3 Days Exercise

Last both weekends, I walked around Azabu Juban and observed the appearance of streets.

When I walked around station, I noticed that there is no adult entertainment shop or street solicitation. That is because, I think, those shops may pollute the streetscape of Azabu as a "SHITAMACHI" (old town) and may cause a bad influence to the children living there. There are many schools in Azabu Juban and I saw many children coming out of school.

I also noticed that Azabu is a little similar to Kyoto. Because they aim to preserve the scenery of the town. It is sure that there are new type of shops such as Mcdonald, Wendies, or Starbacks. However, they are unlike them in Shibuya, Shinnjuku, Roppongi. They are designed to match up with other buildings by using soft and muted color.

One more interesiting thing here is that some shops are named Juban or Azabu such as a bar called Juban or public bath "Azabu Juban Onsenn". Other than those shops, there are KIMONO shop, FUTONN shop and Japanese Traditional Sweets shops.

Compared with cities like Shibuya and Roppongi,

Azabu Juban creates more homely, liveable

and neighborly atmosphere.

That is what I felt through this exercise.

Incoherent City Tokyo

Donald Richie says, in the TOKYO the Impermanent Capital, that Tokyo looks like western in its appearance, but the city function is completely different. He says Tokyo is more incoherent, incongruous and arbitrary than Westerns think. In a modern Western city, many shops are welded together as a unit. But in Tokyo, these shops are all independent and unattached to the other. I think the same way with him. Sometimes, Tokyo makes me feel out of place like foreigner first coming to Japan. Because there are few places we can have a rest and relax. It is sure that Tokyo is really convenient when you have something to do with your friends, familly, boyfriends. But if you are alone and have nothing to do, it is useless and wasteful to be in Tokyo. For me, I would rather sleep and play on the green bed than play around concrete jungle such as Roppngi, Shibuya, Shinnjuku. There are many big parks in Tokyo like Yoyogi Park, Sinnjiku Gyoenn, and Hibiya Park. However, small parks are getting declined year by year for the construction of new buildings. In Nishiazabu, 2 parks were already closed this year. I think this is terrible situation. This decline of parks deprives children of their playground. As a result, they end up playing inside like videogame, TV, Internet.

So, I think Tokyo has to have more green area.