Bono the gardener?

Bono hams it up with a shovel on Tuesday while planting a tree as part of the Tokyo metropolitan government’s “Green Island” project at Odaiba, part of a sprawling man-made island in Tokyo Bay.

More photos in the gallery >>

(ITN - Tuesday, May 27 02:05 pm) U2 singer Bono has taken part in a tree-planting project with schoolchildren in Tokyo. The rocker, who’s known for his humanitarian and philanthropic work, led the event which is part of the city’s environmental initiatives project.

He encouraged the attendees to become more environmentally friendly, saying: “I do believe that politicians like Governor Ishihara need to hear from you that this is important to you. It’s your money that they are spending. “That is what I’ll be doing over the week as well as planting this tree today. Finding out how much support there are for these issues of environment and extreme poverty.”

Nearly 100 children sang together with the legendary rock singer at The Sea Forest where a total of 480,000 trees are due to be planted, creating an 88 hectare forest floating off Tokyo bay. The city hopes the forest when completed in 2016 will help cool the city down during the hot summer months.

Bono also plans to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, where he will be among 43 leaders of African nations to discuss poverty, conflict, the food crisis and disease in the continent.

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