Nipponica

The app, named Bears, allows users to report bear sightings by accessing the city’s official LINE account, which is linked to the app, then tapping “Bear Information” followed by “I saw a bear! (Report).” Users then input their name, their phone number, the date, the time, the number of bears sighted (selecting adult or cub), and the location (searchable on a map) to submit the report. The process takes about one to two minutes to complete.

Serious commentary: This is actually a good idea to build upon LINE, something that basically everyone already uses to disseminate information like this. Should also be simple to spread this to other municipalities that are having the same problems.

Unserious commentary: This is a shameful example of LGBT discrimination in Japan. Leave bears alone!

Perhaps it is a law of spatial gravity that when you cannot go out, you go up. What has long held true for urban architecture is now being applied to gardens, with Japanese landscape designers increasingly eager to requisition rooftops and walls to create gardens at higher elevations.

Sometimes it feels as though contemporary Japanese gardens can be read as message boards pointing to the near future. Substituting for hills and mountains, high-rise buildings are being requisitioned as borrowed scenery, while rooftop garden designers, conscious of weight issues, are resorting to hollowing out natural rocks, or replacing them with fiberglass equivalents.

This essay is full of beautiful examples of how to incorporate nature into our dense urban world by using wasted space to create beauty. Definitely worth the read.

Feral goats in the village of Higashi’s Takae district in northern Okinawa Prefecture were designated by the Okinawa Prefectural Government in 2023 as an invasive species that urgently needs to be controlled.

Wild goats are causing damage to crops in the village, as well as on Iriomote Island, and there are concerns that they could negatively impact the forest ecosystems harboring rare animals and plants.

The village and prefectural authorities are working to catch the goats and prevent the spread of the invasive species.

A tale of unchecked immigration gone wrong in the hills of northern Okinawa. A plague of west Asian goats taking precious grass from the local people. A damn shame and a disgrace.