Chris was very excited when we finally got a day clear enough to see the Sky Tree from all the way on the other side of Tokyo. The Japanese have just finished building the world’s second tallest free-standing structure. I’m afraid the CN Tower is way down the list now.
This is Rikugi-en park. We walked around and saw lots of crows and koi. There were two gardeners who we saw up in one tree trimming it carefully tiny branch by tiny branch by hand for several hours. I have a strong suspicion that no one ever does anything like that in North America. The two we saw and maybe others must be employed full time just trimming to the trees in this kind of shape – they are all beautifully taken care of (older ones with special stilts made for branches that look in danger of falling over).
Here is a typical Japanese street scene that we see when walking around. Note the cars driving on the wrong side of the road. I’ll need to see if I can get a photo that shows how small the trucks are here – they are very tiny and cute. In fact, there is a cement dispensing factory near our apartment, so I’ll get one of the little Star of Liberty cement trucks with their bright pink logo.
You can also see that these trees are also very, very carefully pruned (though they haven’t budded yet).
Also, right in the middle are two white vending machines. There are drink vending machines everywhere – I love them because they sell me bottles of hot green tea. (I haven’t see any with some of the more esoteric items that the internet assures me are sold via vending machine in Japan as well – maybe next week when we go to Akihabara.)