Coming: Early spring 2026, Niiharu Citizen Forest

 

Last week, Yokohama was cold. The temperature was around 8°C at best. Greens around us on street looked bleak … This weekend, the highest temperature has reached 14 or 15°C in the North Forest of Yokohama. Finally?

Tadpoles started swimming in Niiharu.

Spring ephemeral, Wind flowers now have florets.

This is also Spring ephemeral, Carex conica Boott.

Yellow avalanche lilies show their buds.

This time of the year,
Pertya scandens have pretty popping plumules.

In Niiharu,
there are lot of trees of Early stachyurus,
Japanese native.
But those receiving lots of sunshine open first.
Flowers are honest.

I think this year
Orychophragmus violaceus flower earlier than violets.
They came from China about 300 years ago.
I heard in China they are vegetable.
Here, we normally don’t eat them.

Er …
chestnuts at the tip of a tree remain there as such …

Fritillaria verticillata var. thunbergii open its flowers now.
They are the first comers for flowering
in early spring and become dormant in late May.

Spring is coming honestly, I feel. But like the very short autumn last year it could end quickly. When the cherry blossoms are gone, Yokohama might jump into hot summer … global warming. Let us see.

Sawtooth oaks have new buds now.

If you have any questions about Yokohama’s Green Tax and Green Up Plan, please make a contact with

Strategic Planning Division, Green Environment Bureau, City of Yokohama
横浜市みどり環境局戦略企画課

Phone: 045-671-2712 

FAX: 045-550-4093

Email: mk-kikaku@city.yokohama.lg.jp

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

VERY dry: drought?

 

Since this spring we’re watching the price of rice souring. You see? Before, Japanese paid taxes by rice. Commoners did not have enough money and time to enjoy tempuras, stewed veggies, etc, and so made do only with steamed rice for daily meal. Harvesting new rice was fundamentally important for Japanese psyche. Expensive rice has been serious political issues always. Several political powers collapsed because of expensive rice. Upper House election last month had big issues about rice. We’re serious for rice. Simple economics says when a price of good is going up it is a sign of scarcity. Last autumn, the government said we had plenty of rice. This summer, the doubt for statistics for tonnage of rice harvest came everybody’s mind. Was the government incorrect?

Wow. Expensive for every meal use …

This is what the Government released
 from their emergency warehouse.
 They were harvested some 4 years ago,
and have this price tag now.
 Have you noticed people are purchasing it,
according to the stockpile
 compared with the above photo?

One of the senior members of Niiharu Lovers Association was born in a Rice Bowl place and received regular gift of rice from her sister who married a rice farmer in her hometown. She was thankful she did not have to visit supermarket for rice since she moved into Yokohama decades ago. Alas no more. She said, “My sister said everybody visited her field for rice so often. Her business monetized all the stock. They now have enough rice only for her family. She does not have rice for me. I visited the supermarket, and astonished with their price tag!” Even in Yokohama, landlords of (tiny) fallow lands have returned planting rice to harvest any this fall. We had a sort of “hope” when new harvest season comes this month, we will have some breathing space for our meal …

The rice paddies here was a fallow land until recently.

Then, we’re having extremely harsh summer with very short monsoon season. We are hearing the news from Rice Bowl area their rice paddies are drying up. I recalled last winter people for the townhall of Hadano City was worried about small snow caps in Tanzawa Mountains and low water levels for rivers running there. Even the ground for my Mom’s garden is drying. We’re busy sprinkling ... Small rivers in Yokohama have very thin streams now, and its banks are covered by weeds for dry land. The vegetation will soon collapse under the scorching sun if no enough rain falls. Typhoons do not give enough … Global warming?

The small stream is almost swallowed
by weeds …

Do you think this point received
enough rainwater from a typhoon
 some 3 hours ago?

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with 

Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

ALART “Wait Is Over”: SFTS finally reaches Kanagawa Prefecture

 

For Kanagawa Prefecture, there has been a continuing menace approaching from the West. Then, early this month, the wait was finally over. On July 11th, Kanagawa Prefecture announced a lady of her 60s in Matsuda Town, where Yadoriki Water Source Forest locates, was bitten by a tick in her neighbourhood and contracted Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, aka SFTS. She was hospitalized, but now is discharged and recovering.

SFTS is a disease caused by SFTS virus carried by ticks. When we are affected, we have fever, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, severe fatigue, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and/or lymphadenopathy. If you have these symptoms after bitten by a tick, please rush to a nearby hospital and ask help. It’s a deadly disease. Before, we had effective antibiotics, but no more. The virus has evolved into superbug, and we do not have a medicine to kill the virus inside the body. We must have invasive symptomatic treatments to maintain life and to wait our strength to quell the virus from the body. Already this year, one vet in Mie Prefecture 三重県 died after contracting the disease when he treated a cat patient.

Researchers stroke such bushes
with velvety cloth to collect ticks.

SFTS is carried by a tick. These bugs bite animals to suck blood. They have sharp scissors-like mouth that first cut our skin. Then, their long “tooth” which is a syringe needle with sawtooth-like surface is inserted into our body. The needle with tooth acts like a stopper to prevent the bug from being removed easily from the prey. When they insert their needle, they inject several kinds of body fluid of concrete-like materials to make the concatenation durable for a week. They bite into the skin firmly and drink blood until they are completely satiated. They can stay at the point for a week to drink 1L of blood. Their body fluids carry many kinds of viruses. SFTS is one of such bugs.

The place looks innocuous …

So, it’s important not to be bitten by ticks. Ticks with SFTS live in bushes. They are not necessarily in shrubs of remote countryside, but also on lawns for city parks. The method is applicable for the greenery everywhere.

1. Wear garments covering your body. Short pans and tank tops for Grand Canyon or Yosemite are HUGE NO-NO.

2. Apply plenty of insect repellent before going to a greenery whether it’s in National Park or garden next to a skyscraper in downtown. The blind spot is feet. Do not forget to spray insect repellent enough over your foot even wearing heavy-duty trekking shoes.

3. Do not put your luggage unguarded on the ground. Reason? Obvious. Do not let ticks crawl near your body! Spray mint-water over the place you intend to leave your bag. Ticks do not like the smell. Then spread plastic sheet over the sprayed ground, spray mint again over the sheet, and finally you leave your bag, and/or sit on the ground for lunch.

4. If you’re bitten, NEVER try to pry out the bug from your body. It shall destroy the body of the tick, and more virus-infected fluids will come out. The virus soup immediately seeps in the prey’s body through already needle inserted would. No good things occur. Please rush to the hospital with your tick, and leave the pro to remove the bug. 

5. NEVER bring ticks home. Do not bring your jacket inside car and home. Before leaving the site, please check if your garments carry ticks. If there are, put it in a plastic bag, and disinfect it in boiling water. Ticks do not die with simple washing. Also, take shower and/ or bath immediately after you come home from tick-loving bushes. Check your entire body if you’re unaffected.

The tick-SFTS problem has been rife in Western Japan from around 2011. We in Kanagawa Prefecture have been smugly relaxed. We could lie down freely on lawns and have lunch on a stump along our hiking roads. Those were the days. When Kanagawa is infected, Tokyo et al will follow. If you plan to stroll the greenery in Megalopolis Tokyo area, please be careful. If you have any questions, please make a contact with Japan Institute for Health Security. Here is their PR pamphlet for treating ticks problem. Sorry it’s in Japanese, but your AI will solve the language problem, I guess. Good luck.

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/