Here is a collection of thoughts and observations throughout the duration of time in Japan.
This blog is broken down into two sections: Observations and Notes.
Observations
Color pallet of the city
This was one of my first observations in the city. I noticed that many of the locals were dressed in pastel business attire. In contrast to the more colorfully saturated clothing of North America. Additionally, buildings also followed this very pastel color pallet, muted tile colors cladding building facades.
Use of English in most Media
Division of Everything - from the prescriptiity of circulation to the many layers of packaging for food.
This was an interesting one, quickly I discovered that a lot of food and goods in Japan are packaged with incredible precision and care. There is not only a technique to packaging and item but a technique for unwrapping an item.
This division of components (I found) can be read all the way up to the separation of sidewalk and road, on larger major roads. The sidewalks are separated from the street with not only a curb but also with a guardrail; as if to stop people from running into traffic.
Indoor Culture
Its hot, its wet, I can see why there is an underground city.
I began to notice many outdoor things, like vending machines and residential driveways take into consideration the use of a canopy. Now, the first couple months were quite hot, then wet, and the hot again, so I can appreciate finding shade in the most odd of places.
But this Uchi and Soto, creation of outdoor spaces that are indoor and vice verse, through the use of a canopy scales up into building and urban forms. In many of the manufacturing use buildings there is an outdoor area / volume framed into the rest of the building presumably for tasks that need to be done outside.
Formalized Culture - formal relationships - business like. systematic approach to resolution
Difficulty to map the city in 2D plan - many layers of information
Space for things - other than people like car storage towers, bike storage towers
I have heard of towers used to store bicycles, but was shocked to discover how Tokyo stores vehicles as well. Multi-thousand dollar vehicles suspended above one another like a Ferris wheel. However, I can 100% get behind the vertical storage of vehicles verses the North American horizontal parking plane of parking lots. It would seem to me through that these towers need to be rigorously tested and maintenance in order to maintain trust in the working of the system.
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