We are living in turbulent times where bees are dying rapidly in large numbers because of profitable pesticides and pollution. If this trend keeps going on, one day we’ll be filling up our plates with artificial food, compressed in colorful Pfizer tablets with chemical taste of green salad, beans, strawberries, blueberries and other natural goods that we’ll know only from pictures and ballads.

Science says that about one third of all food we eat depends on pollination from bees, and about 40 percent of all bee population in the world has vanished in the past decade.

Project co-founder Atsuo Tanaka on top of the Pulp and Paper Building in Ginza. (Photo source: The Japan Times)

The Ginza Bee Project

Well-aware that those numbers can’t mean anything good, are the members of a very successful project called Ginza Hachimitsu Project (The Ginza Bee Project). Five years ago, the group set itself a task of creating a bee-friendly space on top of a building in Tokyo’s Ginza district where bees will be able to produce honey.

On top of the 11-story Pulp & Paper Building in Ginza, this glitzy area of luxurious boutiques and department stores, members of the Ginza Bee Project take care of 300,000 Western and Japanese bees.

Every morning the bees take off into the sky from their wooden hives in search of flowers for pollination and nectar. Because there are many parks in Tokyo, the bees can find a lot of greenery in the area of just 2 kms (1.2 miles), like the Hibiya Park, Hamarikyu Gardens and the vast parks of the Imperial Palace. The roadside trees are also a good source of nectar, as are small flower and vegetable gardens that many Japanese grow on balconies of their apartment buildings.

The amount of produced honey increases every year. The Ginpachi bees — as locals named these bees in Ginza — produced over 760 kgs (1675 lbs) of honey in 2009 alone. The honey is then sold to local stores and pattiseries in limited numbers as a final product or as an ingredient for sweets and cake-making.

But there’s more to the project than just making honey. Ever since they brought bees to Ginza, the local cherry trees began to produce cherries which wasn’t happening before when the blossoms were not pollinated. Birds began eating the cherries and the amount of small insects, beneficial to the environment, increased in the area.

At the start of the project some people were concerned about safety as they thought that keeping so many bees in such a densely populated area could be dangerous for people. After the group thoroughly explained the behavior of bees to the tenants of the building, they successfully agreed to place three beehives on the rooftop.

According to the group, the bees are very gentle creatures and would attack only if suddenly surprised. Ever since the project was launched, there was never a case where anyone would be attacked by the bees, even though there are masses of people walking on the streets near the building every day. Quite the contrary — the Ginpachi bees have become some sort of a mascot for Ginza.

The Ginpachi honey, produced by the bees in Ginza. (Photo source: http://martinjapan.blogspot.com/2009/06/beekeeping-allowed-in-ginza-tokyo-why.html)

According to one of the beekeepers, Fujiwara, the Ginza bees are even healthier than those in the countryside where farmers often use pesticides. He explains that pesticides — not exhaust fumes — are the biggest threat to the bee population because a bee’s lifespan is only about 30 days and therefore any toxins they might get from the air don’t accumulate to any considerable extent in their bodies. Fujiwara adds that bees fly in the air only for about a week to ten days and they spend the rest of their lives cleaning their hives.

A project for the future

“Our future vision for Ginza is not a place where buildings compete for height but a place where people and small insects could live in harmony with nature,” says Atsuo Tanaka, co-founder of the project. “We believe that bees and people’s appreciation for them will help build an urban environment, full of greenery in the spirit of satoyama (satoyama is a Japanese word that means a traditional environment where people coexist in harmony with nature and its resources). We will be happy if our project could in some way help in the future urban planning in Japan.”

The Ginza Bee Project has received support from the city government and has gained attention from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, students and people who live in the area. In an effort to create an even friendlier environment for the bees, the Ginza Green Project was launched in 2007 with aim of growing flower and vegetable gardens on the rooftops of other buildings in the district. The project also looks to create green spaces that would help lower the heat retained in roads and concrete, to promote the principle of “grow local, eat local” and to encourage interpersonal relationships among people who help with the project and who may have otherwise been complete strangers.

Taking care of the gardens on top of the buildings. (Photo source: http://beegarden.blog62.fc2.com)

Photo source: http://beegarden.blog62.fc2.com

The Ginza Green Project started out on the rooftop of the Matsuya department store where today 30 employees voluntarily take care of the gardens after they finish their regular job. The customers are also interested in the activities on the roof, so the gardens are open to the public. Matsuya sells bread and various sweets that use the ingredients they grow on the roof of their store.

In this article for The Japan Times Atsuo Tanaka says: “A bee’s average lifespan is 30 days. In this short period, a bee produces only half of a spoon of honey. This tells us how precious are their lives.”

UPDATE: Some of our readers were curious if this type of beekeeping takes place in any other cities around the world. According to this article at MSNBC, some other beekeeping cities are Paris, Berlin, London and Washington D.C. Urban beekeeping is also encouraged in San Francisco. What makes The Ginza Bee Project in Tokyo so distinct is the fact it is carried out by a large group of people who have a long-term vision that makes it possible for the project to expand and give birth to new ideas, useful to people and the environment without being limited only to beekeeping, for example, The Ginza Green Project. On the other hand, some other world metropolitan areas have banned beekeeping. In New York City, for instance, this type of illegal beekeeping is punishable with a $2000 fine (the ban has been in effect since 1999).

What do you think? Could other cities around the world benefit in a long run from a project like The Ginza Bee Project? Write your thoughts in the comments!

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Sources:

- The Japan Times: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090816×1.html
– Japan for Sustainability: http://www.japanfs.org/en/mailmagazine/newsletter/pages/029489.html
- TreeHugger: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/urban-beekeepers-lift-ban.php
- The Ginza Bee Project: http://www.gin-pachi.jp

Japanese scientists have invented “elastic water”, a new material that consists of 95 percent normal water with added 2 grams of clay and a small amount of organic components, according to this article by Malaysian National News Agency.

A detailed report about the work of the scientists — published in the latest issue of Nature magazine — suggests that the substance is safe for humans and friendly to the environment and as such, could therefore be used in medicine in the future.

The new material is elastic, transparent and looks like jelly. Furthermore, the report says it can be quickly produced and molded into shape-persistent, free-standing ohbjects because of its exceptionally great mechanical strength and can quickly and completely self-heal itself if it becomes damaged. It also preserves biologically active proteins for catalysis.

If they succeed in icreasing its density, the material could be used for the production of ecologically clean plastic materials without depending on petroleum which is today used in production of conventional plastics.

Last time we had fun with some unusual Japanese inventions, today let’s talk about something more serious.

The more we see what’s happening in the world and the worse the global economic and social situation becomes, the more we’re convinced that our praised capitalistic system without morals and ethics–which only makes the rich even richer and pushes the poor into an even bigger hole–is but detrimental for human society.

It’s quite possible that just like we think today about the brutal Medieval feudal system from 500 years ago which seemed to those poor peasants like a normal way of life, that’s how 500 years from now they will think about our cruel capitalistic system which seems just normal to us but has in the 20th century help us cause more damage to nature and ourselves than in all human history combined.

But things are changing. Increasingly more newly established companies around the globe are becoming aware of the urgency of changing the direction and it all seems like future textbooks for economics will teach differently than they do today. Since we’re a blog about Japan, let’s focus on one of those companies which I came across in an article for Reuters.

Kamakura Investment Management was established in November 2008 and is headquartered in ancient Kamakura, a popular seaside tourist destination about 50 km from Tokyo. According to the owners, unlike short-term profit oriented companies, their investment strategy works on a principle that offers “long-term harmony with the society”. They plan on investing into about 100 small and medium-sized domestic companies that focus on the environment.

Yasuyuki Kamata, the company president in the interview for Reuters says that they don’t want to think about investments that will conclude in our generation but instead they focus on the next generation.

The firm’s high-tech equipped dealing room with tatami floor overlooks a traditional Japanese garden.

Kamata continues by saying that investors will feel good if they know that money goes to companies that provide good contributions to the society.

Time will tell if they are on the right path. One thing is certain; we are entering an era of some radical economic and social changes where it won’t be easy to crawl out of the abyss into which we fell with our own greed.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B71GY20091208

The famous Amida Buddha Daibutsu statue attracts visitors in Kamakura, Japan, 2008.

Today I came across a Japanese design company called Funfam that creates interesting eco-friendly products for kitchen and dining.

Among other things they create table manners sets for children to learn and practice good manners at the table in a fun way while using natural materials.

All the pieces are made of laminated bamboo which is light and a good antibacterial material. Cute hand-engraved icons indicate where to put utensils and plates.

They are selling sets with forks, knives and spoons as well as chopsticks. There are even larger sets meant for adults.

Tokyo has plenty of parks and one of those is Toneri Koen in Adachi Ward which is a huge park for recreation and other activities. Thought I’d write a post about it since it’s located not far from our place, about 10 minutes walk. Comes in handy when you want to relax your nerves, stretch the muscles and breathe some fresh oxygen. By the way, the word koen in Japanese means – park.

The park itself, besides grass and trees obviously, has ponds, streams, small lake, children paygrounds, tennis courts, fields for baseball and athletics, more than enough space for picnics and one interesting thing that’s not so common in public parks — equipment for doing various exercises, along with instructions on how to use them.

Many Japanese give a lot of importance to recreation and often even at 7 in the morning, you’ll see parks full of sporty seniors jogging around and practicing some intense exercise that would shock a lot of today’s teenagers who train their finger muscles with the help of Nintendo Wii and Playstation.

Japanese parks typically look very natural with greenery growing without human interference. Some parts are taken care of where necessary, but mostly they let nature create the scenery by itself.  The result is that the parks look very fresh and you have a feeling that you’re indeed in a natural environment instead of in a place where everything was exactly planned out by whoever built the park, and — let alone — have some statue of an important political leader jump out from behind a bush. Toneri Koen is no exception and just by looking at photos, I’d find it hard to believe it’s not far from central Tokyo that a lot of people would imagine is nothing but highrise and crowded streets.

Tokyo Bureau of Construction has a brochure of Toneri Koen which you can download here as a PDF file.

Last weekend I took a few shots around the park:

A view from one of the hills in the park.

You can’t see the water, but there’s a lake under these plants.

Another senior gymnast who pulled himself up so many times I had to stop counting. Is the secret in food, green tea, sitting on the floor instead of chair?

Erika shows how to get your feet massaged.

Free exercise equipment.

In Japan one can hardly find a naked dog. Nearly all of them are dressed up or use some kind of a fashion accessory.

Surprisingly, many people who fish do so just for fun, then they throw the fish back into the water.

Toneri Koen station right next to the main park entrance.

A herb garden managed by volunteers. The structure in the background is the rail for Toneri Liner.

A zeppelin in sunset.