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Elementary students say
"Recycling wisdom for the city"
Students from Funado Elementary School pose with me at the Tokyo City line, over 1630 kilometers from our start in Hokkaido. 00.01.10/ Temperature: 6C/ Weather: Rain showers followed by partly cloudy skies/ Wind Direction: E
Start: Minami Urawa 35 50 05 N 139 39 25 E
Destination: Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, 35 46 09 N 139 41 20 E
Distance Traveled: 14 kmI finally crossed over the Tokyo City line! Crossing over the Toda Bridge and the Ara River which separate Saitama Prefecture from Tokyo, I was escorted by a jogging family from Minami Urawa Middle School (they jogged 4 km to meet me), 6 students from Funado Elementary School, and two WSN volunteers into the Tokyo Metropolitan area. My clock read 11:10 A.M. With a heartfelt entry into Tokyo my next move was to spend the day with Funado Elementary students continuing my search for any hints of wisdom that may lie waiting in the city.
Having a broad view of the metropolis which lay to the south, I could see a maze of building tops stretch beyond the horizon. Aside from the river passing below me I had 360 degree view of city-scape that seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions. Coming down off of Toda Bridge I entered into the edge of Tokyo; luckily I had several city kids to get me started searching for wisdom in Tokyo.
Explaining the difficulties that I had when first entering 'the city' (see Wisdom Report 115) to my new accomplices in searching for wisdom, Funado Elementary students agreed to help me out. Though my approach has been to pursue what comes across my path, they, being locals of Itabashi Ward, had different ideas about where to start looking. "Let's go somewhere we know," said one girl. "Yeah, we can ask people about wisdom at school," said another.
As we headed toward school three sixth year students stopped suddenly in front of a small three-wheel scooter used to collect recycled bottles. "This is wisdom of the city," said one student confidently. Several scooters were parked in front of a dairy products company. "Recycling! They recycle milk bottles here." It was so easy for them to declare that recycling is wisdom, I inquired as to why they thought so.
Quick to point out recycled glass bottles as city wisdom, Funadao Elementary sixth year students. "Tokyo is huge. The population is 12 million. If people throw trash here and there, we will have no place to dispose of our trash. There will be no place to live and we won't be able to survive if people don't recycle. We recycle for the earth," commented one girl. A fourth year student quietly gained the courage to speak up to the older students. "People don't necessarily recycle for the earth. A lot of people do it out of obligation." It seemed that for the first time they were beginning to reconsider the actual value of recycling.
I don't doubt the importance of recycling in a city of 12 million, also one of the largest consumer cities in the world. Pacing through the city with Funado students, the scarcity of trash compared to Tochigi and Saitama Prefectures seemed slightly awkward. Tokyo as well as Japan, having such little land as a nation and such a high rate of consumption may be facing one of the most severe trash problems in the world and I rarely saw a trace of trash since arriving in Tokyo this morning. This could be a sign of efficient trash collection, however I wonder where it all may have gone. I threw out the question as to whether or not recycling could solve all of this.
As we ate sitting on the school steps after a fruitless interview with a school mother, students considered wisdom other than recycling which might help in reducing trash. "Not buying things like lunch boxes is one way to reduce trash," commented one girl directing her to those of us whom bought our lunches. "Only buy things that you need," "Don't buy things that will end up creating a lot of trash," and "Buy as little as possible," were also some tricks the students thought up that might help the trash problems in Tokyo.
Walking through Itabashi Ward, students confirmed their inclination that recycling may be wisdom of the city. Including the returnable milk bottle scooter we saw earlier, students saw signs of the cities recycling efforts. Strolling past a convenience store, students realized that the wasted bins outside the store are designed to make recycling easy. We also happened upon an advertisement banner made from recycled plastics. Though it may not solve all trash problems, students acknowledge recycling as an important part of the solution.
In addition to recycling Funado Elementary students suggest that planting trees in the city, using the train or bicycle instead of cars, and creating community within the city all may be wisdom to keep my eyes out for.
Finally in the city limits of Tokyo, I only have 12 more kilometers to go to our goal in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. I will spend the next couple of days continuing the challenging search of wisdom in the city.
If you have any suggestions about how to search or ideas about what the city might be hiding behind its large apartment and office buildings, please let me know. Also, what are your opinions about the trash problem in Tokyo?
12 kilometers to go!
Greg
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