Turning Japanese --- I really think so

I was in Japan last week for a workshop related to my day job. It is amazing to see how the Japanese use space to its utmost. Parking lots had triple-decker elevator parking devices. One car was stored up in the air, one was at ground level and a third was held underground. The entire unit went up and down on hydraulics like the lift at a garage. (Sorry I failed to get a picture of this.)

The other noticeable area that they utilized space optimally is in agriculture. Almost any space between houses, warehouses, stores, basically anywhere there was some flat ground, held a garden. Since it is the middle of winter most of these gardens were pretty bare, but the hoop houses were plentiful and the cabages and onions that were still growing looked gorgeous, in perfectly straight rows with nary a weed in sight. The fields that were farrow had beautiful rich black soil just waiting for the weather to warm enough for spring planting.

I also saw vast expanses of rice paddies. They were all drained for the winter but you could see the canal system and pumps that allowed them to be flooded. I apologize for the glare in the pictures, the sun was shining off the windows of a train.
Tokyo is amazing. It is more Manhattan then Manhattan. Large portions of the city are as billboarded and lit up as times square.


But there are still signs of the past such as this Kabuki Theater,


Buddhist Temple

and most notably the Imperial Palace.