Will Miss #378 - sweet osmanthus

Osmanthus fragrans is a type of flowering tree which is pretty common in Tokyo. There is one growing behind my apartment and in front of it. Most Tokyoites recognize it's pleasantly sweet smell and view it as a part of the seasonal change experience. For me, I will not only associate the scent with life in Japan, as the tree is not common in the United States, but also the change from

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Will Miss #370 - monster goya vines

At this stage of the year, the vines are about 4 stories high, and they're not finished yet.

Goya is a vegetable that is often translated to mean "bitter gourd". It looks like a big cucumber with a bad skin disease and is famous for being a part of Okinawan cuisine. Some Japanese folks swear by it and others detest it. It's one of those polarizing things, but mainly, I notice it in the summer

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Will Miss #342 - Japanese gardens and parks

One of my friends recently took a tour through a Japanese garden in San Francisco. It had all of the stuff you expect to see in such a place, particularly if it is designed with tourism in mind. It's also not exactly the type of thing you tend to see in Japan since all of the elements of that garden don't tend to appear in one place here. For example, you don't tend to see cultivated trees,

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Won't Miss #221 - "dirt" parks

Tokyo is a big city comprised of 23 main wards. Each ward is like a city itself. In fact, many students will say, "I live in (name of ward) city." Within each ward are other large neighborhoods. Most neighborhoods have one or two parks, sometimes more, within their boundaries. The vast majority of such parks are nothing more than stretches of dirt surrounded by trees and cultivated bins of

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Will Miss #216 - cherry blossoms (the good)

The cherry blossoms in Japan are undeniably beautiful, and in the right spots, you can see the sort of thing that you dream of as a part of Japanese culture and life here. The blossoms fall gently from the trees like snow that has been tinted pink.

Walking through a nice park during the cherry blossom season can be a very peaceful and sublime experience, and I will miss it.

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Won't Miss #194 - lack of grass

Some of the things I write about in this blog may be similar all over Japan, and some are highly localized. This one is definitely related to not only living in Tokyo, but my particular area. I live in a residential area, but it's almost all concrete. My guess is this is because it's so close to Shinjuku, a major business, government, and shopping center. Our location is great because it makes

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Will Miss #181- Japanese garden ornamentation

I read a few lifestyle blogs that are devoted to home and garden styling, and I often encounter the notions of foreign people who have never been to Japan and what they think it's going to be like here. Most of them think it's all temple gates and immaculate gardens, not to mention minimalist living. The truth is that most people in cities use as much of their property as possible to build the

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Will Miss #176 - ginkgo trees

Trees are not something that are necessarily abundant in Tokyo, but I live in a ward which has a tree as its icon and that has lined the main street near my home with ginkgo trees. In the autumn, they shed uniformly golden leaves that beautifully blanket the sidewalks at night, and that vanish the next morning when shopkeepers scramble to clear them away. In summer and spring, they add much

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Won't Miss #166 - bound and decapitated trees

One of the things which happens as a result of people living practically on top of each other in Tokyo is that the nature on their respective properties has to be kept in line. I know that trees are cut down, pruned, and managed everywhere in the world, but the level at which they are brutalized into submission in Tokyo sometimes makes me cringe as it so often exceeds what I grew up with in terms

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