When I travel, little things I see, new smell stimulate me, and those things make memories of experiences, including work I did there. And more I travel, more I appreciate the beauties around me at home, more I appreciate things I take for granted that are very Japanese.
Just a little walk around my neighborhood in Yokohama today. From Shibuya, it’s about 20 minutes train ride to the Hiyoshi station, then 30 minutes walk from the station. These are the kind of images that come back to me when my mind is wandering:
Really narrow alley between houses.
Entrance to an ordinary park.
For the past 15 years or so, more and more Japanese are decorating their home with non traditional flowering gardening plants. Definitely, the suburban scene has become cheerful and gay looking, compared to subdued, controlled look of the past. Availability of these plants inexpensively through home centers that has become popular over the past 15 years probably accelerated the spread of gardening. I love the sight and smell, especially seasonal flowers.
Banboo grass can still be seen here and there, but they are not as common as they used to be.
Blooming hydrangea means June, monsoon season in Tokyo area. We tend to associate this flower with rain.
Some wealthy homes. Come to think of it, I am not "friends" with kind of people who own these kind of homes. Which makes my view very lopsided, indeed! I realize my attitude is not representative of group of people who live in this kind of homes. Fascinating!
Someone’s lush garden in front, lavender about to bloom, already emitting exquisite fragrance. Planting lavender has been relatively new things in suburban neighborhood in Tokyo, but it seems more and more people are planting them. Now I will associate lavender scent with June rain, beginning of hot summer.
Background building is a public junior high school. This is a typical school building all over Japan. The design hasn’t changed until recently. This concrete building is like an oven in summer and refregirater in winter. Along with office buildings and residential buildings, we need to think about what would be the most appropriate education buildings for Tokyo weather. Very humid, 4 season with really hot summer and cold winter.
A neighbor is having their trees trimmed.
FUJIKO SUDA 