Post-hanami garbage causes problems for parks
As Tokyo’s peak cherry blossom viewing time draws to a close, let us ponder the giant heaps of trash we leave behind in parks when we finish our drinking parties.
In some parks, such as this one, visitors are asked to bring their trash home with them because there isn’t enough space in designated garbage dumping areas. This inevitably results in many people just leaving their garbage in the park:
A woman who lives near the park says she often finds lots of trash just thrown around, and sure enough, a walk towards the park finds a bag of mixed trash hidden in some bushes. Within the park, the special garbage dumping area has overflowed, and few seem to care about dividing garbage up into proper categories.
The reporter finds some young folks leaving trash in a spot that is not a designated dumping area. When confronted, they tell him that they will “come back and get it later.” Yeah, right.
In parks with large populations of homeless, such as Ueno Park, the leftover trash can actually be beneficial:
In the above clip, homeless people help clean up all the junk revelers left behind in the park. In return, they get to keep any food or drink that they can salvage from the mess. Visitors to the park are surprisingly wasteful, often leaving enormous amounts of perfectly good food behind. The homeless regard hanami season as one of the best times of the year, as they get to enjoy lots of quality food and booze. (Check out that half-full bottle of sake the homeless dude finds!)
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