Slanted: Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden for the Yokosuka City Museum 天神島臨海自然教育園

 

Keep on walking the road where the former imperial villa stands. It will end up at Sajima Marina, the port for pleasure boats established in 1965 with a hotel. Before reaching there, first we meet with the North Entrance for the Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden with the Admin Office. You can enter from here, or walk a few minutes more passing a Shintoism Shrine, which is a typical arrangement of pre-1945 Japanese high society. Soon on our right we are welcomed by South Entrance of the Garden with the visitor centre and parking spaces. To this point we are walking along a fenced forest. This is a curious forest of Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden. As it has a peculiar feature, we cannot enter inside the forest without permission. So, please enjoy it while you‘re walking to the Garden Gate. Oh, one important notice. The toilets are available in the buildings at North and South Gates, but no facility inside the garden itself. If you need it, please complete the necessary thing before venturing into the Garden.

The North Entrance for the Garden.
A cute house for admin purpose would be
 the remnant of Imperial summer cottage.

Shintoism shrine

The forest.
As this is the part along the road to the Marina,
comparatively speaking the area is relatively
well secluded from the direct sea winds and splashes.

The area of Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden is designated Natural Treasure of Yokosuka City and strictly protected as a nature reserve. We cannot beach-comb or take a petit crab home for souvenir. Instead, the visitor centre of the Garden has a good museum. It is small, but explains quite well the ecosystem of the Garden and the folkloric feature of the community around Sajima Fishing Port. According to the exhibitions, the sea in the Biological Garden has more than 100 species of sea slugs. The number species in the family of shellfish is also phenomenal. There are also baby sea creatures. Many of them found refuge in the nooks of rocky beach where the strong current of Pacific Ocean is moderated by the undersea geology. Many fishes of tropical area which reach this far north stay here during summer and even hatch eggs. The adults or babies of tropical species cannot survive cold water of winter and die. Come next spring, the new tropical creatures come ... the exhibition says marine biologists doubt if the number of such fishes are increasing in the Garden. They watch. It‘s the frontline to observe Global Warming.

The Visitor Centre at the South Gate

Many aquariums for creatures of the Garden
welcome us at the entrance.

The models of sea slugs living in the Garden.
They are so beautiful.
According to the exhibition,
they were once shell fishes but changed their mind
 and threw away the cumbersome shell.
In order to protect their body without shells,
they armed themselves with poison. Whoops.

They have colouring pictures of living things in the Garden,
 free of charge, for us to take as souvenirs.

Yesteryear’s artefacts of old fishing village

Outside, there is a how-to notice to enjoy the Garden.

Outside the Visitor Centre, there begins the strolling path of the Garden. Having said that, the path of the Garden is only one, circling the curious forest. On our right if we come from the Visitor Centre, there is a fence and a forest. On our left is rocky shore of Miura Peninsula. Provided watching your kids well and behaving carefully, you can venture into the places of tidal pools and complicated seashores around rocks. The geology of the Garden is also interesting as the strata created 5 or more million years ago below sea could be observed first hand. We can find volcanic ashes of probably gigantic eruption piled up in the bottom of the sea and pushed up by tectonic movement. Tiny fishes, crabs, barnacles ... all in the pool and quickly tried to make a distance from human shadows ... Hey, I don‘t harm you. I just only watch how you live there ... The crannies between volcanic strata are filled with conglomerates and fragments of shells. Beautiful unbroken shells of cowry can be found here and there. The living versions must live under sea here. Please do not take them home. Return the cowry to the beach. This is a protected area.

Outside the Visitor Centre.
The beginning for the strolling path
 and over there is an opening to the shore.

Many families enjoyed autumn sea.

I tried to photo the baby fishes ...

This vertical stratum tells us
the humongous power of tectonic movement.

Here, the volcanic conglomerates were
locked in the pile of ashes
 then received gigantic pressure
 to be a part of a rock ... 5 million years ago?

The place is actually an island connected to the Miura Peninsula only with the Tenjin Bridge. To the west of the Garden there is a tiny reef, Kasa-jima, which is prohibited to visit unless you have an official permit for scientific research. The intention of private life for the imperial family 80 years ago protected the area as a nature reserve. The forest in the middle of the island must have been a part of their intention. I guess when Prince and Princess were here, the Marina was not there. So, the forest was a bit larger and natural rocky shore surrounded entire island where the forest situated at the center and an imperial villa at the entrance. The vegetation of the forest was those strong ones which do not care much strong salty winds and water from sandy soil. Near the Visitor Centre, there is a patch in the forest where crinum lilies grow wild. Actually, this is the northern-most spot for them to live naturally in Japanese archipelago. Curiously, all the plants in the forest are slanted to the north as if they are parry sea winds. The person who‘s taking care of the place told me this summer the inside was affected by a long outbreak of tussock moths. Their caterpillars ate leaves bare for many camelias and large trees inside. Lots of withered trees over the fence, she said. Yeah, Miura Peninsula is warm, but too long summer, good for the moth, would be due to the global warming ...

Kasa-jima over there

The path for the Garden runs like this.

The patch for crinum lilies

Ampelopsis glandulosa var. heterophylla

Japanese cheesewood,
a typical coast plant for Kanagawa Prefecture.
They thrive on such a rocky and sandy soil ...

The plants inside the fence are growing
to the direction of the “mainland,”
away from the sea, it seems to me.

Lilium maculatum,
another typical coast plant for Kanagawa.
They still had flowers in late October.

Looking the forest from the seashore.
They are not tall trees, certainly.

Peeking in the forest. Hmmmmmmm …

Looks wild enough.

Moths-infested inside.

Many suggestions have been observed in the Botanical Garden for climate change. It would be a sign how fragile the ecosystem of the Garden. We should be attentive for this place to survive as a playing ground for tiny sea creatures. I imagine the vibrant sea life was one of the things the imperial couple loved ... I‘ve been there in a weekend of October and found many families enjoying sea creatures. I guess if it had been in the mid-summer, the place would be congested and the visitors sometimes have to wait for a parking space. If you go there during winter, the crowd should be smaller. For a sunny day without wind, the Garden is a therapeutic place. Please try, and experience imperial sitting in the winter sun. It is refreshing, I tell you.

Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden 天神島臨海自然教育園

3-7-3 Sashima, Yokosuka, 240-0103
〒240-0103　 神奈川県横須賀市佐島3丁目7-3

Phone: 046-856-0717
Fax: 046-856-0717

Open

9：00 - 17：00 (April-September),  9：00 - 16：30 (October-March)

Closed

Every Monday (or if Monday is National Holiday, Tuesday) and December 29 -January 3

Admission Free

You can send an enquiry to m-bes@city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp

Keepsake of a Prince: Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden for the Yokosuka City Museum 天神島臨海自然教育園

 

The shores of Tokyo Bay are more or less concreted. Since Tokyo became the center of Japanese politics in 1600, people has continuosly engaged in massive civil engineering projects such as reclamation and changing the course of rivers. Now the look we have for the Bay is as such. Even though, there remains few spots where we can experience the remnants of original ecosystem. The previous Tone River and Arakawa River poured in the Bay from the east. The east shores of Tokyo Bay were a low land delta of these rivers. The remaining natural shores of the Bay for Chiba Prefecture are tidal flats of shallow sea. The west shores of the Bay, i.e. Kanagawa side, were the continuation of such flats until around Kan‘nai business district of Yokohama where in the 19th century many ships from overseas arrived. When Japan ended national isolation in 1854 and decided to have the Port of Yokohama in 1859, the first thing people thought was how to supply flesh water for longhaul ships. Yokohama at that time was a tiny village floating in a muddy swamp. Well water was/is salty. And so, there was the construction of the first modern water supply system in Japan for Yokohama, blah blah blah (; my post for January 12, 2018).

Concreted Port of Yokohama

The current Yokohama Chinatown is more or less the end of tidalflats. To the south from Yokohama Yamate (neighboring town to the Chinatown) to the tip of Miura Peninsula, the shores were created by plate techtonics. When the Philippine Plate crawled underneath the Eurasian Plate about 20 -15 million years ago, the earth‘s energy pushed up the deep sea sedimentary mass above water which is the origin of Miura Peninsula. Especially the south of the Miura Peninsula is coastal terraces where small but steep hills are tumbling down to the Tokyo and Sagami Bays, i.e. deep and rocky. That‘s the reason why the US 7th Fleet with an aircraft career uses the Port of Yokosuka. As its geological feature gives nice condition for humans to build ports, Miura Peninsula has lots of harbors, and so concreted. Even though, there are several natural seashores where we can enjoy the sea. One of such place is Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden 天神島臨海自然教育園 for the Yokosuka City Museum. It has a curious forest.

This is also Yokohama, 
in Nojima Island of Kanazawa Hakkei
 (; my post for September 2, 2022)
which is the south end of Yokohama.
Geologically,
this place shows one feature of coastal terrace.

The easiest access to the Garden is by car. It has an ample car park. You command your Car Navigation System to Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden, Yokosuka, and all set. I guess during summer, this parking MUST be very congested ... Using public transformation is another fun to go there. For this method, please go to the terminal station Zushi-Hayama of Keikyu Zushi Line. Leave the station from the South Exit and you immmeidately notice there is a Convini 7/11 over there and a bus stop in front of it. From there, please take Keikyu Bus Zu-71 逗-71 that brings us to Sajima Marina Entrance, the terminal stop. It‘s about 40 minutes bus ride, passing the gate of Imperial Summer House in Hayama, 葉山御用邸. I you remember our bus ride from the foot of Mt. Ogusu (; my post for April 24, 2024), this is the way we took from the opposite direction. Now we see Sagami Bay on our right from the bus. This time, the commuter service turn right before reaching the bus stop we used from Mt. Ogusu. The bus goes into Sajima housing area and reach the top of the hill, then descend down to Sajima Fishing Port. The final stop of this service, Sajima Marina Entrance, is next to the Fishing Port.

This is the bus which brings us to Sajima Marina Entrance,

and the terminal stop of Sajima Marina Entrance.

Get off at the terminal stop, and you‘ll find a cafe Portland‘s on your left. Take the road to the cafe‘s direction and turn left to a road in front of Portland‘s. Along the road, on your left is a Japanese restaurant Hikonoya, and on your right is a Italian restaurant AzzurrA Mare SAJIMA. I tell you both are at the high-end. There’s a reason for it. Passing AzzurrA Mare, there is a small bridge named Tenjin Bridge, and beyond of it on our right, there is an elegant white house with a large garden. It was a summer house of Prince Takeda … Explaining this princely house is a bit complicated … The Prince was a descendant of the 102nd Emperor Gohanazono (1419-1471). Emperor Meiji, Great-Great Grandfather of the current Emperor, had only one prince who came of age, i.e. Emperor Taisho, the Great Grandfather of the present Emperor. Japanese government at that time was afraid of the end of Imperial Family. Er, well, Meiji Emperor had 15 kids with 5 ladies (none the Empress). Among them 4 princesses survived and became adult enough to be a bride. So Meiji people did not have to worry if they were more female friendly. This way of thinking still continues for the current succession issues of Emperor in Japan … Anyway, the government at that time dug up the old documents to find a guy who had some blood relation to the Imperial family. They found and let him marry the 6th Princess of Emperor Meiji. In this way, the new Imperial family man became Prince Takeda and a younger brother of Emperor Taisho for the just-in-case scenario. Such thing did not happen, and the son of Emperor Taisho became Emperor Showa who met General McArther in 1945 after the defeat of the Pacific War. Prince Takeda returned to be a common man under the occupation by the US commander. Until that 1945 the graceful white house beyond Tenjin Bridge was the summer house of Prince and Princess Takeda. The princely family thought they should have such place near Hayama where their elder brother, Emperor Taisho, loved. Also, they secluded the place beyond the Tenjin Bridge as their private garden. That’s why now we had Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden, escaping concreat except the foundation of princely house. Next week, let‘s enter this nature reserve.

Portland‘s Cafe

Take the direction of the arrow.

Hikonoya

AzzurrA Mare SAJIMA

Tenjin Bridge. It‘s small.
Over there on the right is a former Imperial Summer House.
It is now a private property of a commoner.
Oh, by the way,
the place for Prince Takeda‘s principal residence is
 now Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo.

Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden 天神島臨海自然教育園

3-7-3 Sajima, Yokosuka, 240-0103
〒240-0103　 神奈川県横須賀市佐島3丁目7-3

Phone: 046-856-0717
Fax: 046-856-0717

Open 9：00 - 17：00 (April-September), 10月〜3月　9：00 - 16：30 (October-March)
Closed: Every Monday (or if Monday is National Holiday, Tuesday) and December 29 -January 3
Admission Free

You can send an enquiry to m-bes@city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp

Beyond Boring Daily Life: Making bamboo instruments with artists

 

Bamboo is a useful plant to make musical instruments. Its structure is a series of pipes separated by nodes. Breaking the walls of nodes will make one compartment of the pipe longer. Naturally, it becomes the material for designing wind instruments. The most famous example would be Japanese shakuhachi flute. Also, bamboo is easy to work with knife. We can cut and carve it to make not only winds, but percussion and even the bodies of strings.

A bamboo xylophone created by artists
for Forest Labo this year.

Ditto. A different version

Creating instruments for pros requires skills, of course, and it’s not within the scope of my blog. Instead, I tell you today my adventure to create an instrument for a complete novice like me. My teacher was artists from the Forest Labo. It’s a kind of percussion with guiro. Let me tell you how to. First, create a main body from bamboo. For any craft with bamboo trunks, we start by removing wax oil covering them by (1) drying it for about a month after felling, (2) then, boil it or scorch the surface with a handheld burner. The procedure removes water and oil from the trunk and makes the material more durable. The dirt on the surface of bamboo can be removed simultaneously when we wipe with dry towels the coming up oil over the material. After the treatment, dry the material completely. It takes about a month in Yokohama during autumn and winter. Here are the bamboo Forest Labo people prepared for us.

It’s roughly 25cm or so long, and 5cm inner diameter. To decorate it later, it would be better to cut both sides of a node diagonally, keeping the wall inside. I think simple straight cut of bamboo trunk could be OK as well, but the sound will be different. Next, make 4 holes at the point 2cm from the center, or if you use a node one hole for each sideof a node. The position of holes are like

We can choose the points of the holes for 3, 6, 9, and 12 o’clock if we like. But again I guess the sound will be different. Anyway, these points are what the sculptors for Forest Lab chose. After you drill the holes at these points, make straight slits from the mouth of the pipe to the hole with a craft saw. I guess these gaps for a pipe of two compartments will make a more complicated sound compared with a sound from an unprocessed bamboo trunk.

Inside

We next make guiro. Mark 9 lines on a bamboo surface with a pen and make shallow cuts on the lines with a rasp. Depending on the length of the bamboo, number of cuts would be larger or smaller.

Marked

Start making guiro

Done!

For a final touch, we decorate the instrument with colorful strings of jute. First stick a double-sided tape around the node of the bamboo. Peel the surface side of the tape and paste 4 decoration strings on the tape. The main body of the instrument is completed. It’s easy.

Taping the bamboo

Decoration

Done

Then, we make a drumstick. Cut a joint mat of foam flooring in the form of below photo, and fasten a wood square stick, 26cm long and 1cm wide of its side, with relatively strong wire. We have to make it sure they are attached firmly. Next, cover the other side of the stick with a plastic tube cut for about 1.5cm long. This tube must fit tightly to the stick. It could be tricky to accomplish this procedure. After casing the other end, wrap the point with a double-sided tape, then wind a jute string tightly around. Securing both ends of the string with instant glue, and a drumstick for this bamboo instrument is done.

Securely fastened joint mat

Plastic tubes for another end

In order to secure the tube,
we slightly sharpen the stick with a rasp.

Secured tube is now covered with a double-sided tape.

The end wrapped with jute string.
The string is applied super-glue.

As a sort of afterthought, we can make a stand for this (maybe) percussion with the remaining foam flooring like this. Each part is simply glued.

My stand

To make sounds, we can use either side of the stick. With the mat, we hit the mouths of the instrument and make dry sounds. With the string-wrapped mallet, we hit the body of the instrument, which creates more echoing sound inside the pipe. The drumstick can be a stick for guiro. After making it, I felt joy. I hit and scratched the instrument until I reached the bus stop with another adult passengers waiting for the bus to come … They saw me in a puzzling face. “What is she doing?" Being an adult is boring.

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-353-1166
FAX：045-352-3086
email: mk-hokubukoen@city.yokohama.lg.jp