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Just one example: up until World War II, Tokyo was famous for its waterways and canals. Now even the Sumida River is mostly paved over. And in terms of trees and park space, there is simply no comparison between Tokyo and, to take the example I'm most familiar with, New York. Central Park alone has almost 200 species of trees and a diversity of bird and small mammal species greater than the entire Kanto region.
If I were going to mount a "religious/non-religious" theory of environmental relations, Japanese agnosticism is not what would inspire me.
Japan differs from China and the Mediterranean in this.
It seems odd to me because Japan is an irrigation culture based on rice, or so I had thought.
It's not a field I know much about, myself.
That's an intriguing thought...anyone got any possible info?
I'm thinking...yes...you have the homestead, land, food, maybe some form of wealth stored up (not just money) over the years, so then someone wants to go...on a pilgrimage...they'll have the time...the homestead will not be left empty... Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
As far as cities, I don't have any formal knowledge about city planning, but to me, the Mediterranean-European pattern with numerous handsome squares setting off public gathering places, such as a guild hall or cathedral, is most appealing -- with markets and recreation close by -- and lots of Parks.
Still, you're right. :-) Public gathering spaces is one of those main quality of the Mediterranean city... "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
Overall, you're right: Tokyo is virtually a concrete jungle, with trees and greenery too few and far between. Yet there are some ("ANY") examples, weak though they may be, of city-level efforts to inject some nature in the urban gray that you can't totally dismiss:
Yoyogi Park,
Yoyogi Park
Meiji-jingu Garden
Shinjuku Garden,
and, to a lesser extent, Ueno Park.
And an aerial view of Tokyo shows that it is not altogether barren of greenery (click on "Satellite" to view the image more clearly.)
Rather than, or perhaps in addition to, "agnostic", I would say "non-monotheistic" and "non-dogmatic". There is plenty of "theism" in Japan, if only the polytheistic/animistic/pantheistic kind. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
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