Technology

Plants underground

Two weeks ago I visited a place underground where they raise plants with artificial light. It is in the Marunouchi area next to Tokyo station, I was very surprised to see what they are doing below all those skyscrapers in Maronouchi.

These are some of the pictures I took. In some of the rooms the light was so shinny I had to use sunglasses, it was like going out to the street in a clear summer day.

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These two plants are growing with LED light.

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Roses

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A rice pad.

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Can you find the pumpkin?

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More LED plants

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Girls preparing salads made with lettuce and herbs grown underground.

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I ate this salad, it was pretty good.

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They were selling groceries grown underground with artificial light.

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And this is how it looks like upstairs, above the place I just showed you in the pictures. Pretty amazing right?

15 replies on “Plants underground”

Hi,
Could you give the address of this place?
I would be interested in visiting!

Arigatou 🙂

– Bobby

woo, that is very interesting indeed.

where in Japan is this? I would also like to visit.

thanks,

-omar

o_O @ Underground salad

Hi, I’ve recently started coming to your site more often and noticed that a lot of the time people are always asking for the addresses of the places you visit. So as a suggestion I think it would be very convenient if you could implement a sort of google map thing where you link the post to a tag on google earth.

Hmm.. what exactly is this place is it a research facitlity and this was their publicity area or does it serve a commercial purpose?

I used to work with artificial light and hydroponics when i worked at a nursery, it’s really intresting stuff. Thanks for the photos.

-Curtis

PS- as others have asked above where exactly is this place? I would like to go there when i come to japan in a few months.

[…] Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan — Plants underground […]

Hey, the article about gorwings plants interground sounds like it came straight from a film! Japan is so kooky, I really want to go there one day.

In Amsterdam, we do the same, but with just one plant species: Marihuana. Works great, but you need a lot of electricity for the lights and the waterpumps and the airco

The innovative nature of Japan never ceases to amaze me. Have you seen the Japan Underground books by Hideaki Uchiyama? There are 4 volumes total, they’re all photos of amazing spaces underneath Japan just like the one you did the article on.

You don’t need a lot of electricity with LED’s , very little actually!

I was just there yesterday, at least I think I was… it’s supposed to be in the basement of the Nomura building in Marounuchi. I couldn’t find it so I asked a lady working in the coffee shop down there and she said it had closed. This post indicates it was still there less than a year ago. So… I don’t know. Maybe I had the wrong building and they were just trying to be polite?