A Few Observations From Tokyo

Alex here.... Sorry you'll have to put up with my urbanism/transportation observations, but once you start seeing and thinking about how places work and are built you can't unsee it. After spending three days in Tokyo, I've seen enough to make some observations. Of course they are pretty limited and from the eyes of a newcomer, so the reality of someone who lives here is probably quite different.

First, and this should come as no surprise, the train network is fantastic. While I remember taking the regional trains 30 years ago, I don't remember using the city transit, even though we were here for short time. The best thing I did to prepare for that was to watch a video on the train system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Abrpfj3Aa4 If you are going to Tokyo definitely watch it. The summary is that the map of the system is crazy complicated at first blush, but is actually quite logical: Lines are color coded and have a letter designation and each station is numbered sequentially on the line and the directions of the next stations are all indicated there so you can tell which direction to go. Of course each line and station has a Japanese name which you may remember after some repetition, but not necessary if you're language challenged. Easy Peasy, especially if you have an iPhone and you get the Suica/Passmo app for contactless payment. If you are an Android guy like me (Pixel) you are out of luck, the payments only work with Android phone PURCHASED in Japan. Something to do with the open source multi-manufacturer nature of that OS, that Apple has worked out with the system. Boo. So I had to purchase a card. Not the end of the world, but slightly more friction.

Second, there is lots of elevated infrastructure everywhere; roads, tracks, walkways, pedestrian overpasses etc. Of course there are highways plowed right through the city. During the Edo period (1603–1868), the Tokugawa shogunate established five main highways, collectively known as the Gokaidō, which all originated at Nihonbashi Bridge in central Tokyo, is now buried under this elevated infrastructure. These are all now highways or major arterials. With the plethora of rail lines and because space is at such a premium, it goes up, and it's all substantial because it is no doubt seismic resistant. None of this should be surprising.

But what jumped out at me is how little vehicle traffic there is. Sure there is some but nowhere near a place like New York, and the traffic that is there is primarily commercial. The number of what appear to be private vehicles is small. There are many around parked in every nook and cranny, but not typically driving around like in the US. The streets are quite wide especially for the number of vehicles so that probably added to the sense of how empty the streets in every part of the city we were in. One of the consequences is that it was not particularly noisy (no horns or really loud trucks!!). Also, I know that in order to own a private vehicle, one of the requirements is proving you have an off street parking space for it (no doubt along with a really high regulatory cost) so that keeps the number down and there appears to be little public parking, either off street or on street. So why would you drive when the transit system is cheap and efficient?? Duh.

Third, I am amazed at the amount of stairs here. Americans would never put up with that. And while many train stations have escalators, most elevated infrastructure does not.; just lots of stairs. A cultural thing no doubt that everyone gets used to young and old, but certainly a nightmare for someone who is in a wheelchair. The prevalence of pedestrian overpasses - the 100 stairs up, cross a wide street/road, 100 stairs down kind of thing - are everywhere and people use them. No way in the US, people would just run across the street. Pretty unfriendly for people walking... I saw many of these even when we left Tokyo on the way to Enoshima. I'm surprised people don't complain.

Fourth, in the many areas they make good use of "scramble" intersections. These are starting to be looked at in the US, but are not popular because they do block all vehicle traffic and that's sacrilege in the US.

Fifth, lots of bikes and mostly e-bikes. They do ride on the road some and I'm surprised the tolerance of some that do. Most of the people ride on the shared space (ie sidewalks) and it's a little chaotic, but it works given the patience and high trust society here. There just doesn't seem to be many asshats.

Lastly, the architecture is mostly uninteresting and blocky as it mostly is utilitarian dating back to post WWII since much of the city was destroyed during the war. Fortunately many of the older neighborhoods survived or were rebuilt in their tradition pattern. We watched a few videos explaining why these patterns developed the way they did during the Edo period. Nothing happens by chance! These old neighborhoods, like Monzen-nakacho where we did the Culinary Backstreets tour (Lisa will write about that) are very tight knit places with many micro shops and a very strong sense of community within the larger context. It's my assertion that every large city has this kind of hyper local community that makes it feel not so overwhelming, the sense you get as a tourist. Also, one thing planners, financiers and the general public in the US just don't get it that the size of retail footprints very much dictate what is viable there. If we want hyper local businesses (aka "mom and pop" kinds of places that most people say they want) we need to have micro spaces that are cheap and flexible. This never happens in new development in the US since it's all Wall Street financed. The only thing they know is large footprint chain stuff, which is not about the business itself, rather it's an investment product. OK, rant off.

Well, that's enough. If you made it this far, thanks for indulging my observations.Læs mere