urbanomania-jp

046_UFO catcher

2009-04-28T23:23:00.001+08:00

UFO catchers or claw vending machines are super-duper popular among the young generation in Japan (and everywhere else in the world). They are usually found together with arcade games, like salt and pepper. Prizes are ranging from small cute toys to weird things that should not even be there at the first place. Some items, judged by the logic of ordinary people, do not look like can be lifted by those flimsy claws but, however, there are some people who have mastered the art of groping and you will be surprised to see what they can do. Even though there is no evidence that UFO catchers are originated from the idea of alien abduction, but it is hard not to assume such connection…

045_ languages

2009-02-15T12:27:00.002+08:00

Today’s Japan is different from that of 10 years ago. The number of people who can understand or speak basic English is rising. One of the main reasons for this change is their preparation for co-hosting FIFA World Cup with Korea in 2002, the same process China has undergone for the Beijing 2008 Olympics Games. There are language lessons showing on free-to-air TV everyday after midnight, and English is not the only one. I can’t wait to see how Japan will change in the next 10 years.

044_hanko

2008-12-25T16:17:00.001+08:00

A hanko (or inkan) is a seal widely used in Japan by individuals or companies as an equivalent to a signature. For personal use, there are at least four kinds of seals differentiated by their importance and formality. Off-the-shelf hanko like the ones in the photo, being mass-produced, of course should not be used for official or legal documents but rather for signing for postal deliveries, utility bill payments or receipt of internal company documents, for instance.

043_prefab bathroom

2008-11-30T21:14:00.001+08:00

Unito-basu or unit bath is a tiny prefab bathroom commonly found in small houses, apartments and hotels in Japan. A unit contains a washbasin, a bathtub and a toilet, all in one single-surfaced fiberglass making it convenient to transport, install and clean. Another distinguished difference from conventional bathroom is its drop detail, which is a step higher the room outside.

042_sub-users

2008-07-06T15:47:00.002+08:00

Last year my senior, Rachaporn Choochuey (http://blogzone-allzone.blogspot.com), was so kind to invite me for a review of graduation projects by her students at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. There was a proposal for a Children Learning Centre, which instigated me to talk about main users and sub users. By nature of the program the primary user group is definitely kids but, however, parents who accompany the children to the centre inevitably make up a secondary group of users. Likewise, who knows that streetlights are useful not only to human, especially in winter?

041_homeless 03

2008-06-29T23:49:00.001+08:00

While cardboard boxes are perfect material for building a shelter because of its lightness and great availability it’s not ideal for outdoor use. Pure cardboard shelters are usually found only in covered areas such as underground link ways or train stations. For outdoor campsites, Tokyo Bedouins wrap their homes with a secondary layer of blue (or green) tarpaulin for weather protection.

040_fashion city

2008-06-29T18:47:00.004+08:00

Tokyo is a city of fashion. People here dress up quite well comparing to those in other Asian cities. It is interesting to note that some inexpensive-but-well-designed brands of apparel such as MUJI, among others, has created a generic appearance of Tokyoites, the same way IKEA has done to interior spaces across Europe. Salary men on the train carry similar briefcases or housewives don the same design of coats and handbags are fairly usual sight within Tokyo’s urban area. Younger women are also in favour of stiletto heels even though they don’t look comfortable at all. This photo was taken from a shop in Tokyo. Look carefully and you’ll notice an impressive number of marks caused by those killing heels.

039_creative display

2008-06-15T22:54:00.001+08:00

I once wrote about Akihabara on the post no.002_Signtecture. The area is famous for electrical appliances and digital technologies. It is also perhaps one of the most vibrant areas in Japan. One can find not only incredible amount of information flying around in all sorts of form ranging from small handouts to giant digital billboard façade, but also the most interesting ways of displaying products. Since most shops are selling more or less the same stuffs. The competition rate is high. Creativity is an important key to public’s attention.

038_women only

2008-06-01T20:11:00.003+08:00

Japanese trains are exceptionally crowded during peak hours. Within these periods, station staffs are provided in front of each door to push the commuters in, as many and as dense as they can. Well, actually not all of them on board are unhappy. There is a hidden group of perverts enjoying the density and trying to strategically place themselves next to their potential preys. The number of reported cases involving women being molested on the train is unable to disregard. As a possible solution, some lines offer a few carriages only for female passengers during rush hours.

037_the japanese are in the detail 02

2008-06-01T13:20:00.003+08:00

[Kyoto] Ordinary things such as pedestrian crossing light can also tell us some stories about the city it belongs to. As shown on the picture, the red and green men found in Japan both wear a hat. It shows how meticulous local people are. Pay attention next time you travel overseas, you will notice that different city has different design of pedestrian crossing light. For example, the ones in Taipei are animated (see 006_running green man at http://urbanomania-tw.blogspot.com) and in Rome they also have a yellow light (see 010_yellow man at http://urbanomania-eu.blogspot.com).

036_homeless 02

2008-04-20T00:26:00.001+08:00

This is an example of Tokyo’s nomadic architecture. Yet again, the Japanese are in the detail. These homeless people have displayed to the world (and to their homeless fellows in other countries) their outstanding skill of craftsmanship by turning used cardboard boxes into a shelter, well, with proper shutters. Quite amazing.

035_homeless 01

2007-11-24T16:36:00.000+08:00

To survive in Tokyo is tough. There are millions of inhabitants and the competition rate is high. A lot of people have failed to earn enough for their living and become homeless. There are several places in the city where you can spot the gathering of these urban nomads such as Ueno Park, some major subway stations or the promenade along Sumida River. The local government seems to accept that these people are still part of society and cannot just simply be removed. However, this issue has incubated many debates and design workshops in architectural schools worldwide.

034_fugu

2007-07-28T15:11:00.000+08:00

Fugu in Japanese means puffer fish or blowfish and also a Japanese delicacy prepared from the raw meat of the fish. Since internal organs and skin of fugu are poisonous, only specially licensed chefs are allowed to sell the dish to the public. There are a number of edible species in the market. This one in the picture is called Torafugu or Tiger Blowfish.

033_the japanese are in the detail

2007-07-01T20:03:00.000+08:00

To elaborate my previous post about neatness of the Japanese, I’ll follow up with this picture, which is self-explanation. By the way, the hedge is shaped like a pitch roof and the pitch line is so straight all the way.

032_tidiness

2007-07-01T19:48:00.000+08:00

[Kyoto] My office (the office that I’m now working for) likes to work with Japanese contractors. We think they are very neat and organized. I once worked on a research with students from the University of Tokyo and I too felt that they were really systematic. In my opinion, people from this country are good at small, little details. This picture of a taxi queue in front of JR Kyoto station explains quite well. The alignment is almost perfect!

031_pedestrian city

2007-07-01T19:28:00.000+08:00

Tokyo is one of the best cities in the world for walking. Motorists are considerate and kind to pedestrians and the city provides generous walkways almost everywhere. Look at the picture, the footpath is almost as big as the road itself.

030_formalism

2007-05-19T14:20:00.000+08:00

We’ve heard a lot about the Japanese in term of their strict order and discipline. It could even be a little too much sometimes. I just hope that the military seating arrangement I found on this beach was unintentionally. It doesn’t feel relaxing at all sitting like that…

029_destinations at fingertip

2007-05-13T13:21:00.000+08:00

If you complain taking subway rides in Tokyo is complicated and troublesome, take a look at this picture. Some people can make it without seeing!

028_space saver 01

2007-04-06T12:26:00.000+08:00

We all know that Tokyo city is very dense. (Well, at least I’ve been telling you here.) People live in small houses or tiny rooms where space is for either mix-used or universal purpose. As a consequence, the Japanese are expert on space saving. There are significant numbers of book on how to design with limited space written by the Japanese. Now, this one is really cool. In patrol stations, everything is hung from above to free up the space on ground for car maneuvering. With nothing on the driveway, you don’t have to worry about parking angle and turning radius.

027_labyrinth city

2007-04-06T12:25:00.000+08:00

Because of the complexity of Tokyo urban structure, it’s difficult for tourists or even Tokyoites themselves to obtain the entire image of the city by walking on streets. A better way is to use subway map as a guideline and stations as reference points for orientation. Taking subway rides in Tokyo is a real test for your planning skill and logical thinking. Most of the time, there are several ways to get to where you want to go. Some are cheaper, some take longer time and some get you closer to your final destination.

026_leave me alone 05

2007-04-01T18:46:00.000+08:00

Can’t get enough of Japanese automatic machine? Check this out. With a 100-yen coin, you can get a shopping bag!

025_keitai city

2007-04-01T18:27:00.000+08:00

The word keitai in Japanese is known for a cell phone. Almost everyone in the city has a cell phone (and yet there are public phones everywhere. In Singapore it’s really hard to find one). It’s become a part of everyday bustling urban life especially nowadays mobile phone also function as a personal entertaining device. The competition is high. New gadgets are often released with better functions and smaller size. The system of mobile phone in Japan (as well as Korea) is different from the rest of the world. That means you can’t use your phone brought in from your home country even though you have subscribed for global roaming service, anyway, with the exception of 3G phones

024_leave me alone 04

2007-04-01T17:58:00.000+08:00

Tokyo is an automatic city. There are vending machines selling all kind of things everywhere. Think how we can find all these products in one place like 7-eleven or am/pm, by distributing them around the neighbourhood makes the district a convenience store itself where streets become shopping aisles, a kind of decentralised convenience store.

023_slim is beautiful

2007-04-01T17:35:00.000+08:00

This building in Shibuya is probably one of the skinniest inhabitable structures on earth. No doubt that they would need an elevator for vertical circulation and the size of a staircase (of course for emergency exit) would be about the same as the width of the building itself. My gut feeling tells me that these elements must be at the back of the building. Anyways, I really appreciate the attempt to build in such tiny space and another extra 10 points go to the landscape work!

022_prada aoyama

2007-03-11T01:29:00.000+08:00

When I first started this urbanomania blog series, I decided to try not to talk about architecture at all. But it’s a bit hard now since many of designer’s boutique flagship stores have become tourist attraction themselves instead of the things they sell and the choice of architect, as a selling point, is as important as the location of the store. Prada Aoyama is another catalyst that will transform the future of Aoyama area to a further step after the success of its neighbouring predecessor, Comme des Garcons.

021_super bowl

2007-03-11T01:24:00.000+08:00

I think the Japanese eat quite a lot. The food here is served either in big portion or set meal. Try not to order big-sized noodles or extra-large curry rice just to show off to your girlfriend if you aren’t really confident with your stomach’s capacity because they are real huge! Remember the champion of hotdog eating competition, Kobayashi? He really trashed the American competitors next to him even though they were almost triple of his size. The ramen in the picture was extra-sized and only cost 900 yen. By the way, I finished everything in the bowl including the last drop of the soup and almost couldn’t walk after that. But you know what, a guy sitting few chairs away from me was eating the same thing with a bowl of rice and another side dish. He was almost half of my size only…

020_fastest food

2007-03-11T01:23:00.000+08:00

The idea behind fast food is to provide quick service in preparing and serving meal for people who don’t have much time to waste for eating. But the irony is, in our modern society, we spend a lot of time in fast food restaurants. They have become our favourite places for waiting, meeting and killing time. The real busy people then end up having no place to sit and are forced to buy take away instead. In Japan, not to worry, there are ramen/ udon shops providing super quick service and the best part is there is no seat available. Yes, you need to stand and eat at the counter. Try it if you have a chance, this kind of shop is easily found on the platform of major train stations

019_leave me alone 03

2007-03-10T17:05:00.000+08:00

This is one of the greatest Japanese innovations. Reasons?
1. I have Monday blue. Don’t wanna talk to anyone.
2. I have a sore throat. No voice.
3. I’m a tourist and can’t speak Japanese.
4. I’m a waiter and don’t know what the hell the guy on no.3 above is talking about.
5. Will I get a surprise when I later pay for my meal?
6. I’m the owner of the restaurant. Will my staffs cheat me on my money?

Bla bla bla…

How to use? Very simple. Pick the food you feel like eating then put money in (banknote acceptable and change provided!), after that the machine will issue you a coupon for you to pass to restaurant staff. There is no food coming out of the vending machine. Sorry.

018_leave me alone 02

2007-03-10T16:34:00.001+08:00

Need some ice during your stay in a hotel in Japan? Don’t bother calling room service, just walk out to the corridor, there will be a room equipped with an ice-making machine. Take as much as you want, as many times as you wish without feeling guilty or seeing service staff with sulky face!

017_leave me alone 01

2007-03-10T16:10:00.000+08:00

I found this service in most hotels I stayed in Japan, which is really good, I think. Normally you need to call hotel front desk to set a wake-up call. But if you are anti-social or would like to rely a bit more on yourself, this self-service alarm is fantastic.

016_multi-functional city

2006-09-24T14:59:00.000+08:00

If you stay long enough in Tokyo, soon you will become a specialist in space manipulation. This one is an impressive example of mix-used concept. On top of parking lot is a golf driving range, very good combination, very clever, really great idea.

015_white in the dark

2006-05-14T14:34:00.000+08:00

if someone is going blind, i'd recommend the person to move to tokyo. here in tokyo city, we can find the relief texture (braille) on walkways, public phones, cans of beer, subway ticket machines, etc., etc. furthermore, in the picture, they also have street crossing signal for the blinds, the white one. but i just wonder how the blind people know which the white one is. i guess it's more for us to press for them.

014_cartesian walker

2006-05-14T14:25:00.000+08:00

in the midst of chaotic flow of tokyo's inhabitants, there is a group of people who walk in gridiron pattern. yes, the blinds. lucky for these people who rely on this cartesian geometry. in japan, they are provided with relief walkway almost everywhere.

013_the hidden system

2006-05-14T14:12:00.000+08:00

by looking deep down under the chaotic surface of tokyo, some hidden orders or systems reveal. in bangkok we drive on the left but are forced to walk on the right. these two things are tally in tokyo. have you ever experienced difficulties in getting past some one walking from the other direction? strangely, the two always take the same side and struggle hard to get past each other. this won't happen if they have the same system. collision could be avoided if they both take, for example, their own left.

012_rapid chaos no.2

2006-05-13T23:06:00.000+08:00

the high density of people at hachiko's crossing made me more curious so i went there again on a rainy day to see how it's going to be. it looked like colour dots moving in interesting patterns. the space occupied by one person was increased by the size of his or her own umbrella. how could they manage the traffic?

011_rapid chaos

2006-05-13T23:01:00.000+08:00

this is hachiko's crossing at shibuya. the number of passers-by is more than thousand of thousand each day. if you want to experience tokyo's chaos, come to this crossing and try walking among the crowd. you will find people in every square-meter moving in every direction. have a nice time!

010_urban paradox

2006-05-13T22:56:00.000+08:00

similar to most modernised cities, tokyo city today is a concrete forest compounded with non-traditional architectures. however, sometimes we can find some paradoxical urban scenes such as an old traditional house between modern hi-rise towers or even a crazy, hi-tech looking architecture like this sitting next to a small house.

009_another transparency no.2

2006-05-13T22:49:00.000+08:00

take a look closer, this building is not a new design from toyo ito. it's a building under construction with wrapped skin for safety protection. this quality of neatness is the typical characteristic of construction site in tokyo.

008_another transparency

2006-05-13T22:45:00.000+08:00

the japanese-architecture maniacs who love the use of transparent or translucent materials of ito-san or hasegawa-san must be surprised with this another kind of transparency found abundantly in tokyo, especially during economic bubble period.

007_blank center

2006-05-13T22:38:00.000+08:00

the structure of today tokyo is composed of many centers along an important train loop yamanote line - shibuya and harajuku for teens, shinjuku for business, akihabara for electrical equipments, for example. strange but true, the center of the loop is blank. the center of tokyo is empty! the area used to be castle and palace for the tokugawa shoguns in edo period and still remain as the palace for the royal family nowadays.

006_gaps

2006-05-13T22:33:00.000+08:00

in tokyo, each building stands individually with gaps in-between them. these gaps are varied in size. prof. hidetoshi ohno explains that these gaps prevent buildings from spreading structural collapse in earthquake and also accommodate electrical and air-conditioning systems.

005_tightness

2006-05-13T22:29:00.000+08:00

the japanese law says if you want to buy a car, you need to show an evidence or to prove that you have space to park it. this matter is related to urban planning, in order to limit the number of cars. sometimes the space provided is not quite enough.

004_red alert

2006-05-13T22:22:00.000+08:00

this is a bird-eye view of shinjuku at night. sometimes we can evaluate the density level of a metropolis from these scattering red spots. this nighttime urbanscape is merely found in cbd of big cities, not in small towns or countrysides.

003_asian manhattan

2006-05-13T22:18:00.000+08:00

if manhattan's architectures are a paradigm for exploitation of congestion, according to koolhaas, the accumulation of tokyo's architecture is another kind of culture of congestion. modern city of tokyo is growing at incredible rate. spaces are needed more and more for a gigantic number of population.

002_signtecture

2006-05-13T22:10:00.000+08:00

the nearer you move to city center, the higher density of sign number is. somewhere, right in the center, it seemd urban space is formed just by this stream of signs. especially in akihabara where it is famous for electrical appliances. in some shops, almost every square-inch is dedicated to price lists and commercial signs. should we call this 'signtecture'?

001_empire of signs

2006-05-13T21:56:00.000+08:00

tokyo at first glance was like what roland barthes says in his book. it is the 'empire of signs'. it really is. public space fully flooded with signs is a typical scene of contemporary city nodes in japan. this is an exact image of japanese urban landscape