Photographs from a small group of islands
With the Japanese capital not exactly blessed with a glut of greenery or gardens, those with a penchant for planting things often have to go about their business as best as they can.
Plus, as the city’s population continues to rise — which at present it is doing at a faster pace than once foreseen — farmers tilling away in western Tokyo may well become just as unfamiliar, with cultivation giving way to accommodation.
Along with those doing the digging slowly dying off.
For the Tokyoite with a hobby that is hampered by the size of his or her home, there would appear to be a passable solution — simply practice it on the pavement outside the apartment.
A procedure that not only pleases the person whose place it is, but also pedestrians who periodically pass by.
Along with those in search of a soothing sit down.
And yet while particularly packed fish tanks placed in public aren’t exactly what one would term as typical, what’s arguably much more amazing is that after an obliviously long time left totally unattended, they haven’t even been touched,
let alone trashed.
They may well be particularly pricey, but with their perfect complexions and positively pendulous parts, Japan’s state-of-the-art silicone sex dolls are surprisingly popular.
An appearance, and some would say persona, that has even been scrupulously replicated by certain celebrities, offering up similarly heaving human hybrids of sorts.Â
But that said, some manufacturers in the plastic pal market appear much more intent on producing partners who are neither appealing nor preposterously proportioned, and instead are placing personality as the main priority.
Perhaps.
Now should you really want to, clicking on the picture above will produce not only a bigger image but one boasting a bit of bondage along with a bit of the dolls bits too, which, needless to say, are most definitely not suitable for work — or indeed the somewhat sensitive.
Had Otis Redding been sitting — or indeed standing — on the dock of the bay watching the roller coaster rattle by rather than the more relaxing roll of the tide, then possibly his famous song wouldn’t have been as popular.
Or indeed poetic.
Japan’s seemingly indefatigable desire to decorate almost everything with English while at the same time showing an utter disregard for dictionaries, offers up an enormous, and at the same time strangely endearing, loot of language lapses.
A collection that appeals to both the pedant and the person looking for a pathetically easy post, providing a ready supply of the largely readable,
to the rather more riddle-like.
But that’s not to say Japan has a monopoly on such mistakes, as a recent trip to China proved that Japan’s near neighbour can comfortably compete on more than merely the economy, with some train travellers apparently urged to suppress any desire to discard the staff,
regardless of how incensed they may be by the service.