Japan hasn't featured around here much lately, but I can recommend these links for the photos, all from Bouncing Red Ball:
* One of the great things about Japan is the apparent laissez faire attitude to town planning and building design, yet the cities still work. Can you imagine, for example, even the smallest cafe or bar in Australia being allowed to incorporate a toilet situated like this one?
* It's not just the corridors, there are entire buildings which are just incredibly narrow by Western standards. Such designs make me very curious as to how the interior is set out.
* I've already posted about the giant model Gundam robot that has been built in a Japanese park, but you should really look at this very impressive set of photos of it.
This one reminds me of a bar in North Fitzroy - quite an old one too. Melbourne also specialises in small box-like shops built into the facade of a wall. Buildings are not very high or wide, but they can go back a long, long way.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Melbourne is the most Japanese of Australia's cities, as well as being the most European?
Hmm, I think you'll still find "small" in Melbourne still bears little resemblance to "small" in Japan.
ReplyDeleteAustralia gets itself worked up into such a regulatory frenzy over where you put a small bar or restaurant. In Japan, if someone wants to use the front of their house as a small cafe for home style cooking, or a local dry cleaning outlet, no problem. (I've been in examples of both.)
By the way, I am sure you should go to Japan for the pleasure you will derive from product names.
You're probably right. I gather from the amount of Japan posts that you've done that you must have spent some time there yourself?
ReplyDeleteI spent a day in Japan, once, in between stops as I was flying to the US. Nice place.
Not sure how many trips I have had there now - maybe 8 I think - but usually only two weeks each time.
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