New Year’s Day in Tokyo, and there’s a bright blue sky and view of Mount Fuji from the balcony. The southern exposure and high floor make it feel balmy during mid-day. You can see in the full photo below that I have planted winter kale, lavender, hibiscus, geranium, and something that looks like salvia but isn’t.

開けましておめでとうございます！ 2010 began on a cold night in Tokyo one hour ago. We visited our local shrine: no line, hot rice drink, and a tiny bonfire. The small shrine’s doors were open, revealing that our local gods live amidst folding chairs and assorted bric-a-brac.

The visit to the shrine followed many hours of Kouhako, the annual music extravaganza on NHK, plus a Johnny’s shmorgasbord of dozens of boy bands, dizzying video displays, and stages gliding over crazed fangirls. A very traditional new year in Japan.

Below is the “blue” moon, the second full moon of the month. Best wishes for the new decade!

Tokyo looks magical at night. Taken in Shinjuku, near the Shinjuku Gyoen, it seems as if the Docomo tower is communicating with the crescent moon. It is completely dark, and only 5:08 pm.

(Date: December 20. Tonight is a “blue moon,” the second full moon of the month).

Above is a kadomatsu, or new year’s decoration that rests on the ground. These large ones are usually in front of businesses. This one is in front of one of my favorite Tokyo haunts: the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium constructed for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and open to the public now in central Tokyo.

The materials are bamboo, pine, straw and red berries. I love the decorative rope flower and the splayed straw at the base. Below is the shimekazari hanging outside of our apartment door. Notice the folded paper and rice stalk. After the holiday, these plant-based new year’s symbols are  burned at shrines. So different than the un-ceremonial sidewalk dumping of US Christmas trees.

Happy new year! Best wishes for a bright new decade.

I am on a deadline for an article for Newsweek Japan. It will be my first article published in Japanese about Tokyo Green Space. There’s so much I wanted to say, and after several efforts I felt completely stuck with a looming deadline.

Fortunately, the husband is a writing genius, and he helped me diagram my article, create a story, several themes, and tone of voice. And then he taped it to the wall above the kitchen table where most of this blog is written.

I will post the article soon, in Japanese and English. Thanks, husband!

I uploaded my Tokyo Green Space presentation that I conducted at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier this month. Similar presentations were also conducted at Hitachi and Pechakucha.

Nagoya will be hosting a conference next May called URBIO 2010, on urban biodiversity and design. The conference precedes October’s 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) which will also be held in Nagoya.

I am excited about the conference’s focus on urban biodiversity. With the world rapidly becoming urban, and Japan leading the way in rural to city migration, cities are becoming key sites for human life and the promotion of biodiversity.

The deadline for suggesting a presentation is December 31, so please sign up now if you want to attend. My understanding is that all presentations will be accepted as the organizers are trying to create an inclusive experience.

Over the past months I have realized that Nagoya is promoting many new urbanism events, including a recent Creative Design City Nagoya conference, which had a keynote by Professor John Wood of Goldsmiths, University of London.

東京新聞が「Tokyo Green Space」について書いてくれました。十二月七日に日立で行ったプレゼンテーションのことに関してです。

Tokyo Shimbun wrote about Tokyo Green Space. The article is about my presentation conducted on December 7 at Hitachi’s headquarters.

Suddenly the ten or so leaves on our maple bonsai have turned red. The leaves are a rust shade, and the stems cherry red. Soon the little tree, bought at Sinajina during the summer, will be bare for the winter. Just a week ago, the tree was just starting to turn red, in the stems and in flecks on the leaves.

The small shrine near our apartment is preparing for new year. The entrance gate has pine and bamboo decorations, and the tent is ready for the celebration. This shrine is very charming because of its small scale and its housing our extremely local gods. I have found myself drawn here several times this year, and I look forward to spending some minutes there to welcome the new year with the neighbors and the spirits that connect us with each other and this small part of Tokyo.