How to make your neighborhood more magical – add fish to your open street gutters

It’s not only clean, but it’s beautiful as well.

This photo of a residential neighborhood in the Shizuoka town of Fujinomiya has been causing a stir online. Shizuoka is a beautiful prefecture that includes iconic landmarks such as Mt. Fuji, but this snapshot making its way around the Japanese Internet has nothing to do with famously glorious mountains.

富士宮の市街地を流れる水がどのくらいきれいかと言うと、自宅前の側溝を網で適当に仕切って魚を飼っている家がある。 https://t.co/tB721efSOg

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森伸之 (@gooitch) February 26, 2017

What makes the image so stunning is the ability to find beauty in a street gutter and the idea of fish casually living in it. To understand how this is possible, it’s necessary for a crash course on gutters in Japan.

For anyone who has traveled to the country, you might have heard the term “gaijin (foreigner) trap” when speaking of these open drains. That’s because for many people, they’re nasty holes one can easily fall into while either walking, maneuvering a bike, or driving a motor vehicle.

▼ No one is safe from this menace!

Flickr/Travis Sanders

As this open gutter is a drain for runoff water and snow to move through, they’re not always filled. But with exceptional or steady rainfall, they become concrete streams that twist and flow through Japanese neighborhoods. The sound of passing water can be considered calming to some, and with the addition of a dozen or so koi, those dastardly hazards become a tranquil scene of beauty and relaxation to be captured and posted on the Internet.

富士宮の市街地を流れる水がどのくらいきれいかと言うと、自宅前の側溝を網で適当に仕切って魚を飼っている家がある。 https://t.co/tB721efSOg

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森伸之 (@gooitch) February 26, 2017

Fujinomiya seems to have especially clean gutters, since they’re clean enough for koi to be kept in, just like in the above picture. The fish are kept in a specific section of the gutters through the careful placement of netting. Koi are sturdy fish that can often live in many climates and not the most ideal water conditions, but this aquatic habitat is nothing but pristine. And ff these joyous fish still don’t sooth your racing heart, perhaps you need a lesson in relaxation from some of the Earth’s other serene animals.

Source, image: Twitter/@gooitch

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