While snooping around the back streets of Moto Azabu, Pippi and I encountered these leafy fronds. The spiked leaves emit a very distinctive, almost nutty, smell that transports me right back to my childhood as the same plants grow rampantly all over Hyde Park, the neighborhood where I grew up in Chicago. In fact, a huge version graces the front of our house on Dorchester Avenue. According to my mother, who knows about these things, this growth is actually a weed called "tree of heaven." I am always amazed to find the same fauna (even weeds!) living on different continents. How does this happen?
