都市の夏景色かもしれない。歩道に浴衣パーティーや小田急線の電車やオフィスタワーが見えます。
A very urban, summer scene, with yukata sidewalk party, Odakyu train, and office tower
都市
Just an endless city in soft focus
ソフトフォーカスで見た都市には、限界がありません。
I like how this view of Tokyo cityscape includes no iconic towers or landmarks. Just an endless city in soft focus.
A small truck brings Buenos Aires Bar, an exotic treat, to central Tokyo
小さなトラックは、エキゾチックな南米の都市にあるバーの雰囲気を東京の都心に連れて来ます。この秋の日に、ハイキングスタイルとウエスタン男子ファッションは面白いと思います。
Biking through Yoyogi Park you never know what you’ll run into. One weekend, Shibuya Camp appeared with gorgeous tents and folk music. This truck brings a Buenos Aires Bar to Tokyo in fall. Based on the men’s fall outfits, you might think you’re at the start of a mountain trail in South America.
Okinawa morning glory became dominant element of summer balcony garden
夏のベランダで、琉球のアサガオが一番目立つ存在になっています。マンションと都市の間に、きれいなブラインドになってくれています。
When it was blooming prolifically, the Okinawa morning glory became an exterior screen between the apartment and the city outside. The shades of violet, red and blue are stunning.
What makes a home desirable? Who wants to Grow Best Life Stage?
最近、不動産関係のコンサルティングをさせていただいているので、都市開発の魅力について考えています。東京の高級住宅はよくカタカナ英語を使います。けれども、日本のお客さまへのものなので、和製英語が多いですね。
Recently I am consulting for one of Japan’s largest real estate companies seeking to attract residents to a waterfront area that many might not have considered before. What makes an apartment or a neighborhood desirable? What architectural and landscape choices are most important? What are the trends today and in the future that drive consumer choice?
As an English speaker in Tokyo, I am also always drawn to the selective English language marketing, often an odd English name for the property. This building advertised in the Sendagaya JR station has a name that has a certain logic, but which also completely fails as an English language name.
Yes, Gro-bel is a shortened form of “Grow Best Life Stage.” It’s also the Japanese pronunciation of the word “global.” What was meant as optimistic, modern and international, instead comes off as bizarre, stilted, and heavy handed. In this context, using English is more decorative than functional or expressive.
This is what the hidden Shinjuku looks like from the back of the buildings
新宿の建物の解体された後、裏からの視点ができました。都市の考古学ですね。
This is urban archeology, with past and current technologies made visible. A large building in Shinjuku is torn down, exposing the back side of the neighboring buildings. It’s amazing how haphazard and tenuous the building systems are. There are many wires that seem left-over from earlier times. Also amazing is how the air conditioner below has been squeezed into the crawl space!
Come on a tanuki adventure with us at Shibaura House next Tuesday
Please join @a_small_lab and me for a tanuki adventure next Tuesday, July 9, noon to 1 pm, at Shibaura House. Details below. Many thanks to Shibaura House for their support.
SHIBAURA HOUSEに来て、江戸時代から有名なタヌキさんに会いませんか？ 2人の外国人が、タヌキさんをまた東京に呼び戻したいと考えています。東京メトロに乗ってタヌキが友達を作る企画（http://wp.me/piwM0-23e）は、ロンドンのテクノロジー関係の学会で承認されました。スマートフォンがなくても、タヌキさんは友達を作ることが上手です。
今回SHIBAURA HOUSEで開催するイベントでは、こんなことを一緒に考えます：都市に、動物は必要でしょうか。野生で予測できないものは、都市の生活に大事でしょうか。
一緒にちょっと冒険してみましょう。参加費は無料。イベントはランチタイムに開催します、自分のお弁当を持ってきてください。
Please come to Shibaura House to meet the famous tanuki from Edo. Two foreigners want to welcome shape-shifting tanuki back to Tokyo. Their photo story about Making Friends with Tanuki in the Tokyo Metro was selected by a London technology conference for its unusual real-time interaction. How come, even without a smartphone, tanuki is so good at making friends? Why do we need animals in cities? What is the importance of wild and unexpected things in our lives? Please bring an open mind and your own bento. Let’s go on an adventure.
Night view from balcony, shot on new Canon 6D
ベランダから見た都市の夜の景色です。最近、新しいCanon 6Dというカメラを買った。写真をもっととりたいです。
The Canon 6D is the entry level for “full frame” cameras. I am still learning my way with it. I’ll still use film during the day, but it allows me a lot more opportunity for indoor and night photography.
Photographs and slides from Shibaura House’s Community Herb Garden event
先日の芝浦ハウスのコミュニティー・ハーブ・ガーデンのプレゼンをアップロードしました。都市の初心者の方たちが植木鉢でハーブを育てることを応援します。東京で、ハーブは育てやすいので、和風と洋風の料理、カクテル、お茶、香り、そして、蝶の来る場所を作れます。
I’ve posted the photographs and slides from my recent talk at Shibaura House‘s Community Herb Garden event. My purpose was to encourage city residents to plant herbs because they are easy to grow and have many uses (culinary, cocktails, tea, scent, butterfly attractors).
Domesticated Mount Fuji in today’s Edo
江戸時代から、富士山と都市は一緒にイメージされています。最近、富士山の噴火に関する記事が多いですね。
Recently, there have been several reports that Mount Fuji may erupt and cause an earthquake, or vice versa. What I love about this giant volcano is its utterly domestic and urban nature. Today’s urban views, completely with laundry drying, are an extension of hundreds of years of Edo visual representation.
Garden edges: former imperial property borders freeway on one side, harbor on other side
浜離宮恩賜庭園には、長い歴史と面白いカモ猟の場所があります。さらに、都市と湾の端の思いがけない風景があります。
Hamarikyu is an elaborate garden between the office towers of Shiodome and the harbor full of warehouses, garbage incinerators, and the massive immigration office with no cellphone coverage. Inside the garden, you can learn how the Emperor created a special landscape to facilitate duck hunting that used decoy ducks, falcons, and nets. But on the edges of the garden, you can see the messy metropolis with its relentless accumulation of transportation, commerce, and recently new luxury residential development. I like how on the city side, the stone-lined canal has been preserved, and on the harbor side, an older looking flood gate still regulates the garden’s pond.
Iconic New York City public spaces
ニューヨークのハイラインという新しい公園もセントラルパークも象徴的な公共空間です。自然と都市の関係がうまくできていて、気分がいいです。１９３４年から１９８０年まで使われていた電車の高架線路を公園にしたのが、ハイラインです。
On a recent trip to New York City, I took my film camera to some iconic parks. Above is the reservoir in Central Park, a place for exercise, leisure, and path between Upper East Side and Upper West Side.
Below is the High Line, a more recent park created from a dis-used elevated train line west of Chelsea. I love how in both environments, you can enjoy nature and feel connected to an urban landscape.
Sidewalk rice is decorative and brings a little country to the city
夏の歩道で稲を育てています。田舎の気分を都市で味わえます。
Growing rice in buckets on the sidewalk isn’t likely to put any rice farmers out of business. Still, it’s a lovely sight in Tokyo during the summer, and brings a country feeling into the hard-surfaced city.
Tokyo strawberries, with promise of fruit in all four seasons
ホームセンターで白花がいっぱい咲いているイチゴを買いました。「東京いちご」という名前は面白いです。４分の１の日本人は東京に住んでいるから、都市のために植物も野菜も開発して売り出すことは賢いと思います。このイチゴは四季に実をつけるそうです。ベランダのイチゴを食べたいです。
Recently I picked up strawberries from the home center, full of pretty white flowers. They were less than $2 each. I think it’s very interesting that they’re called “Tokyo strawberries.” In this urban country, it makes sense to develop and target plants, even vegetables, to city growers.
The label also boasts, “Pure Berry 2” with a registered trademark. But the biggest promise is strawberries in all four seasons. I am looking forward to my first balcony strawberry!
Seoul’s transformation into livable city. Makes Tokyo look stunted.
去年の夏、ソウルを訪れて驚きました。短い期間で、東アジアの他の醜い都市から離れて、魅力的で住みやすい都市になりました。ソウルを見たときに、なぜは東京政府と都市計画は、過去でなくて、未来を見つめないのでしょうか。
In the past five years, Seoul has gone from one of East Asia’s ugliest mega-cities to one of its most livable and attractive. The transformation has been rapid. While I think Tokyo is often stunted by its autocratic government and urban planning, Seoul shows that East Asian cities can be dynamic and forward-looking.
On a visit last summer, I toured new city parks (the Cheonggyecheon river and Seonyudo island), visited art galleries, experienced the mix of old and cutting edge architecture, and met meta-designers, Seoul’s city brand manager, and a national environmental researcher.
Tokyo Green Space 