Place

Matsudo city office: waiting for my papers to be done

When you move in Japan the first place you have to go is a city office.

Tree house in Tsubaki no mori communa, Chiba city

Many communities started a new wave lifestyle and architecture followed. This is one of examples- Tsubakinomori communa unites non-traditional practitioners. Here is yoga class, massage, some hippie-like wagon with vegan sandwiches sold.

In the urban forest on the rooftop of LA FORE building, Tokyo

Yaba shaku in Ebisu beer garden, Tokyo

Some people think Japanese city planning is a crazy thing. Many layers of different types of housing of various shapes (spiced by crazy Japanese architecture) and here is the Tokyo skyline. The Japanese even came up with a name for this discrepancy yaba shaku (ヤバ借). It combines two words - yabai - cool or creepy and shaku - to borrow, which derives from the term shakkei - borrowed landscape. Borrowed landscape concept used in design of traditional Japanese garden, bringing far away mountain in the garden. So, yaba shaku is a city scape, where all elements are crazy mixed and you ending up borrowing some landscape which doesn't fit the image. Like in this sketch from Ebisu garden we see the building resembling French palace and skyscrapers behind it.

Kannon Sama statue on the bus stop in Matsudo

Matsudo scrap-and-build: old house was demolished to make space for a parking lot

Place is always changing. The city policy in Japan, called scrap-and-build leave no chance for architecture to live more than 30 years. And even old shrines and temples are mainly actually well-rebuilt versions of the old ones. Why so? First of all, we need to take into account the geology of Japanese archipelago which has enormous seismic activity. And safety legislation follows that. So you will prefer a new house to old one just to feel safe.

Secondly, housing business in Japan makes a lot from selling new houses. They are building houses with planned expiration date. Regarding this, chief economist at the Nomura Research Institute Richard KOO has argued in a paper called “Obstacles to Affluence: Thoughts on Japanese Housing” that whatever the rationale behind the disposable-home situation, the outcome isn’t desirable. Because it's a waste of resources.

Harajuku station will also be redeveloped soon to fit the needs of Tokyo