Thousand Leaves

"Are there more trees in Chiba than other parts of Japan?"
My sister asked.

"Hmmm...donno."
I answered.
"Maybe last time?" (last time: "in the past" in Singapore English)

Chiba Prefecture, where we have made our new home, is just outside Tokyo city and forms part of the Greater Tokyo area. The Chinese characters for Chiba, 千葉, literary means thousand leaves. A rather poetic name, don't you think?

What's more, the city we now live in is Nagareyama City -流山市; the name suggests flowing mountain streams.

Just writing about it conjures up images of black and white Chinese brush paintings.

In reality of course, it is nothing like that. South Nagareyama, where our apartment is situated, is a quite little suburb, nothing striking, nothing outstanding and slightly sleepy.

But you only need to drive a little distance to come into huge departmental stores and bright neon lights.

At the same time, we are never far from rice and vegetable fields.

It fascinates me that in metropolitan Tokyo, by the side of busy interchanges and expressways, one can suddenly spot somebody's vegetable farm or suddenly drive into what feels like rural Japan.