Tree Cover

Not sure what is under these.

Winter Shelter

At Jindai Botanical Gardens, some of the plants were covered with straw.

This little hut shelters a peony.

Here's another hut under a bigger hut. There were peonies on display.

This blocks the sun on some pansies. I'm not sure why except that the sun is pretty warm sometimes even in February.

Tree Protection

Though it doesn't snow much in Tokyo, these pine trees are draped in rope to prevent the limbs from breaking. I don't know what stands beside them, but those three plants are completely wrapped in straw. Click to enlarge the picture and try to find the fish lips.

Flower Protection

In the peony garden only three plants were protected.

On closer look, I saw that they already had buds on them.

Tree Support on the Streets of Tokyo

Young trees need support. Especially on the streets of Tokyo. Here are two types of supports. I have often seen bamboo and wooden supports. Straw is usually used to cushion the tree against the wood and twine.


This is the first metal support I have seen. There could be advantages and disadvantages to this type of support.

Around a Small Town in Niigata Prefecture

Niigata Prefecture, a district in northern Japan, is known among other things for its very good rice. There are rice paddies or fields everywhere. The paddies outside town are commercial. The rice is sold all over Japan. There are paddies in town, too. That rice is grown only for the family who farms it to eat. The picture above is rice. At this point in its growing cycle it is bright yellow green. The rice was beautiful on this sunny day, but almost blinding. It was so bright!


This is the irrigation system of one of the paddies. I believe that's grass along the center.




Though we had sunny days for our visit, Japan has received more rain than usual this year. Everyone is concerned about the rice and other crops. It seemed every house here had a rice paddy or a garden or even both. This gardener is protecting her tomatoes from rain. The umbrellas are clear plastic so the tomato plants can still get the sun when its out. In April, I posted about a gardener in Tokyo who put an umbrella over her azaleas.




Walking around town we came across this scene. After the big earthquake in the area two years ago, this family put portable toilets behind their house. Can you see the man in front of the toilets emptying them with a hose attached to the truck? Having portable toilets in your back garden is not common. At one time, however, non-flush toilets were common in Japan. Someone would come along with a wagon to empty them. Nowadays, there are houses with non-flush toilets and trucks like this one come by to empty them. Let's just say that even though the process has surely improved over the centuries, it's not a pleasant job.




This rock was behind another house down the street from the toilets. This gardener planted bonsai or miniature trees on it. It was impressive how these trees could grow on a rock.