Comfy: Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, III 東京港野鳥公園

 

We enter the Wild Bird Park from only one gate. In front of the ticket booth on our right we find small another entrance. (The map of the Park in English is here.) It leads us to the main part of West Park where rice paddies and a small freshwater pond locate and volunteers are active for tending the place. There are two observation-hides by the pond for bird watching. Also kids can ask the admin office to borrow an insect net and a cage to hunt butterflies et al around the rice paddies, provided they release their catch after the observation. (Private nets and cages are prohibited.) Even though we had “semi-draught” this winter, the pond kept water and small flocks of migratory water birds stayed here over the winter. As the West Park was opened first in the making of Wild Bird Park, the reclaimed ground here could be the most stable.

Admin Office with ticket booths

The entrance to main part of West Park

Turning left in front of the ticket booth, there is a wide lawn field with a pergola. This is also a part of West Park. The space is surrounded by probably planted trees of garden variety and a chimney that is for venting the gas from underground, i.e. the foundation material for reclamation = ancient garbage of Tokyo. Including this space, the paths for the West Park are all more or less flat and easy to walk, including for wheelchair users. The atmosphere of the place is open and incredibly relaxed. It’s easy to forget we’re in the middle of big warehouses for Tokyo. Though, at the south-east corner of the open field we are suddenly reminded our neighbor is Ota Wholesale Market for Megalopolises stomach. There, a long bridge passes over the industrial road entering the Market. We have to cross it to arrive the East Park.

Open field

The road circling the open lawn field

The bridge is big and long.

The beginning of East Park

East Park is larger with a substantial mass of water, fresh or otherwise. Before opening the entire area of East Park in 2018, the Metropolitan Government did massive civil engineering work to stabilize the water area. When I’ve been there this winter, I could not see the erosion from the sea to the park. Rather, because of the draught, the freshwater pond was almost dried up. The rangers for Wild Bird Society of Japan told us this winter they could not record meaningful visit of water birds there. That’s sad. The area for freshwater ponds in East Park is large. It also situates almost side-by-side with the sea water of Tokyo Bay. I imagine environmental wise the biota of East Park is very interesting. The dry grasses in the freshwater area were still common reeds and bulrush. The existence of Chines silver grass was limited … no serious aridification yet. Let us keep crossing our fingers the wetland there remains even with the climate change …

All dried up this winter for
the freshwater pond in the East Park

The freshwater part and tidal pond, sitting side by side

The tidal pond

The strolling path in East Park from the bridge is more or less one way. It should be difficult to lose. There are several work paths branching out from this wide road. Such roads are close　 to the public with barricade, but a couple of days in a year the Park hold events for the visitors to enter the path, including the Bay shore, circling the entire East Park. Please check their HP if you’re curious about the event. Still, walking the year-round open way is interesting enough to experience the “man-made natural” forest. Some of the trees are apparently horticulturally planted, but the majority sprouted some 50 years ago and has grown big this much by 2026. The undergrowth is also “wild.” There are some patches where it looks the management tried to make this route “elegant park way” but the power of weeds easily overrode the human intention. The road itself is wide enough and well managed for a pickup truck would come and go, i.e. wheelchair users can come. Normally our neighborhood is hilly. Handicapped people are often denied access to enjoy the forest. Not here!

It’s impressive these trees naturally
came out decades ago …

The “wild” forest surrounds the tidal pond.

Along the open path in East Park, there are 4 observation hides/blinds for birdwatching. All are sturdy wooden structure facing to the water. However, this winter due to the draught, East Observation Blind to the freshwater pond did not work as the intended site. *Sigh* The other 3 points are all facing water connected to Tokyo Bay. You can come here and stay as much as you like to admire birds. Caution: the entire Park is popular for birdwatchers in Megalopolis Tokyo. Securing a nice seat in any observation hide could be a matter of fierce competition. Please be polite to your fellow watchers whichever camera and lenses you carry. Thank you. 😊

A sight from Maehama Tidal Flats Observation Blind.
This body of water is really Tokyo Bay.

Yet, one of the most comfortable birdwatching hide is in a big building that is Nature Center standing on the shore of the tidal ponds. This is the place where the Wild Bird Society stations. It also has nice toilets, vending machines for snacks, lots of educational displays for the nature of Wild Bird Park, and a playroom for toddlers to crawl around. Moreover, inside has powerful air-conditioning, i.e. cool during boiling summer and warm in dead winter. It has very large glass windows that make us possible sitting on comfy benches to observe the entire tidal ponds. Wheelchair users also can birdwatch there without bumping shoulders with others. I’ve been there in January and found the arrangement super comfortable. Yeah, it is no-no to have lunch on observation benches, but inside the building there is a corner where we can open our sandwiches. Also, there is no time restriction to sit. It seems to me the regulars of bazooka-sized camera lenses situate themselves by the window and wait for a long time to capture “this” moment of osprey, etc. hunting over the tidal pool. Knowing enough technique to refine the photo taken in this condition, it can produce a satisfactory picture of birds, I guess.

The Main Entrance to Nature Center

Inside

A photo I took from the building.
Could you see there is a bird resting on the post over there?

I’ve found a Siberian sand plover from the room.
It was cute.

So, the birdwatching Park artificially created for a wholesale market provides us with completely artificial observational blind to admire nature. Er, I know. You will say the point for enjoying forest is to feel winds rustling trees while smelling the air. Yup. But sitting for hours to wait for a small bird to come does not have to require endurance game, don’t you think? Anyway, this is the season for Sandpipers and Plovers in Wild Bird Park. On May 17, the Park will have an annual festival for families to enjoy. Some of the programs, like free distribution of blueberry saplings, require reservation. The acceptance of reservation starts on May 8th. Please check their HP for detail. Oh, one more thing. Tokyo has another seaside park with a similar story near the border to Chiba Prefecture. If you’re interested in the place, please try. The name of the Park is Tokyo Metropolitan Kasai Marine Park 葛西臨海公園.

Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園管理事務所

3-1 Tokai, Ota Ward, Tokyo, 143-0001
〒143-0001　東京都大田区東海3-1

Phone: 03-3799-5031
FAX: 03-3799-5032

You can send an enquiry to them from here: https://www.tptc.co.jp/support/contact/park/yatyo

Pls. Visit There NOW for Sandpipers and Plovers!: Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, II 東京港野鳥公園

 

So, I tell you the beginning of the place. The bayside area of Tokyo, and to Yokohama’s Kan’nai 関内 area for that matter, was all shoal as a delta created by old Arakawa River 荒川. The reclamation of the swampy ground began long years ago, including the biggest and oldest civil engineering project in the middle of the 15th century by Ota Dokan 太田道灌. Come to think of it such endeavor is still going on. The bayside is expanding the land not only for Tokyo, but also Chiba and Kanagawa Prefectures … more than 600 years of human intervention … Yet, 60 years ago, the area around Haneda Airport was still a shoal. There were several fishing villages where fishermen engaged in nori cultivation. They caught fishes for Edomae sushi. Though especially after the end of World War II when Japanese economy entered the high growth period, the villages were rapidly encircled by huge plants for heavy industries. Haneda Airport was expanding as THE international gate for Tokyo. These conditions produced serious sea pollution. Fishing as a livelihood became difficult. Former fishing villages were now a part of Ota Ward, one of Tokyo’s special districts. Fishermen changed their business.

The moat surrounding the Imperial Palace is
the remnants of old delta that became Tokyo.
This part was reclaimed by Tokugawa Shogunate
 during the 16^th century.

Meanwhile, Tokyo was becoming more and more megalopolis. Before the wholesale food markets, including Tsukiji Market, were located around Akihabara 秋葉原 due to the historical legacy from the 16th century. By the second half of the 20th century, everything became cramped for Tokyo’s young (oh, yeah, it was so before) stomach. In the 1950s the Metropolitan Government began searching for wide open space not far from the center of Tokyo. The only, and to some extent traditional, choice was the land reclaimed in Tokyo Bay. Then, there was a shoal next to the airport some 20 minutes train ride from Tokyo Station, where traditional fishing villages were disappearing. Bingo. The former nori-farming shoal was quickly filled up to make a huge enough space for metropolitan wholesale food market. The story becomes interesting from here.

In Wild Bird Park, we can watch birds and airplanes fly together.

I don’t know if it could happen with today’s 21st century technology. But during the 1960s, it took time to convert the sea shoal to dry land, to make it sturdy enough to build large warehouses and wholesale market, and to build operational structures including the industrial wide roads. No one was lazy to make a large food market for hungry Tokyo, but it was 1990 when the current system of Ota Wholesale Market was completed. The project took 30 years to finish. i.e., during this civil engineering process, large reclaimed areas were left as “reclaimed land” waiting for their turn to receive constructions. Then, something interesting happened. Whatever the human intention, Tokyo Bay is a part of the Pacific Ocean. Especially at the edge of filled-up area, the Mother Nature “reclaimed” the space as sea. Moreover, the artificial hill that was expected to retain its above-sea height started to subsidence, if not to collapse. The depression did not reach the original sea level, but deep enough to gather rainwater as a pond. Meanwhile, the drainage system for the cities surrounding Tokyo Bay was continuously updated and the sea pollution became an episode in history books.

Water surface for Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, now.

In addition, even if the area remained dry and waited for buildings, it did not remain as the original construction site. Similar to new volcanic and coral islands, lots of plants started sprouting. Maybe, the soil used for reclamation contained lots of dormant seeds. Or some could come from the sea, and the other would be thanks to animal dispersal, mainly by birds and from the soil carried by boots of human construction workers. They were not only herbaceous, but also woody plants. The put-off area became more and more a landscape of original Arakawa delta that could be seen 500 years ago. When plants started to thrive, small animals such as insects, rats, birds, etc. came from somewhere nearby and stayed there as their new home, just like many new Tokyoites coming to Megalopolis. The old residents of nori-farming shoal, i.e. fishes, crabs, etc. also returned to the new shoal next to Ota Wholesale Market. The food for seabirds, and then hawkeyed raptors became more and more abundant in this artificial site. Humans were also sharp-eyed.

Admitting some trees were later planted
by professional landscapers,
many of these plants in Wild Bird Park
came out naturally, really.

In the 1970s, many local nature lovers started to come here to watch birds, dragonflies, crabs, flowers, fishes, etc. Some noticed the area was important for migratory birds at least for a resting place. The voices from people pushed the Metropolitan Government to demarcate the area as Bird Sanctuary, and hence to decouple from the development of the Ota Market. In 1978, the Met government completed the construction of the Sanctuary Park, and in 1983 the Park changed its name to the current Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園. At that time, flattened against the Ota Market the size of the Park was modest 3.2ha. By 1989 the Park was extended for 24.9ha and the Nature Center was opened where the rangers from the Wild Bird Society of Japan stationed. In 2000, the shoal of the Park was registered for the East Asian–Australian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) as an important transit stop for migratory Sandpipers and Plovers traveling between Australia and Siberia. In 2018, the Metropolitan government re-reclaimed the filled-up shoal and made it 3 times wider than the area where the Tokyo Bay naturally regained after the landfill construction. So, now, the Wild Bird Park has the size of 36ha.

The exhibit in the Nature Center for
Little Tern, the species for Plovers

The story is a bit stupid, I felt. Now the Wild Bird Park envelops the entire north side of the Ota Market in the middle of industrial warehouses of Tokyo. People paid tons of money to have a new land 60 years ago, and in the 21st century paid another tax-money to return the artificially reclaimed space to the original shoal … Never mind. Mother Nature is stronger than human convenience for quick access to a large food market. Good tuition fee. Oh, by the way, Sandpipers and Plovers visit the Park every April and May, i.e., NOW! If you have a chance to go there within few weeks, please try. Next week, I tell you how comfortable the observation facilities in the Park are for bird watchers. 😉

The rangers showed us the observation-points
for Sandpipers and Plovers.

Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園管理事務所

3-1 Tokai, Ota Ward, Tokyo, 143-0001
〒143-0001　東京都大田区東海3-1

Phone: 03-3799-5031
FAX: 03-3799-5032

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at https://www.tptc.co.jp/support/contact/park/yatyo

The other way round: Ota Central Wholesale Market and Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, I 東京港野鳥公園

 

This week, I divert a bit from Kanagawa to tell you my adventure in Tokyo. As long as I know, Kanagawa does not have such forest. I think not many forests with similar stories exist in Japan. Why is this place so unique? It’s because the forest is completely man-made, including its ground. Or, I should say at least the beginning of the place was artificial some 60 years ago. The climate of Tokyo gave ecological succession, which has given the biota there a “natural” forest. Don’t you think it’s interesting? It’s an ultimate “Nature Positive” place where a collaboration of nature and humans is still on-going. The name of the place is Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園.

First, the location. Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park is in Ota Ward of Tokyo, embracing Ota Central Wholesale Market which is more or less next to the Haneda International Airport. Toyosu Market is world-famous with lots of touristic attractions, but for ordinary Japanese living in coastal area of Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Yokohama, Ota Market is the place where vegetables, et al come from. As such Ota Market is BIG. The Park is encircling this huge wholesale market. The geographical feature is exactly due to the origin of the place. More to it later. To go there, please take a commuter bus from Shinagawa or Omori Station. From Shinagawa Station, take Metropolitan Bus Shina-98 品-98 and get off at Daitō-Ōi-Butsuryū Center (Mon-Sat) or Ota Market North (holidays) and walk 5-15 minutes. There are more services from Omori Station by Keikyu Bus, Mori 森 -24, 32, 36, 41, 43, 45, 47. Please get off at Wild Bird Park Stop or Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park Stop both of which stand 5 minutes’ walk distance from the Park Entrance. During your bus ride, you may feel uneasiness if this is the right way to visit a forest. Many passengers are working in Tokyo’s logistics center. The scenery from the bus window becomes more and more industrial. Never mind. Just get off the destination stop. Ota Market North, Wild Bird Park, and Tokyo Port Wild Bird Stops are facing the Park itself which suddenly appears as a mass of greenery within rows of warehouses. The journey may give you a very “Tokyo” experience.

One weekend winter morning,
I took a bus to the Park from
commuter bus gate 5 of Omori Station.
This Keikyu Bus route employs fuel cell cars.

Near the park, there is a huge warehouse of JR East.

Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park Stop.
The greenery on our right is the Park area.
The Park is circled by 8-lane industrial roads.

The notice board near the above stop says
“Park Entrance this way, 300m ahead.”
Just follow it.

We’ll find the gate.

The Wild Bird Park is now owned and operated by Tokyo Port Terminal Corporation. The entity’s origin was a public corporation for the development and management of Port of Tokyo. After several organizational transformations, in 2007 it became company limited. With this background, the entrance fee to the Park is free for kids in elementary school or younger. If a 7-9th grader studies in Tokyo, s/he can use the facility free of charge. Adults pay 300 yen at the ticket booth, but on every October 1 entrance is free for all as this is the day for Citizens of Tokyo. The management of the Park is done by Terminal Corporation, but the operation of Nature Centre in the Park is by Japan Wild Bird Society. So, the facilities here for bird watching is, I would say, excellent. The data gathered and published from Wild Bird Park is also very interesting. If you’re a birdwatcher and in Tokyo with some reason, this is the place you can come at least once. It is closed every Monday and New Year holidays. Otherwise, the place opens 9:00-17:00 (February - October) or 9:00-16:30 (November – January).

From the gate, walk up this slope,
which is, by the way,
a completely artificial geographical feature.

At the end of the entrance
there is an admin office with ticket booths.

The panel explaining how to for the usage of the park,
 with English translation.
The place has parking spaces.

Tickets are sold by vending machines.

Entering the Park.
Before going through the gate,
Park volunteers check your ticket.

The Park is “divided” by a wide industrial road coming in Ota Market from the north. Hmmm, I think this expression may give you an impression the human activity destroyed the original wild forest for economic activity … actually the story is completely the other way around. I tell you about it next week. Well, so, the Park has two sections: West and East. West Park is smaller and contains rice paddies and veggie patches where volunteers engage in organic farming. This section also allows kids to catch and release insects with nets lent by the management office at the entrance. i.e. West Park has more facilities for human activity, and, I would say, is “garden-like.” East Park has Nature Center where rangers of the Wild Bird Society are resident. East Park directly faces Tokyo Bay and has tidal flat. I had an impression the area is more “forest-like.”. Let me continue the next week why the East and West are like that. Please stay tuned!

Ota Market, a Sunday morning

West and East Parks are connected by
 a long bridge that goes over the Market.

Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園管理事務所

3-1 Tokai, Ota Ward, Tokyo, 143-0001
〒143-0001　東京都大田区東海3-1

Phone: 03-3799-5031
FAX: 03-3799-5032

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at
https://www.tptc.co.jp/support/contact/park/yatyo

Prehellenistic Plum Garden: Ohkura-yama Garden 大倉山公園

 

Around Yokohama, spring flowers of trees start their new year in turns. The first is wintersweet, which begins blossoming in the middle of January. This year, Yadoriki Wintersweet Festival やどりきロウバイまつり (; my post for February 1, 2019) is from January 13 to February 12. One more week is left … The grand finale is of course cherry blossoms (; my last year’s adventure with cherry blossoms is here), but around the same time in Kanagawa Prefecture flowers of peaches also reach its peak if not as gorgeous as cherries. Penultimate tree flower is Kawazu-zakura (Cerasus lannesiana ʽKawazu-zakura’) that kicks off flowering around the end of February. Kawazu-zakura was first identified in 1955 in Kawazu Town 河津町 of Izu Peninsula, the next door neighbour for Kanagawa Prefecture. So, we have several good places to admire this early flowering cherries, one of which is in Yadoriki Bus Stop along Nakatsu River. Between wintersweets and Kawazu-zakura, we have one elegant entry for this pageantry of flowers. It’s plum.

2023 Cherry blossoms in
Historical Landmark for Saimyoji Temple 最明寺史跡

Plum flowers have been loved by Japanese culture for millennia, in poetry, novel, theatre, song, dance, paintings, sculptures, pottery, etc. etc. As Kanagawa Prefecture has Kamakura 鎌倉, the ancient city that was the centre for Japanese politics between the 12th and 14th centuries, the old temples et al in and around Kamakura have famous plum gardens. Also the area around Odawara 小田原 was once governed by a powerful warlord family, Hojo Clan 北条氏, in the 15th and 16th centuries, which made several cultural establishment in the area famous for plum trees. Actually, one of the local special goods for Odawara is products made of plum fruits. Compared with such grande dames, as Yokohama is a young city that became a large community after the middle of the 19th century, we don’t have gardens with such traditional accreditation. But we’re trying. Sankei-en Garden 三渓園 in Naka Ward began tending plum trees some 100 years ago. They begin looked “traditional.” City Parks also plant plums, and the municipality hires professional gardeners to look after them. One of such “newly traditional plum gardens” is in Ohkura-yama 大倉山 where lots of nursery schools are located for parents commuting to the offices in Tokyo. The name of the place is, surprisingly, Ohkura-yama Garden 大倉山公園.

The plum flowers in Niinaru. We’re trying.

The route to Ohkura-yama Plum Garden is easy. You get off at Ohkura-yama Station of Tokyu Toyoko Line, leave the station to the west. That is on your left when you face the Tokyo direction. There are three roads in front of you. Please take the steep slope running along the train track. It’s a narrow but paved commuter road going up. It turns left soon, and so, please simply follow the way. In no time you’ll see the entrance of Ohkura-yama Park on your left. The first feature we can notice at the Park is a white stone building that was a place of research. The Park was the property of a wealthy merchant, Kunihiko Ohkura 大倉邦彦 who opened here in 1932 a research institute named Okura Institute for the Study of Spiritual Culture 大倉精神文化研究所. The theme of the study for his institute was “spiritual culture” and the academic activities were lively until 1945. After World War II, the research was declined here, and in 1981 the foundation for the institute sold the site with the buildings to the City of Yokohama. The place still has several researchers who are studying mainly the cultural activities of historical businesspeople and the local community. It also has a library with the collection of related matters, open to the public. The facility itself is the property of the City so that its halls and seminar rooms are rented for civic activities of Yokohama. My friends say they had a festival of good documentary films several years ago. (The current scheduling of events there can be seen from here and here.) With some reason, Mr. Ohkura thought classic Greek style was suitable for his project of studying spiritual culture. So, the design of the building is of prehellenistic style by a then-famous architect Uheiji Nagano 長野宇平次. Inside was built with woods in the style of Shintoism shrines. Now in the 21st century, the entire building looks exotic for everybody on earth. It could be VERY Japanese architecture …

Entrance to Ohkura-yama Park

A white building over there …

Okura Institute for the Study of Spiritual Culture

Inside

Plums? Oh, yes. After we’re impressed by the white stone building, simply follow the strolling path along the ridge of a hill. Within a few minutes, we’ll see a mortar-shaped area on your left with about 200 various plum trees. It’s Ohkura-yama Plum Garden. Compared with Sankei-en or Negishi Shinrin Park 根岸森林公園, the Ohkura-yama Garden is smaller, but the way the trees are planted is well-thought of, and they are looked after well. Already in early February this year, some trees are in full-bloom and the sweet scent of plum flowers are wafting in chilly February air. Each tree has a name plate. If you’re afficionado of Japanese poetry or Chinese characters, it’s a fun to discuss with friends the intention of a godparent for the flower. The season of plum flowers lasts until the end of February or early March. Above all, it’s surprising the calm atmosphere of the garden, considering busy Tokyu Toyoko Line and JR Bullet Train Line run the east valley of this Ohkura-yama hill. Probably because of this, we can find lots of wild birds chirping here and there peacefully. It’s a relaxing place in the middle of downtown. Please visit there and have a nice lunch with your sandwiches. 😊

Please follow the ridge way, then,

On your left is the plum garden.

Nice place for lunch

I loved this one with cool green in their calyx.

An Oriental Turtle Dove in the adjacent forest. Hello!

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

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局

Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420