It's Golden Week in Japan, and I remembered I own a camera and at one point in time meant to take pics on a semi-regular basis; I'll try this week to put up some stuff from around my neighborhood of Yanaka, near Tokyo University. There are lots of narrow, angled streets barely wide enough for a taxi to weave through single-file. I have absolutely no idea how a fire engine would get down here if we had a serious fire.
2 bonus pics from Yebisu Garden Place Tower / my office:
Thanks! Not a super exciting neighborhood and not the Shibuya-Shinjuku-Harajuku pics we usually see for Tokyo, but it's a good area for me to get better at composition and light metering.
Like most Tokyo neighborhoods, you have a lot of mixed income people living side by side. From this morning:
I love the efficiency and closeness of everything. They do it so well in Tokyo.
Of course they're also nice to each other and try not to be offensive, making it much easier. You don't get many assholes like US people are trained to be.
Location: Greenville, SC - "Birthplace of the light switch rave"
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There's something poetic about how even in the middle of the apotheosis of the concrete jungle, people still crave greenery and flowers and will fit them in however they can on whatever scrap of space they can find. I love it.
__________________ "To sustain the life of a large, modern city in this cloying, clinging heat is an amazing achievement. It is no wonder that the white men and women in Greenville walk with a slow, dragging pride, as if they had taken up a challenge and intended to defy it without end." -- Rebecca West for The New Yorker, 1947
It's Golden Week in Japan, and I remembered I own a camera and at one point in time meant to take pics on a semi-regular basis; I'll try this week to put up some stuff from around my neighborhood of Yanaka, near Tokyo University. There are lots of narrow, angled streets barely wide enough for a taxi to weave through single-file. I have absolutely no idea how a fire engine would get down here if we had a serious fire.
I remember reading years ago how a single home fire is a massive disgrace in Japan. There are apparently very few such incidents.
I really hope to get to Japan at some point. It seems so wonderful.
Go, go now... It is.
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"The destructive effects of automobiles are much less a cause than a symptom of our incompetence at city building" - Jane Jacobs 1961ish
It seems odd to say, but Tokyo looks very organic despite being a truly massive conurbation.
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"You need both a public and a private position." --Hillary Clinton, speaking behind closed doors to the National Multi-Family Housing Council, 2013
What's with all the electrical wires everywhere? I would have thought the Japanese - of all people - would bury those lines. Otherwise, looks like a great area.
Looks like a nice place! I second what haunted how hauntedheadnc said about how even in the densest areas, people will find a way to get some plants and nature into their lives. I picked up on that as well.
Just returned from Japan, based out of Kamakura but spent the weekend in Tokyo. I thought to myself, this is what cities will be like 50 years down the road - clean, modern, efficient, with an extensive mass transit system that takes many forms. Tokyo was a bit dirtier than the other areas I visited. By that I mean, I actually saw some trash and one building with graffiti. While it is very dense and is the center of a metro with 38 million people, it never had the harried, rushed energy you get in NYC. Maybe it's because we were there on the weekend? Overall, I was very impressed.
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