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Friday, 6 May 2011

Urban agriculture.

Sitting again at a 12th floor window of this hotel near Kansai International Airport (Osaka), where I have come to stay for my final night, I have the most wonderful view of the surrounding area. The long bridge across to the airport island, a huge skyscraper overlooking it, the railway line and expressway taking traffic there, a ferris wheel in an amusement park, as well as lots of urban sprawl, a couple of artificial lakes and a huge, floodlit golf cage.

But what most surprises me, is the urban agriculture below -- the many patches of cabbage and onions and other crops which are still to make an appearance in their tidy fields, and all within this urban setting. The farmers pacing their fields, weeding the soil and checking the growth of their plants. The small outhouses here and there, where they keep their tools and provisions. The tiny tractors at work. The fields are tended with care, and it is not surprising that the cabbages look green, leafy and fresh and the onion shoots are growing tall, straight and fat. I have now seen these fields by daylight from above and at night from below and marvel at the intensive cultivation, so tidy, within a stone’s throw of a major city motorway, an express railway line, an international airport and a succession of towns, all part of the great city of Osaka.

Hineno is not the only place where such urban agriculture takes place. While people plant flowers and trees around their houses, they may also include some herbs, and if they have a bit of extra space, kitchen gardens are created. In the parts of Japan I know best, larger fields are devoted to rice, and more rice. And then, there is tea, most famously growing around Shizuoka and Uji, much of it in picturesque small patches, where the bushes are trimmed to round hedge shapes. Elsewhere, I have seen orchards of fruit trees, including apples, pears and oranges. The high mountaintops, if not covered in forests, may hold grassy fields and be browsed by dairy cows. In Honshu, these are often farms open to the general public, where much of the income is achieved from visitors, and dairy products are sold to day trippers. It is Hokkaido where most of the milk for the whole of Japan is produced.

Japan is a densely populated country, with steep mountains covering most of its surface. The population is concentrated in the flat and the hilly countryside. These are also the areas that can be cultivated -- hence, the need to use every square metre of space carefully.

One of the grand example of Luxury Lodgings in the capital of the United Kingdom! What a origninal style! ( London in 2009 with the love for authentic hotels! ).