I didn’t have to spend much time in Japan to begin noticing the importance the country places on incorporating nature into everyday life. Being one of the biggest urban cities in the world, I had pictured Tokyo as being rather gray and concrete all the way through. While there are definitely some spots like this, what is more common are traditional city features such high-rises and paved streets mixed with shrines lined with gravel or sand and beautiful trees lining walkways. Even on the first day in Tokyo I noticed this, as the picture below is of the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center grounds- the hotel that we stayed at for the first ten days that we stayed in the city.

As you can see, greenery was packed into every corner of the property, with mature trees and bushes lining the paved walkway. There was also a garden in the back of the building that we were staying in that was covered in grass and flowers. This was unlike any hotel I had ever stayed at in the United States, and it felt nothing like being in one of the largest cities in the world. The hotel was also surrounded by a beautiful space known as Yoyogi Park, which was quiet even during the busiest time of day. The Meiji Jingu Shrine, which is a famous Shinto shrine in Tokyo, was even located in this park and could be accessed through walking trails that came straight from the hotel.

Along with the greenery, I also noticed how many sculptures throughout Japan incorporated wildlife into the design. For example, when visiting Sensō-ji, a famous and historic Buddhist temple in Tokyo, there was a statue that featured a small group of pigeons. This statue, as seen below, had the birds perched on different parts of the structure acting like the birds naturally would. Throughout the grounds of the temple were many pigeons wandering, looking for crumbs left by unsuspecting visitors. Thus, the statue seemed fitting, immortalizing the nature that lives with the temple.

This is something I haven’t seen much of in the United States, but I saw many important sculptures and structures with birds or other animals included, and I think it adds an important sense of reality to these things. Rather than the historic statues or monuments seeming lifeless and disconnected from the current world, the addition of pigeons makes people realize that people created those structures, and those people lived in a world much like our own.

Another place we visited outside of Tokyo also made me realize how important nature is to Japanese culture and people. The place was Miyajima, which is an island a small distance from the coast of Hiroshima. The island is famous for the Itsukushima Shrine, which has a torii gate that appears to float in the ocean during high tide. The shrine is a World Heritage Site and stands on the beach on tall beams to keep it above the water. Though the entire island is filled with beautiful landscapes of flowers and trees, one of the most surprising things to see when we arrived on the island were wild deer. The deer roam freely across the island, as seen below, as they are considered sacred.

They could be seen approaching visitors who had food or paper in their hands, which explained the need for an announcement once we got off of the ferry to protect paper maps. The way the deer were respected and able to live on such a popular island without being bothered by people was something I don’t think I could ever see in the United States. It showed me how important nature is to Japanese culture and people, and how even in places with millions of people, greenery and wildlife can make a big impact.

As someone who takes frequent road trips throughout the United States, I wondered if there was such a thing as “road trips” in Japan. Given the prevalence of public transportation and mountainous landscape through much of the country, I wasn’t sure if long car rides to cross hundreds of miles were cost effective, or even plausible. These questions were answered one day when we took a long bus ride to visit the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant from Tokyo. Located over 250 kilometers (or over 150 miles) from where we were staying in Tokyo, the ride to the power plant took over three hours and followed along Japan’s Pacific coastline. After getting out of the city, the first thing that caught my attention was the green landscape that rolled on for miles, touching the ocean outside of the right window of the bus. It reminded me of the California coast, with mountains leading to the ocean below. I also noticed the mixture of homes and agricultural land spattered throughout the mountains, as pictured below. In the first image you can see family homes laid out in a suburb-like pattern with mountains in the back. In the second picture you can see rice crops growing just off of the side of the road, with the same mountains featured in the background. This reminded me of driving through the Rocky Mountain region in America, less the ocean views off to the right.

Alongside the highway were also various street signs, two of which are pictured below. The first one shows an image of a Japanese raccoon dog, which are small animals related to other mammals such as wolves and foxes. They bear a striking resemblance to raccoons with their fur pattern, facial features, and paws, which is what gives them their name. These signs warn of wildlife crossing the road, which is similar to the deer crossing signs seen across the United States. The second sign is of a tube-like flag that shows the wind strength and direction on the highway. These are unlike any signs I have seen in America, though I think the simple technology is something that could benefit drivers across the world, particularly in areas with large vehicles.

Even though these views reminded me of driving across the United States, I still hadn’t seen the characteristic rest stops that would be needed for any drive of substantial length. That was until we stopped for the first time after over an hour of driving, and I saw the place pictured below. It was a rest stop, complete with long-haul semitrucks and public restrooms. It even featured the diagonal parking spaces present in most rest stops in the United States.

Not pictured were even more similarities, which were vending machines next to a small convenience store and public payphones. In the United States, when I go on road trips, I take a small RV with me. This is something that I always knew was popular in America due to the long, open roads, but I never expected it in smaller countries like Japan. Thus, when I saw the advertisement below in the lobby of a popular building in Tokyo, I was very surprised.

The small camping cars resembled some of the small RVs we have in the United States, and if we had more time in Tokyo, I definitely would have gone to take a closer look. These small RVs, much like the rest of the road trip we took in Japan, shared many similarities to the US counterparts. However, with all of the aspects, there were details that were uniquely different, and this made me hope that one day I could return to Japan and experience what it is like to drive across the country and camp.

While traveling throughout Japan, it was hard not to notice the beautiful architecture and design featured throughout all of the cities we visited. Even the simplest suburban homes had intricate front doors, and traditional Japanese design was integrated into various aspects of most restaurants and shops. Here I want to highlight the ways Japanese museums, architecture, history, and even trash incineration plants, came to life through brilliant attention to detail.

Japan is known for its buildings and religious sites that date back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Castles are some of the most notable of these old buildings, and they can be visited throughout the country. One of the castles we visited on our trip through Japan was Kumamoto Castle, which is located in the Kumamoto Prefecture and features a large landscape of walls and buildings. Pictured below is a photo taken by me of the castle as of May 2023.

The original castle was built in the early 1600s, but it has since suffered damages due to major earthquakes surrounding the region where it is located. In 2016, a large earthquake damaged much of the castle, causing the surrounding walls to crumble and many buildings to collapse. In the picture above, you can see the partial walls covered by cement blankets. In order to maintain the original beauty and engineering of the castle structure and walls, each of the boulders that make up the destroyed walls have been numbered. Overtime, workers have been placing these numbered boulders back exactly as they were before the earthquake. Though time consuming, this process has allowed the castle to be restored to its original state, with all of its history and ingenuity intact. We were able to go inside of the main building pictured above, and on one of the floors was a scale model of one of the smaller castle buildings. The picture below is of the detail on the roof of the model, showing how even the smallest features are decorated with patterns and writing.

You would hardly be able to make out such small details from a distance, but up close, these thoughtful additions make castles like Kumamoto stand out amongst the millions of structures across the globe.

Another aspect of many of the tours and places we saw that stood out to me was the extremely detailed 3D models that illustrated building layouts and machine functions. Pictured below is a model that was featured in a storm water drainage and flood prevention facility.

The model was used to show how the large tunnels under the city deal with water accumulation in an urban area. The tunnels filled with real water once the model was activated and played through a scenario with a large amount of water accumulation. The model could have just featured the clear pipes you see at the bottom of the image, as that was the system that was being highlighted. However, in order to give a better idea of the scale and location of the system, the company built the actual city around the tunnels, complete with recognizable buildings and small cars. Another model that was similar to this one was featured in the waste incineration plant we visited in Hiroshima. Pictured below is that model, and it showed the entire plant, complete with lights that would highlight specific parts when buttons were pushed.

As you can see by the picture, no details were left out when creating the small plant, and this made it more exciting to learn about the flow of an incineration facility. Details like these engage a wider audience that may otherwise pass by important facilities like this, helping the public learn more about where there trash ends up.