Tokyo rooftop paradise: cloisterd gardens of Roppongi

More and more I'm suspecting that peace and beauty just a few steps away, steps in a direction we have always dismissed.


Because of my disciplined dedication to aimless wandering, its usually me that lucks into these special places. Here is another, the hanging rooftop gardens of Roppongi's Ark Hills.



I was visiting the lively new Ark Hills Farmers Market, and met the lovely lady who makes it all happen, Kanako Iwahara. From what I interpret of her business card, Kanako is the Assistant Happiness Manager for the people who live in the Ivory-beige towers of Roppongi Hills.

She is also a lady with an impressive set of keys, and since its my big hope to meet the garden club members and have a Permaculture presence up there, up we went.


We pass a series of themed garden Rooms - rose garden, native Japanese garden. These dappled, convivial gardens are where salarymen and office ladies descend to enjoy probably the most pleasant hour of their day - lunch, birdsong, scented flowers, and maybe the pleasure of each others company.
Maybe I'm wrong about it being an entire hour though.

Here we are on the roof of Suntory Hall, closed to the public most of the year, to "conserve its function as a bird sanctuary". Its true, the birds are whistling their little hearts out up here.
But Kanako tells me that its the musicians downstairs that were the problem . It seems they complained that the thump of feet on grass was getting into their symphonies, so the public get to see this part of the garden few weeks only, spring and autumn.



Edible gardens usually need to be private to succeed, and tantalizingly are always the most alluring. These are the gardens where people feel confident they can invest all their creative energies, that what they plant will still be there tomorrow.

Unless they eat it.


There is the mix of flowers, food, and insect attracting plants that you would expect in an organic 'ecosystem' garden.


They don't know the word "Permaculture' (yet), but they are doing all the right things up here.

The edge between real and not - balcony gardens of Omotesando, Tokyo

From this Rabbit hole in the lobby, you can peep down to the tea party in the basement,
and if you are brave, join in.

I set out for a play-date with the writer Holly Horiguchi, to my favorite nook of Tokyo - the back streets of Omotesando.
This place of tiny, transient dreams is probably responsible for this whole 'Edge Garden' addiction.
This high-rent area has the Dior and Chanel brigade, but unlike Ginza, is a meadow of these tiny, creative shops, conceived and created by real people, for the joy of making their vision real.
For a season, at least.

Galactic gardens, serenely defying gravity, earthquakes and other disasters.

Snails as natural janitors, cleaning up after your tea party, shiny-clean.

A plume of something enchanting.
Cconstellations of cheerful yellow flowers in misty green.

Station Platform Gardens - contageous permaculture

Starting with the cute little Otemachi line, that wends through prosperous, old communities of inner Tokyo, the plan is to create paradise on train platforms.

illustration by Cecilia

We start by showing off our skills creating small, semi self-contained potted gardens and edge gardens. The idea is that if what we create is alluring enough, and acheiveable enough, the commuters who pass by day after day will get the idea to copy it themselves, so the greening of Tokyo spreads by itself.

Tivoli Amusement Park, Copenhagen

We will choose plants, objects that perform not just One, not just Two, but Three functions: this makes them valuable enough to be really worth caring for and investing in. This purple eggplant gives surprise, beauty, and eventually deliciousness. The herbs below utilize empty space, confuse pests with their fragrance, and help reduce evaporation and weeds from the soil.
The basket stops teenagers (sorry guys) from sitting, stubbing ciggies, or other acts of just not noticing.

Gibili museum, Tokyo

As well as intimate Zone one Useful-to-Humans Gardens, there will be Zone 5 gardens, grasses, reeds and plants native to the neighborhood, that will give the ladybugs and lizards back their homes. Zone 5 gardens let the evolution of nature continue, and are a way to give back a little to the earth, who has given us everything we have

Garden of Eden, Albert Park

Gardens would catch their own water...
...and store it in a way so it stays fresh and lively: here it is becoming oxygenated, humidifying the surrounding plants, creating lovely music and ions to wash the spirits of tired old us.

Plants in baskets, old packing boxes, Cecilia's balcony

Cecilia in Santa Monica.

Pots can be anything that holds soil and drains water: recycled pipe Maybe old tofu-making barrels, baby prams, bathtubs... Please post any good ideas below

http://deanforestrailway.co.uk/gardening.html
Creating the most edifying station garden used to be the cause of wars between stationmasters, all trying to win the competitions set up by their Rail Companies. Look at this lovely man, so proud.



I wonder if the presence of a loved station garden discourages graffiti?

Kagoshima tram line

The presence of a large swath of green, giving shade and evaporative cooling, will certainaly discourage CO2 emissions. Tokyo summers are becoming so hot, that nobody needs convincing global warming is a problem: they will jump at any doable solution.

My favourite solution is worm farming, rather than burning of kitchen scraps. Saves the precious fossil fuel to be used on a higher purpose, returns nutrients to the ground, and reminds us that there is no 'rubbish' in nature, just a good thing in the wrong place.

Maybe being given a worm farm for free would be one of the incentives to commit to the platform garden volunteer team. People with no sun at home can just make worm castings (fertilizer), and bring it to 'their' garden on the station. Any more ideas for encouraging volunteer station gardeners? Please post.
some stations could have more formal gardens.

Vanilla bean plant

But I think the desirable qualities for plants are: rare varieties, clambering, fragrant, fast growing, perennial, edible.
Passion fruit vines probably fulfill more functions than any other plant, climbing up trellises to create shade, fruit, beautiful flowers. I wonder if they will look straggly in winter? They need big pots of soil, and lots of worm castings.
Station gardens could be the closest brush with nature for the day, for many a weary Tokyoite

Bourage: edible, fast-growing from seed, and Blue!

Flowering onion. Admire, then eat.

Angels Trumpet, for shade and fragrance.

Because this project could be largely self-sustaining, and the environmental benefits so attractive, it will most likely be able to win grants, especially as a cross-cultural Australia/Japan project. Since it already has strong financial support from the Tokyu railway company, the chances of winning more support increase.
Below are bodies who's criteria for funding we meet:

http://www.ianpotter.org.au/4-0_areas/4-0-areas.html

http://www.ajf.australia.or.jp/english/awards/ajfgrants/

If you know of any more, please post below, or e-mail me.
Of course the more station garden pictures we see, the more inspired and hopeful we will be: please send.