Arakawa river red floodgate with cherry trees in full bloom

パナマ運河で働いたことのある日本の技師が荒川運河と水門を１９２０年代に建てました。花見にとても良い場所です。

A Japanese engineer who had worked on the Panama Canal created this important floodgate and canal alongside the Arakawa River in the 1920s. The red paint and the cherry blossoms make it scenic as well as functional.

UPDATE: Above is the film version, which took awhile to be developed. The colors seem much richer than the digital iPhone image below.

Scenic combination of Showa window and Chinese parasol tree with pods

昭和時代の窓と大きいアオギリの木は素敵です。今、薄緑色の花がたくさんついています。東京にはもっと古い建物と熟成した木がいります。

Near our apartment is this older house with a deciduous tree that fills out in the summer. I love the bunches of light green pods it produces. Sadly there are not enough old houses or old trees in Tokyo. When you see this combination in Tokyo, it’s at once nostalgic and perhaps futuristic.

Ever resourceful Jason at Flora Grubb Gardens identified it by photo as a Firmiana simplex, Chinese parasol tree in English or aogiri (アオギリ) in Japanese. A quick visit to Wikipedia taught me that it’s an ornamental tree related to cacao. It’s within the same plant family as cotton, okra, hibiscus, and abutilon.