Urbanism
Privately Owned Public Space in Central Tokyo
Privately owned public space (POPS) refers to a class of places that arise from urban planning policies designed to incentivize the creation of public goods using private capital. They take many forms, including sidewalk extensions, plazas, parks, arcades, through-block passages, transit access spaces and others. In return for providing these, developers are given opportunities to...
Xianxia Lu
Xianxia Lu (仙霞路) is the main commercial and arterial road through Shanghai’s Japanese expatriate area in Changning District. The community is not so dense nor its boundaries concrete enough to call it an enclave, it’s more a center of gravity for Japanese and some Korean residents in the city. Mei and I went for an...
Lujiazui
On the afternoon of Christmas Eve 2016, Mei and I headed across the Huangpu River to Lujiazui (陆家嘴) in search of a Christmas market held at one of the large hotels there. Lujiazui is Shanghai’s modern financial and business district, directly facing the historic one across the river. It’s also the base of all the...
Fuzhou Lu
On a brisk but sunny day in 2016 December, Mei and I had a list of objectives for our afternoon walk: new books for her, a visit to the Waitan, and some camera tests. This brought us to Fuzhou Lu (福州路). Though this street is in what was once the British concession, an area which...
Beijing Dong Lu
Mei and I have visited the Shanghai Yinxiang Cheng a few times, the closest thing we have to the electronics and instrument vendors of Akihabara Electric Town. We almost always eventually find what we need, though we usually have to hunt for some time. That’s part of the fun. Occasionally a vendor will tell us...
Minhang Development Zone and Xinzhuang
About a year prior to the time of writing, my daughter Mei and I began making mini expeditions to parts of Shanghai we hadn’t seen before. Though we moved here at the end of 2014, between adjusting to a new place, new people, new school, new sibling, etc., it took a while before we’d felt...
Matador in Kitasenju
At the end of a few hours’ walk dodging a cool rain in Kitasenju, there was only one conceivable lunch stop. After a couple of years gawking at Brian MacDuckston’s photos of the award winning beef stock ramen at Matador (牛骨らぁ麺マタドール), I wasn’t leaving the neighborhood without a bowl. Deshi hard at work under the...
Kitasenju
Kitasenju (北千住) is an interesting cluster of shōtengai, narrow high-texture streets and, more recently, university campuses orbiting the hub train station of the same name in Adachi Ward. There is much to see and my original walk plan had been to spend at least half a day exploring. When rain moved in, rather than scrap...
Muteppo in Nakano, Session 2
I hadn’t planned to create a second article about the Nakano branch of Muteppō (無鉄砲東京中野店), but sometimes adventures don’t follow the path we expect. I’m learning that, more often than not, that’s a great thing. On solo stays in Tokyo, I’m almost always based out of Nishi-Shinjuku. No matter how far I’ve ventured, I can...
Tateishi
My first experience of Tateishi (立石) was with my then three-year-old daughter Mei permanently attached to one of my hands. We were accompanying my wife on a week long business trip. My job was to keep this small person fed, hydrated and entertained during the daytime. Fortunately, in Tokyo there is no shortage of choices...
Shitamachi Walk
When I visit Japan for neighborhood studies, I tend to set very specific location boundaries, time limits and objectives. I don’t have many opportunities to do this, so I try to maximize use of the time, though it means I inevitably miss out on spontaneous discoveries and the therapeutic value of wandering around with no...
Arakicho
Based on the handful of written accounts I’ve come across, it seems there are two Arakichō (荒木町). By day, mostly low-rise, generally older housing and a healthy layer of plant matter carpet this ravine carved out of the highland between Akebonobashi Station and Yotsuya-sanchōme Station in Shinjuku Ward. An unhurried but methodical walk through its...
