youni tsutaeteiru

itsumademo tada itsumademo anata to waratte takara
shinji tako no michi wo tashikamete iku noni
ima yukkuri to aruite ikou

kenkashita himo nakiatta himo sorezore iro sakasete
masshiro na kokoro ni egakareta mirai wo
mada kakitashite ikunda

dareka no tameni ikiru koto dareka no ai wo uke ireru koto
souyatte ima wo chottozutsu kasanete
yorokobi mo kanashimi mo wakachi aeru youni

omoi au kotoni shiawase wo anata to mitsu kete iketara
arifureta kotosae kagayaki wo daku yo
hora sono koe ni yorisotte ku

aishiteru ttetsutae takute anata ni tsutaetakute
kakegae no naite wo anata to no korekara wo
watashi wa shinji terukara

arigatou tte kotoba wo ima anata ni tsutaeru kara
tsunagareta migite wa dare yori mo yasashiku
hora kono koe wo uke tometeru 

 

TRANSLATION:

Translation by akicute in JpopAsia:

I look at you to tell you thank you
The right kind than anyone else linked
Here you take this voice

You open the window in the morning is bright grin and
Passed, I started to Future
I always go to town again

The two light days of accumulated leave rugged
Care light collecting spilled
Now I'm shining

So that the memory blue sky important sometime today that your dream turned into two dreams from when cries, and the sky is clear

I look at you to tell you thank you
Connected by straight right hand feel
Reported that the clumsy

Though I check this course that I believed forever because I only laughed with you forever, I will walk slowly now


I still add the future when
I let there be it each on both the day when you quarrelled
And the day when you cried and bloom, and it was pictured in a pure white heart in writing

Someone to accept the love for someone to live
I repeated a little by doing so
To share the joys and sorrows

You'd be happy to find that I meet
I even have a common radiance
You know that voice huddled Ku

Convey to you to tell me you love
The future of your hand and irreplaceable
I believe I am from

Now you tell me the words to thank you
The right kind than anyone else linked
Here I take this voice

An okachimachi window

  Last time I was in Okachimachi, I stumbled upon a restaurant that seemed to specialize in animal desserts ...

Panda icecream with strawberries.

Lion icecream 

Isetan roof, Shinjuku

On the roof top of Isetan, high above the bustle of Shinjuku, there is a roof top garden, much like the rooftop garden at Mitsukoshi in Ginza. Green space, trees, bamboo, a shrine, plant samples and a seasonal vegetable garden.  Most department stores in Tokyo seem to have something on the roof - summer beer gardens, children's play areas, open space with seats. Isetan's is particularly green and refreshing.




bamboo grove