Every day on the way to work I pass under a long line of trees over the sidewalk. The trees stretch from one end of the road to the other, so I can walk under trees for almost five minutes before turning and heading to my building.
Trees are a little rare in urban Japan. I’m told that the falling leaves create too much work and hassle for city residents, so it is rare to find trees as part of the urban landscape here in Kobe.
Every year in summer the city comes through and workers chop the top off the trees on my commute. They trim off all the green growing branches and leave only the twisted naked main branches. This solves the leaf problem, but leaves a long line of weird empty tree-like structures behind. Like a modern art interpretation of Joshua Tree.
Something changed this year, though. For some reason, the city decided not to give the trees their annual buzz cut and the trees have grown out and they look beautiful. This summer I enjoyed walking under the shade of the trees and the street looked almost European. It was a nice change and really improved my mood going to work.
However the change was not good for the apartment building security guard I pass every morning. He walks the long block in front of a huge apartment complex with a tiny handheld vacuum cleaner – the kind you’d use to clean the floor of your car now and then – and he sucks up little gum wrappers, cigarette butts, and stray leaves.
So now that autumn has arrived the leaves are falling in a big way. There are leaves everywhere. This is my first time to see the leaves all over the place, and although it looks quite natural to me it is playing hell with this security guard’s job. Luckily he doesn’t just have the handivac – he has added a little dustpan and broom to his arsenal.
Remember the labors of Hercules? Piece of cake next to what this guy is trying to accomplish. A sea of leaves out there blowing around, and he is filling his little vacuum cleaner over and over. I estimate he’ll be able to finish his cleanup just in time for autumn next year.
So I walk by this guy with this impossible task and I wonder if he even knows that he is overmatched. Does he know that this will never be done? Maybe he doesn’t really care and he just needs to fill the time before going home. Maybe he told his boss about the sharp increase in leaves this year and they just said “we’ve got no budget for leaf blowers so deal with it”. Or more likely, his job is to pick up debris and so he does it without complaint using the tools that he has.
I have to admire his diligence – it is something that Japanese people have in spades – but at some point maybe you have to step back and look at the bigger picture. Because this particular picture is full of leaves, as far as the eye can see.
