Thursday, June 3, 2010

Hama Rikyu and the Fractal Universe



Today we went to Hama Rikyu which is the site of what used to be a Shogunate villa. I think a good comparison would maybe be central park in New York. One of the first things I noticed was that, even though we were in a park full of trees and foliage, the skyscrapers from the city still seemed to dominate the sky. In a city like Tokyo, I guess this is something quite hard to avoid. For someone like me, who hasn't seen much of this type of thing before, I don't mind. It was still very pleasing to my eyes. Experiencing the world here is almost like doing things again for the first time. Obviously the people are different but even the native plant life here spurs my curiosity -- especially the trees. Here are some pictures of a couple trees that are common here but that to me, look quite unusual. When I look at them I imagine the vascular system of the body. They resemble a network of veins or nerves -- things of a fractal nature. There are computer-generated pictures of the entire universe (as we know it to be) that map out the way galaxies have arranged themselves and still they follow this vascular pattern. Why? It's peculiar the way nature repeats and presents itself in this place we call the universe. In a way, I feel we are the universe. Japan: the instigator of my contemplation.

While typing this blog, a very long and interesting conversation was born on fractals. To gain a better understanding of what they are, here's a link.

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