Destruction and construction

I have been upset recently about the construction (still in the DEstruction stage) going on in my area.  As you know, I live out in the countryside on the edge of a residential neighborhood.  If truth be told, I would really like to be living even FARTHER out and away from other houses and cars and people etc.  It makes me wonder if at heart I am really an anti-social...

When Tetsu and I were looking at houses to buy 20 years ago, we found this one on the edge of the forest, in a faraway part of the prefecture (at the time unconnected to the next city except by a winding mountain road.  Since then a tunnel gives us easier access.)  I LOVED it!  No matter that the house didn't get a lot of light in the afternoons; no matter that the bugs and frogs and snakes didn't recognize the property line, I just loved looking out the windows at the forest behind me, I loved taking 10 steps to a panorama of rice paddies and vegetable fields and FORESTS!

I have often said, that if someone decided to tear down my forest and build houses, then I am out of here!

Well...  That day may have come.

Since April, there have been bulldozers and chainsaws cutting down the trees in the forest a few fields away.  Now this is not within sight of my house (it certainly is within hearing range) but nowadays the scenery on our morning walks has changed.  There is an industrial plant which has three divisions a bit farther down and it seems that they are expanding and they have bought one of the forests and are cutting it down for a new plant construction.

This is what the scenery USED to look like... Back there behind the rice fields was the long stretch of forest.

This is what the area looks like this morning.  See how the area behind the orange Keep-Out area has been cut down?  That building in the background is one of the older divisions of the industrial plant.

And the logs and shredded branches are being carried to another area a block away...  The plant has destroyed heron nesting grounds in order to stack their logs.  I admit the herons were a bit of a pain with all their racket and a distinctive odor... but they were there first!

Now... I try to think positively here...  The industrial plant with their three divisions have always landscaped very nicely.  By Japanese standards their buildings and grounds look very nice and I haven't minded at all walking past their compound.

And all this construction must mean that the Japanese economy is looking up.  That is very good.  Our little town really needs some new jobs even if just for the part time housewives and young people.

My main concern, my selfish concern... besides the herons, is that there are rumors that the road in front of our house will have to be widened in order to accommodate all the cars that will hold new employees.

"Tetsu, if they do that, I AM OUT OF HERE !"

Where... I don't know.

"Hang in there, Tanya.  It is just a rumor.  We can't just pick up and move.  It will be a couple of years before the city starts talking about building roads here (we checked with someone in the know)."

"Great!  Then we have a couple of years to look for a more secluded home."

I'm keeping an eye on the construction...  I really do like where I live right now and would not want to move... The herons and I are of the same mind on this.