Tokyo movie

Tokyo movie, an introduction and documentation of Tokyo seen from my eyes, will soon be uploaded. Stay tuned.

Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku

I am now focusing on the Yotsuya area in Shinjuku ward, along the Shinjuku Dori. It shows typical urban patterns in Tokyo, such as the wide main street accompanied with tall, narrow buildings. Then there is the "urban village", small, low-rise residential buildings, narrow, quiet streets that naturally follows the curves of the existing topography.

 

 

Shinjuku Street, an eight lane road, separating the city blocks/"urban villages"

By adding a new floor, about two stories high, the experience of the urban landscape transforms. Relative to the new floor, the roof of two-story buildings becomes the new ground floor, while the higher ones, penetrating the floor, defines new boundaries and spaces.

 

 

 

How does a potenial new floor filter people from the busy main street to the small, quiet side streets?

Hokosha Tengoku

Every Saturday or Sunday, the main streets in places like Ginza or Shinjuku are shut off for automobile traffic. This is called "Hokosha Tengoku", translating "Pedestrian Heaven".

sketches

I am finally back in Norway, struggling to put together all of my experiences and process them. One way I deal with the reflection by myself is by post-processing sketches and illustrations. They show me some my clearest images where the hand and the mind is connected. I want to make a large collection of small images, as this is truly the image of Tokyo. Every sketch represents a unique situation and atmosphere. It is a very fragile, but delicate moment. Maybe after less than one minute I might have moved position, or the situation has changed, giving a completely new picture. But the memory lingers on, and continues to build upon my knowledge of the city. Liven knowledge.

Tomorrow I will have my first tutoring since my return, and I will hopefully choose my direction precisely after that. I am currently focusing on doing a project on the historical/cultural path that goes from Ueno through Asakusa and over Sumida river.

Small change

During my travels in Tokyo I have found several small images that encourage a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle. It is not much, but something has changed since my last visit, which I am glad to document.

Small images around in Tokyo encourage you to save electricity

In Tokyu Hands in Shibuya the stairs give you information about how many calories you loose each step. This floors in this shop is divided into three levels for each floor, which means that a 7 story building becomes 21 divided floors. Therefore it is easier to hike to each floor, and you are continuesly drawn upwards, almost like an vertical IKEA-layout that seduces you to walk the longest distance possible. If you get lost in Tokyo Hands you can spend hours walking up and down.

Here you have to use the stairs because this library wish to save electicity!

Finally, the vendingmachines can sustain themselves.

Where will we live tomorrow?

Suzuko Yamada, 1:1 model

Tokyo Metoropolitan Art Museum has an architecture exhibition called "Where will we live tomorrow", where 28 young architects present their interpretation of a dwelling for the future. Suzuko Yamada, a staff member from Sou Fujimoto Architect, exhibits an amazing 1:1 model of her concept dwelling. 

Tomorrow I am going to Hamamatsu city in Shizouka Prefecture to meet up with the architects from the office called 403architecture [dajiba], one of the up-and-coming young offices that represents the next generation in Japan. They focus on reuse of materials, especially wood, to create new forms of spaces in urban settings. Check it out: http://www.403architecture.com/

I found piles of wood in good condition from a demolished building in Ikebukuro, and I also saw it in several other places. Tokyo is one of the cities in the world with the highest demolition/building rate per square meter, and I wonder where all the scrap material goes? I think we have a huge material reuse potential here, but the Tokyoites tend to prefer clean and new materials in their surroundings.

hike-able object

GeidaiTaitoSumida Sightseeing Art Project

In Yoyogi park there are small ramps that allows wheelchairs to enter the gras. I really like this attention to details, and the amount of wheel traces in the ground shows that it is beeing used well.

 

Today I have been walking around in Yoyogi park, observing and interviewing different types of people about their relation to the park. I got help from Mai Matsuoka and Fujimoto Yuta to translate my questions. It was very interesting to get a little bit more understanding about the urban behaviour in a park like Yoyogi. People come here for many reasons, and travels from all sort of places. Some as short as only 10 minutes by walk, and other as far as Hokkaido in North Japan.

Here is a list of activities that I have observed in Yoyogi park:

 

Walking

Sketching
Watercolor painting
Singing
Performing/acting
Choir practice
High school student PE-class
Eating lunch
Watching people

Resting and refreshing

Juggling
Arranging waterballoon competition
Play badminton
Outdoor kindergarden
Bicycling on the bike track
Jogging
Walking dogs and let them run loose at the dog-run park
Look at plants
Earthquake emergency zone supply
Give work to poor/homeless people (such as clean, fix park objects and watering plants)
Sleeping (homeless sleeping camp in the outskirts of the park)
Comedian act
Party (hanami/momiji)
Ritual performance
Use the toilet or changing rooms
Take photos of views and people
Play an instrument
Sightseeing
Philosophy reading
Discussion at a table
Meet friends that lives far away
Dating
Excercise martial art
Dance
Play in natural surroundings (with sticks, rocks..)
Light small fireworks

map for blind people

Today I found a station that had a very beautiful map for blind people. It was a relief telling about all the edges, steps and stairs on the station. Moving in a space with different levels can actually be a good experience for blind and visually impaired persons, as long as the right conditions are present.

The city has many levels, as here in Ueno where there are two levels of pedestrian walkways between two buildings, and then a highway on top of the buildings, maybe 25 meters above ground level.  

Historical and cultural path

This evening when I was looking for a firework festival, I accidentally stumbled upon a designated Tokyo Historical & Cultural Walk-route in Gokoji, north of Kagurazaka. Apparently there are 23 historical walks around Tokyo that takes you through main areas and historically important streets. There was a map that showed places of interest, such as parks, temples, shrines, toilet facilities and so on. I did not have time to walk the path I found. (It said it takes 1 1/2 hour to walk, but I guess it would have been much faster on a bicycle). However, I will try to find more information about these routes, but my first try at google didn't give so many clues. I think it looks similar to the Norwegian National Tourist Roads, on an urban scale, and it might be interesting for my project.

plants

Potted plants are a common sight and an important contribution to make Tokyo a green city. Beacuse of the subdivision of plots and the exensive amount of single detatched houses, private potted plant are a common view in the streets. So if every house exploits 0,5-1m of their scarce space outside of their 50-100sqm footprint house, there will be 8,5-17sqm green space pr. house. Imagine how much parkspace 100 houses would produce.