Kasai Rinkai Park I

Two weeks ago, I went to a beautiful park I found in my Tokyo atlas. See this Google map. In the middle of an industial tangle of buildings, landfill, freeways, train tracks, and smoke stacks is a stunning piece of open, green space. In the Fifties, when the Tokyo Bay first experienced wholesale environmental destruction, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government preserved this property. Over the next thirty years, the wetlands were restored. Two landfill beaches were created. Much later, a giant ferris wheel was built.

From Tokyo station (the second largest after Shinjuku), it is less than twenty minutes by express train. Tokyo Disneyland is only one stop further on the Keiyo line. Read about the history of the Keiyo line.

I picked this photograph because it is -- without a doubt -- the best I have taken since arriving in Tokyo. There is a "welcoming" (visitors) center that is a three story glass building. It is nearly empty, save for the people staring from its windows. Combined with the sunset, adjacent gardens, and ferris wheel in the distance, it makes for an under-celebrated piece of architecture in Tokyo.