Beekeepers add buzz to Japan urban jungle

Tokyo's Ginza district is usually abuzz with shoppers and office workers, but high above its skyscrapers nature-lovers have created a home for real busy bees -- the ones that make honey.

It's part of a project to bring a slice of natural life back to the centre of the world's largest urban sprawl, a cityscape home to more than 30 million people that stretches far beyond the horizon.

Eleven storeys above the heart of the Tokyo concrete jungle -- with its beehive office partitions and swarms of suit-clad worker-bees -- enthusiasts have stacked up beehives dripping with golden honey.

The beekeepers may be an odd sight in the Japanese capital, but they are not the only urban farmers -- on a rooftop just blocks away, barefoot farmers were recently wading through almost knee-high mud to plant a wet rice field.
Read article