Tokyo Photo News July 2010

The fourth general meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 68th National Sports Festival and 13th National Sports Games for the Challenged was held on July 29 at Keio Plaza Hotel in preparation for Tokyo's hosting of the event in 2013. It was decided that the event will be called "Sports Festival Tokyo 2013" for short and promoted under the slogan "Athletes Spread Your Wings and Fly in Tokyo, Tama, and the Islands." The committee also announced the event's mascot character, a design based on the Tokyo metropolitan bird, the black-headed gull. Nominations for the mascot's nickname will be accepted up to September 30.
Photo: Announcement of the mascot (photo taken July 29, 2010)

The 23rd Shitamachi Tanabata Festival was held from July 3 to July 8 at Kappabashi Hondori, a shopping road stretching 1.2 kilometers east to west from around the Iriya exit of Ueno station to the Tsukuba Express line Asakusa station. Festival highlights included the magnificent Tanabata decorations along the street and folk dances and song performances such as Edo Gei Kappore and Owara Kaze no bon.
Photo: Tanabata decorations along Kappabashi Hondori (photo taken July 8, 2010)

The sewage sludge gasification facility at the Kiyose Water Reclamation Center was completed and began operations on July 23. Sewage sludge, which is conventionally disposed of through incineration, is turned into gas at this facility and reused to generate power. It is calculated that the gas generated annually by the facility will be equivalent to the amount of city gas consumed by 8,500 average households. The generation of greenhouse gases can be reduced by 87% over that of conventional incineration facilities. The total cost of the project was 8.8 billion yen.
Photo: Turning on the power switch at the ceremony of the facility's completion (photo taken July 23, 2010)

On July 2, expert reviewers of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Mr. Peter Shadie and Ms. Naomi Doak, paid a courtesy call on Governor Ishihara after arriving in Japan to evaluate the Ogasawara Islands' potential addition to the World Heritage List. On-site evaluation of the Ogasawara Islands will be conducted from July 3 to July 13. The Japanese Government submitted its nomination of the Ogasawara Islands to UNESCO for the islands' inscription on the World Heritage list in January 2010, and the World Heritage Committee is scheduled to make its decision in July next year.
Photo: Governor chatting with the evaluators (photo taken July 2, 2010)