Sound of cicadas near Tokyo Tower

The sound of cicadas brings summer to the city. Click on this short video to hear 15 seconds of cicada.

Fall crickets in Tokyo

Last month, I posted a video with the sound of summer cicadas, of which there are four types. Several weeks later, the cicadas have been replaced by crickets, called suzu mushi (鈴虫), or little bell.

In a city that appears from up high to be covered in concrete for as far as the eye can see, it is amazing to be able to hear so many insects and experience the passing of the seasons. Click below to hear the sound of cicadas reaching a 10th floor apartment near central Tokyo.

Shinjuku Gyoen and Summer Cicadas

Summer in Shinjuku Gyoen is a wonderful escape from the crowded, hot city. The shadows seem extra dark, and the sound of the cicadas (semi, or 蝉) was loud. Click the short video below to hear the sounds of the cicadas on August 15, 2009. You can hear three of the four types of cicadas that mark early, mid and late summer in Tokyo.

Shinjuku Gyoen is one of central Tokyo’s largest green spaces open to the public: 58 hectares (or 144 acress) with a 3.5 kilometer circumference. There are French, English and Japanese gardens, an expansive lawn, and 20,000 trees.

Occupying what was once the personal residence of Edo daimyo Naito Kiyonari, the garden was created during the Meiji period in 1872 to promote modern agriculture, became the Imperial Botanic Garden, burned almost completely during the Tokyo fire bombing in World War II, and later opened as a public park.

Today, in addition to serving as a popular recreation spot, particularly during hanami (cherry blossom viewing), Shinjuku Gyoen provides cuttings and seeds for buttonwoods (sycamores) and tulip trees (liriodendrons) that are later planted as roadside tree in Tokyo.