October 29, 2004
Welcome to the jungle!
9 million people live in Sweden compared to 127 million in Japan. So if Japan is densely populated Sweden is definitely the opposite. All this extra space makes people spread and they get spoiled. For a Swedish person a stroll in the woods is never far away, wherever you live. From my apartment at home it takes 15 minutes with car to the sea, 20 minutes to the closest forest (and 1 hour to Copenhagen for days when I prefer a big city environment).
There are plenty of parks in the Tokyo area, but the unspoiled nature is definitely absent. It would be a lie to say that I don’t miss it, but on the other hand, you don’t really go to Tokyo to experience the great Japanese outdoors.
To my big surprise my persistence delivered a whole jungle right behind my office this morning. Yes, it’s true. All this time of “green hunger” and I hadn’t even noticed the garden… isn’t it strange?
