JAPAN - LAND OF THE TETRA BLOCK

There is far too much concrete in Japan. Houses old and new often have the tiny portion of land they stand on concreted over so that there is not a scrap of exposed earth anywhere. Those with time and inclination then opt for container gardening. Empty land is concreted for car parking. In times of heavy rainfall the city shrugs off the water and carries it away in vast concrete gutters and ditches (some of which are a real hazard to pedestrians and cyclists!)

World famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando designed beautiful concrete buildings, but sadly most concrete buildings (there are lots!) were designed by much less talented people. They overshadow and dwarf the traditional wooden machiyas and temples of Kyoto. Concrete may not rot but it has much greater capacity for ugliness than any other building material I know.

Some rivers flow underground in the cities while people and cars pass above them, and many other rivers flow along paved beds between cement lined walls, both in the city and populated parts of the countryside. Perhaps it's for flood control. An untamed river can do a lot of damage.

Speaking of damage, concrete has also been widely used to stabilize slopes and prevent mud or rock slides. New Zealand's hill suburbs and mountain roads are also vulnerable to slides, and concrete has been used to stabilize slopes in New Zealand too, but there's more in Japan.

Akashi

Then there's the coastlines. I traveled to view the wild Akashi shore mentioned in Tale of Genji, but it has been concreted over. Such portions of the coast not given over to ports for shipping Japan's products abroad have  bleak concrete walls and promenades extending for miles and miles, and breakwaters marring the ocean view. I assume the breakwaters are for protection against typhoons and tsunamis.

Naruto

At Naruto, famous for whirlpools, sweet potatoes and small onions a long sandy beach once popular with surfers has also been given the tetra block treatment. At huge expense too - my friend told me each single tetra block cost hundreds of thousands of yen. Never mind - the sweet potatoes and onions are much safer now.

Miyajima

Perhaps they should consider giving Miyajima the tetra block treatment. Beautiful Itsukushima shrine was badly damaged by a typhoon a few years ago. Surely such a national treasure deserves the same protection as sweet potato farms?





You can also see the ubiquitous tetra block lining the shores of Lake Biwa in Takashima not far from Biwako's own floating torii. I wonder why? Is the shoreline subject to erosion by the lake water?

Lake Biwa in Takashima

Between the tetra blocks I can see pale yellow sand. At first I thought it might have blown there from a pretty sandy beach attached to a camping ground just down the road (where they charge 10,000 yen a night for tiny cabins, and 2,500 yen for tent sites! I wonder if they have hot water showers. The other camping ground I stayed at in Japan did not! But I digress...) I think the sand must be natural because I saw the same kind of sand in riverbeds that flowed into the lake, and also on stretches of coast that don't seem to have been touched by progress yet.

But after all, what does it matter if all Japan's beautiful beaches become distant memories? The population of Japan has very little leisure time anyway, and has been well trained to use what little they have in support of lucrative leisure and tourism industries. If they ever want to go to a beach, there's always Guam or Hawaii.

Shirokawa as it flows in to Kyoto City