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Architektur, Lexikon, typisch für Japan   

typical japanese – Koban (the japanese TARDIS)

Koban, with a long o, is a police box; a tiny police station with usually one or two officers. The boxes are a big benefit for tourists. They are everywhere. Every block has a least one. Because there are no house number (and if there are, there is no logical order), the koban is possibly the only place where you can get help to find the house you are looking for. Sometimes there are street maps that will help you. Finding a koban is easier.

Koban – Ueno
Koban – Yushima
Koban in Ueno

Koban are also helpful if you got yourself lost in Tokyo. The description of the way back to the hotel always is to complex for my knowledge of Japanese. I tried it and gave up. Therefore it was easiert to ask for the next koban on the way. Then I asked the next koban for the next koban, and so on. Usually there is a koban every quarter mile.

Koban – Taito-ku
Koban – Nihonbashi
Koban – Ueno Park
Finding a koban

A koban is easy to find. At night there are two red lights. Ok, at daylight it is a little more difficult. Usually there is a police officer standing in front of the koban. Looking for an American cop? Donut shop. Looking for a German Cop? Döner Shop. Looking for a Japanese Cop? Standing in front of a koban. Typically Japanese. Often you can also see the white bicylces.

Koban – Ginza
The frog

Some koban are really well camouflaged. The one in Taito had a big japanese police stick mounted on the wall. It more looked like a souvenir shop. On Ginza the koban was some kind of an attraction. There was a big plastic frog on the roof. (The frog was gone 2010.) Because police boxes are everywhere, they are also the aim of architects., like this one in Ueno park.

More about this topic, if I have more pictures and informations.

— deutscher Blogeintrag —

Architektur, Lexikon, typisch für Japan   

typical japanese – pedestrian deck

Pedestrian decks are everywhere in Tokyo and all over Japan. What the roundabout for England (sometimes nothing more than a white circle in the center of the junction, os the pedestrian deck for Japan. They are simple ones. Just a tiny bridge with stairs on both side of the street. But there are also very complex constructions; melting into train stations and office buildings. They are art work. They cancel the meaning of „ground level“.

There is a practical reason behind it. There are no traffic lights for pedestrians and also crossing a street on traffic light at a junction is sometimes tricky. The green phase is reduced to a minium. Imagine to stop traffic in Tokyo for people to walk across the street. No way. Tokyo is to complex. You have to seperate car traffic and pedestrians.

3D-Tokyo Iidabashi
Pedestrian Deck – Iidabashi
Shimbashi Pedestrian Deck
Iidabashi und Shimbashi

The pedestrian deck in Iidabashi for example is a complete ring, connection all corners of the junction. Additionally there is an express way above the pedestrian deck. It is next to the JR station and like an starter drug. The next level the one between Ginza is Shimbashi. It is a good example for a pedestrian deck that was built after the streets were built. Shimbashi was on of my first impressions of 3D-Tokyo in 2004. My second walk thru the city passed here while I was heading for Nihonbashi.

3D-Tokyo Shiodome
Shiodome Pedestrian Deck
Pedestrian Deck – Shiodome
Shiodome

One of the most complex pedestrian decks is the one in Shiodome. This one is also mentioned in the book „21st century Tokyo – A guide to Contemporary Architecture“. The architecture in Shiodome will get it’s in blog entry. If you visit this area you can arrive by subway or you walk from Hamarikyu Teien. Do the second one. The garden is really amazing. If you leave the north gate you are mostly in front of the pedestrian deck. It is the entrance to a maze of pathways between the buildings of Shiodome. After visiting the garden the stairs are like stairs into a different world.

Pedestrian Deck – Oosaka
Pedestrian Deck – Gifu geplant
Pedestrian Deck – Shinjuku
Pedestrian Deck – Sapporo
Osaka, Saporro, …

The pedestrian decks become more than a passage way to the other side of the street. Japan tries to separate pedestrians from the traffic. It even is part of city development. Sooner or later I will return to Gifu and check how the plan was realized. The trains already stop in the upper level. Why not move the pedestrian up too.

— deutscher Blogeintrag —

Lexikon, typisch für Japan   

typical japanese – parking lots and tiny cars

Tokyo has 240 squaremiles and 9 million people. That make 37475 people/squaremile. Hamburg only has 6159. Or in other words: Tokyo is 6 times more packed than Hamburg. Therefore Tokyo is growing into the height and not into the surrounding area. If you ever were in Hamamatsucho, you wish for a 3D street map. This space problem also affects the parking space. The Japanese are really inventive in using space.

Parkplatzmangel überall
Motorradparkplatz
Parkplatz

There is an urban legend that you are only allowed to buy a car, if you can prove a parking space for the car. I don’t know if this is true, but after watching Japan I believe it. Why else would they built parking spacing like this ?

A public parking space is hard to get and expensive. Free area is like gold. Additionally all the plots still have the old side. This results in 10 story office buildings with a ground plot of 5 by 7 meter for example. There are also car parks of this size. The stack cars like hardware store the carpet. The tiniest area is used.

There is something that complete falls into the category „typical japanese“: If there are billable parking lots for bicycles they also have them for motorbikes.

XXS-Cars

Tiny car are always from Japan. Big cars from America. Prejudgment? Maybe. But true. But in Japan the attribute „small“ is applicable for trucks and even fire trucks. They all like washed at to high temperature (and shrinked).

But why are all these mini cars? The answer is: Because of Tokyo. Or Kyoto. Or all the other big cities in Japan. There are streets with 8 lanes and several levels stacked. But there are also these narrow streets; so small that not even two european compact cars would fit into it. Here a picture from Ueno.

Mini-LKW
schmale Einkaufstraße in Ueno
Mittagessen in Nihonbashi
Müllabfuhr für 20 Millionen Einwohner

The size of a garbage truck really rises the question about the size of the average japanese trash can. If you scale it linear by the size of th truck … hell no.

The best „compact“ car I found in 2010. It was the day I returned from Hokkaido. I walked thru Nihonbashi and searched for the 8 lucky shrines. During lunch time I saw many food carts and business people looking for a meal. This is maybe the smallest mobile kitchen on this planet.

— deutscher Blogeintrag —

Lexikon, typisch für Japan   

typical japanese – two wheels everywhere

Bicycles are also something to be aware of. On the first look it seems that there only one manufacturer. They look all the same. It is worse than in the Netherlands. Japan is also not famous for pictures with a lot of bicycles (that is China), but rather for crowded trains and platforms (Yamanote). Nevertheless, bicycles seems also to be something „typically Japanese.

Dienstfahrrad der Polizei
Sonnenschutz am Fahrrad

The police has special bikes with an „glove compartment“ and one or two tubes for their glow sticks. The chain is fully covered and the stand is mounted at the rear axis.

This is also typical for Japan: An older Lady on a bike with an umbrella; used as protection against the midday sun. There are special mounts available. I don’t know if this is working well on a windy day. I rented a bike to drive to Soyamisaki (2010). The 62km were no fun. „My ride“ was without these fancy sun umbrella. The result was a nasty sunburn.

Fahrradstellfläche in Ueno, Tokyo
bezahlter Fahrradparkplatz

By the way, there practically are no bike paths in Japan. I saw one in Nagoya and took a The first parking space for bicycles I found in Ueno. Like one for cars. With whites stripes on the ground and numberes spaces. There was only space for 8 bikes. But is was well organized. One holiday later I saw a bike rack with a coin slot (picture from Higashi-Ikebukuro). You have to pay to park your bike! What is next? A parking disk?

picture. It was so exotic. I am not familar with the rules, but it seems, that you have to ride your bike on the sidewalk (which is sometimes on 20 inch wide). One trained people with high priced racing bikes use the street.

— deutscher Blogeintrag —

Lexikon, typisch für Japan   

typical japanese – signs

Signs are a special chapter if you are talking about Japan. I believe that is because Kanji are tiny pictures itself and therefore there is no big difference between words and pictures. But there is also the aspect that Japanese always tend to adjective cute (=kawaii). Japan is still the origin of Hello Kitty.

wackelnde Fische

Nagoya is famous for its castle. The roof is decorated with two golden shachihoko. And you are right if you asume: If the fish is shaking, don’t drive you car! This street is a major evacuation route in Nagoya.

traurige Telefone
Hinweis auf Telefonleitungen
Hinweis auf Telefonleitungen

Sad phones and mean power shovel only exist in Japan. This sign (available in different verations) you can find everywhere in Japan. Here the company NTT reminds a contruction company that there is a phone line in the ground. Like always in Japan there is also a phone number you can call, of the mean power shovel relly mad the phone sad.

Foot note!
Notruftaste, nur für Notfälle

This sign I found inside Nagoya castle. There are many rules in Japan. Most of them are not written down. But that Japanese also respect the written word is amazing. No one else would ask you to not step on a footnote. But, maybe, they only talk about the metal beam on that they mounted the sign.

In Japan every ban is also followed by the reason. „Don’t ride your bike here and pay attention to older people.“ In Germany it would only be „Bike are prohibited!“ In Japan a ban is always like a request to your good manners. This is a complete different approach. All the rules are there to create respect and harmony.

Bitte an Fahrgäste der Yamanote

Yamanote line is always crowded. So you again should have good manners and behave „compact“ (right part of the banner). On the left side it is explained why you should not smoke in public places. After this you don’t mind all the other advises and requests.

Hinweis auf der Straße in Chuoku
Sorry, Baustelle
kein Zutritt

And with all the remains that could be found on the streets in Luebeck, I really would welcome a German version of the following sign. But I am also confident that they would be ignored with typical German arrogance.

gefunden in Gifu
Hunde an die Leine

A little bit disturbing is the fear of trains. But those sign are also a good example, how Japan is working. Even without able or willing to read the japaneses characters, you instantly know what they are takling about. No explaination needed.

Spielen im Gleisbett ist gefährlich
Notruftaste am Bahnübergang

Here the final sign: Clash. This sign I found in the trainstation Hamamatsucho, Tokyo. It is one of my favorites, right behind the wobbling carp from Nagoya.

Warnung im Baseball Stadion
Clash-Gefahr
Clash-Gefahr

— deutscher Blogeintrag —