Green Island Project

Danny Choo is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. Danny resides in Tokyo, and blogs about life in Japan and Japanese subculture - he also works part time for the empire.

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While Tokyo does have more greenery than other areas in Japan, it still could do with even more green - would be awesome if Tokyo looked like this. Probably not practical but would be very nice to walk on barefooted on a warm spring day. More pics of green Tokyo at Green Island who are raising awareness of the need for more green stuff in Japan. The image in this post is of Shibuya - home to Hachiko crossing - one of the most busiest crossings in the world where about 2.4 million people cross everyday. Some photos of Hachiko crossing without the green stuff here. And speaking of Shibuya - its also where I make most of my vids - mainly because its close to where I live. You may want to use the video below when you want to Rickroll somebody. Via CScout.

• [Paige Green]

  It’s true that there are a lot of mountains in Japan, but I would hardly call it . I was living in Matsumoto (pop 250,000) for awhile, and it was weird because there were all these rice fields everywhere, but they were RIGHT next to busy roads…

  More green in Tokyo and other urban centres would be cool, but I’d worry more all the plastic and waste from pretty Japanese packaging!

• [Anonymous]

  I find it kind of interesting that Tokyo doesn’t do the rooftop garden thing. It seems like an ideal environment to simply move all of your parkland a few stories closer to the sun and rain.

• [gnosis]

  This sounds like a great idea, but it could get out of hand.

• [sirspocksalot]

  Wow, that video is kinda awesome.

• [adamnvillani]

  Tokyo has more greenery than other areas of Japan? Really?

• [frostkaiser]

  I don’t know what he’s talking about. I’d say Japan is 85% mountains and forests. Huge urban centers like Tokyo are definitely the exception to the rule. Where I live there in Japan is more nature around me than anywhere I lived back in the US.

• [adamnvillani]

  Yeah, I spent a month in Utsunomiya and there were rice fields interspersed all through the city, along with plenty of other green vacant lots and such. And in Kyoto the hills were all green. Plus there’s, you know, the parts of Japan that aren’t cities.

• [Ito Kagehisa]

  I enjoyed the fantasy pictures.

  Grass in those places would be trampled into a four-foot-deep mud pit a few hours after the first rainstorm.

• [wolfiesma]

  I wonder if installing sidewalks wouldn’t solve the four-foot-deep mud pit problem. In the Danny Choo videos I’ve seen everyone seems to be walking in the street. Why no sidewalks? Much narrower than a road and then you have room for grass on the side. If only urban planning were as easy as snapping one’s fingers…