The festival that wasn't there

On Friday night I met up with some friends at a local bar. A couple of teachers from one of the elementary schools showed up and told me about a festival they took their classes to earlier in the day. They told me it would be there on Saturday as well so I went to check it out. This is what I saw:



It was clear that something had been there and it appeared that something may be there again, but there clearly was nothing going on. Nevertheless, this picture shows something many people likely do not know about Japan: there is almost no 'nature' in Japan.

What I mean is that there are very few parts of Japan that are untouched by people. The most visible aspect of this is the concrete walls that line most rivers. In part a desire to control natural disasters and in part a system of political patronage there has historically been vast construction projects throughout Japan. It's widely cited in travel books and newspaper articles that there are only three rivers in all of Japan without a dam or other obstruction. There are all kinds of superfluous bridges, dammed streams, and concrete walls lining the the countryside of Japan.

A lot of the mountains look like this:


At least at some points they do. There's all kinds of concrete structures to prevent landslides or protect roads from falling debris. Logging goes on pretty much everywhere (or at least it has). Many of the forests have completely homogenous trees; all the same type, about the same height, and presumably the same age.

Most roads are lined with rain sewers like this:


I have an irrational fear of falling in a rain gutter. In Nagoya a lot of the tops were broken (not so much here). When I walk down a dark alley at night, I'm not afraid of being attacked or mugged, but I am afraid of falling in a rain gutter and breaking a leg.