No-car road in neighborhood around Seikei University (成蹊大) in the Kichijoji area of Musashino City, western Tokyo.

Carless road along west edge of Seikei University in Tokyo.

Park entrance, guarding against scooter bypass. Bikes and people can fit, more or less.  South entrance of Tateno Park (立野公園) in southern Nerima.

Gouged bollards at handlebar and pedal height. Wreckless kids or struggling elders?  Same spot in Tateno park.

Park entrance with another type of scooter stopper.  Over on the east side of Tateno Park.

"Old folks and kids at play. Please ride your bike with care in the park."  Next to that east entrance to Tateno Park, Nerima, Tokyo.

Bicycle Parking.  One of many in Zenpukuji Park (善福寺公園) in the northern Suginami, Tokyo.  No loops, no twists, no space wasted on immense locking stands.  Just space to stop your bike.  99% of bikes in Tokyo are equipped with a built in lock. 90% of bikes are never stolen.

Small lane along Zenpukuji River near its source.  Bikes and people only 7-9am.  Motorized vehicles allowed other times.  It's too narrow for even two bicycles to pass each other.

One way traffic sign on tiny lane, which bicycles can ignore.  Best guess: homes have entrances on the lane, and scooters have to use it for deliveries.

Two way road which you can freely bike and walk on.  Scooter and bikes parked willy-nilly.  Car parked into the street.  People don't freak out.  A river lies exposed, not jammed into some pipe to make lanes.  They're not needed.  A major passenger rail line passes overhead every minute or so.  People don't freak out.  The street is frequented by people, rather empty of cars.

Car stopping barriers at entrance to bike and person path.  This is down at the entrance to Zenpukuji River Greenbelt near Minami-Asagaya (南阿佐ヶ谷).  It's at the Itsukaichi Highway (五日市街道) bridge.

Mini pedestrian overpass at entrance to Suginami Kids Transportation Park (杉並児童交通公園). 

Loaner bikes lined up at Suginami Kids Transportation Park, where traffic safety is made fun.  Each has a different cartoon advertised.  Disney's princesses, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Anpan Man, Hello Kitty.  Hope there's some serious subsidizing going on here, like at Kidzania.

Traffic signal and mini train station at Suginami Transportation Park.  Parents can ride along in go-karts, or kids ride on their own.

Big kids can bike a figure-8 loop out on the main route of Zenpukuji River Park, across a couple of people and bike bridges.

One of Tokyo's first bike lanes.  Drivers are good about sharing the road, but this is a fast, narrow street that cyclists can't avoid.  This is on Honan Avenue heading into West Shinjuku.

View the entire Seattle Public Clock Collection at Windows Live Maps.

Northeast of the intersection of NW 84th and 15th NW is a broad, fenced off parking lot.  On the edge is this monolithic clock.

The clock's days are numbered. 

It was once part of Washington Federal Savings Bank's Crown Hill location.  The bank now lies shuttered, half of its lot fenced off.  The entire property belongs to neighboring Safeway supermarket.  Safeway has been in a battle with the neighborhood for several years to build a discount gas station on this lot, and seems to have finally won.  The gas station is going to be built on the bank site.  I don't think the clock will survive.

I don't have exact dates on the clock, but the bank building itself dates from 1971.

A few years back I talked about Temples and Streets in Utsunomiya, Japan.  Really I was talking about shrines, not temples.  Shrines go to Shinto, temples go to Buddhism.

Here's another look at the intersection of streets and shrines, and some commentary on kids thrown in for good measure.

This is a michi-shirube (道しるべ), which my dictionary calls a "signpost" or "guide".  Before looking it up, I'd settled on "road guardian."  These tiny shrines not only mark the road, but also are a great place to ask the powers that be to keep you on the right track.  I get lost all the time, so I need to get right with them.

This shrine is a local monument, a relic of an older era.  Directly behind it, and dominating its presence, is a branch of Nippon Rent-a-car.  They get in their back door by cutting between shrine buildings.

This shrine straddles the gap in a fork in the road.  It's gorgeous, really, brilliantly capturing the true beauty of a shrine.  A tall, ancient tree envelopes the shrine grounds, casting an impenetrably dark shadow over its resident.  The gate offers the deity a clear view out to the world it oversees.

This tiny shrine sits in the now-corner of a residential lot.  They've carved off a piece for a parking lot.  Probably this was once part of a small farm parcel.

This shrine sits, coincidentally, in the corner of a parking lot. The van was being warmed up, spewing exaust over the sidewalk that wafted back over the shrine.  That dude was asking for trouble.

This shrine is truly amazing.  It belongs in the short review of mixed use buildings I wrote last year.  It is located at the base of an office building, accessed up a flight of stairs from the courtyard.  A modernist, steel screen shields its resident from the prying eyes of office workers.  Best of all, it is placed right above the entrance to the building's parking garage!

Not so long ago, streets were kid space.  Likewise, shrine grounds have always served the commons as park space, a place to view cherry blossoms, watch leaves change color, and for kids to play.

This shrine is ringed in high-contrast signs, "You musn't play in the shrine grounds."  How distaseful.

Following the same ill-logic, this shrine has a sign painted on the maintenance shed, "Don't bounce balls off of door."  There are also spooky signs for kids to beware of kidnapping outside.

This shrine is on the southwest corner of Chofu's Jindai Temple.  The shrine grounds are packed with playground toys.  This is the way it's supposed to work.

At Hikawa Shrine in Akasaka, the city has taken over the playground from the shrine for management purposes, and operates it as a tiny children's park.

What a great compromise.

I think I'm supposed to make an analogy here to skate parks keeping kids off the street.  But when did the street become analogous to homelessness and crime?

On a make-shift sidewalk/shoulder in a major construction zone, there is a bike "stop" sign painted on the left, a pedestrian "stop" sign with feet painted on the right, and then heat appliques for a red "stop" sign and a blue "look left and right" sign.

This is a unique painted pedestrian stop sign.  It's in the shape of a shrine gate.

This must be the tiniest pedestrian "Stop" sign in the world.  The real foot is only a size six and a half womens (US size).

Along the same under-constrction highway, this sign says "This way to the entrance to the pedestrian overpass."

At the beginning of a pedestrian mall, this sign says "Pedestrian only street.  3pm to 7pm.  Yoyogi Police Department and City of Shibuya."

At the entrance to a narrow street not open to motorized vehicles is this picture of Momotarou on a bear, with "Pedestrian Road" above.

"This street is a pedestrian only road from 2pm to 6pm."  It lights up at night.

The sign says "Pedestrian Use Push Button."  They have to put the sign up to draw attention to the button because, well, people don't expect them.  Push buttons are scarce in Tokyo, and only used when necessary.

I'm confused by this crosswalk.  On the left is a white, accessible pushbutton for use by elderly and the visually impaired.  It's covered over haphazardly with duct tape and some paper.  On the right is an older, common pedestrian button.  Maybe they're in the process of upgrading?

This is a narrow street, one way for cars, that gets quite a bit of quick traffic.  So this sign reminds them, "Pedestrians have priority."

This sign, and the one up ahead, are at a pedestrian underpass below the JR Chuo Line, which is under construction to raise the rails and remove crossings.  The near sign says "We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the Chuo Line elevated construction.  Please work with us toward compromise as we pass through."  The far sign says "PEDESTRIAN PRIORITY.  Bicycles, scooters are HAZARDOUS so please DISMOUNT and pass through."  This tunnel is dangerous, as community members, delivery people, and postal workers all race through on both kinds of bikes.  With barriers on both sides you wouldn't think they could do it, but the gouges in concrete and metal attest to the number of collisions.  Luckily the construction will be done in a couple of years and this tunnel can be removed.

It's all here, all of the big projects you hear about on TV or read about in the paper, or maybe see ads for on the train. You'll see station by station 3D walkthroughs of the new Fukutoshin Subway line that opens in 2008. A 14 page special feature on Tokyo Station City, building by building. Four pages on the New Tokyo Tower (Sumida Tower), which will newly tower over Tokyo at a height of 610 meters in 2011 in order to transmit digital TV to the entire Kanto region. There are features on each neighborhood, like Shinjuku, Akasaka, and Shinagawa. A spread explains the bid for the 2016 Olympics, and where the events would be held. And they round it off with a list of the top 100 buildings in Tokyo, including those planned and featured in the book - a full 37 of them didn't exist at the time of publishing!

The buildings are big, they're beautiful, they'll save the world. Everything is bright and rosey and wonderful. Every project is perfect and full color and now, but not quite yet.

I'm going a bit far there.

This book is very well put together, and serves as a great resource - most of the projects don't have great websites, and certainly can't be learned about in a glance and don't reference each other in maps.

On the other hand, it's a total boosterism tool for the real estate and construction industries. Nowhere is there any mention of possible downsides, like that found on the site for Society for Rethinking the New Tokyo Tower. That group is a true rarity, though. Most projects face no organized resistance, and have outpaced and overwhelmed any potential public comment. Is Tokyo Station City necessary? Does it serve a real purpose?

I don't even necessarily want any of these projects stopped. I'd just like to know what the counterarguments are.

Where are the public amenities? Where are the low-cost housing and blue-collar (non retail) jobs? It's frightening that there are apparenlty no major parks planned in Tokyo, other than as pedestals for new buildings on landfill.

This book makes as a great companion to a service like Live Maps, and is very interesting to look at in contrast to Tokyo Inner City Project.

The opening essays set the stage well for the student work. However, Hiroto Kobayashi's "Genius Loci of Edo/Tokyo" essay's overview of major events in shaping modern Tokyo reminded me of the light up maps for school kids at the Edo-Tokyo Museum: the perspective is almost juvenile and you're left wondering if Tokyo just needs a good disaster. Rowe's "Spatial Structure" article is basically a digest of the book "Tokyo: A Spatial Anthropology," of which he wasn't the author. The "Green Space" essay by Ishikawa was interesting and reminded me of a presentation I sat in on a few years back by Chiba University's Sawako Ono.

Of the introductory essays, Masami Kobayashi's "What is the future model of Tokyo?" is by far the best, clearly - almost angrily - posing the questions that Tokyo needs to answer. The issues he raises are very real. Would you rather live in Yokohama, which features a fancy new waterfront business district and the tallest building in Kanto, yet is slashing residential bus service; or Mitaka, where you can still buy vegetables from farmers, yet boasts the lowest tax rate of any city in Japan? Models of youth entertainment from the last few decades have been decimated. Five, ten, twenty years ago young people were going to trendy shopping districts, going out to bowling or karaoke with friends, and taking trips to foreign countries. The stereotype now is buying online, checking friends' blogs, and visiting cafes. How does built Tokyo respond?

Six years later, the students' visions can already be contrasted to built realizations.

Two of the four spotlighted locations have already seen drastic change completed. The Roppongi site they reviewed has become Tokyo Midtown. The edges of the Akasaka valley in their study have been rebuilt as TBS' Akasaka Sakas to the east and Yagenzaka's office tower Akasaka Garden City and condominium tower Park Court Akasaka to the west.

Kyojima, the third site, neighbors the staging area for New Tokyo Tower and its massive construction zone. Certainly Kyojima will change drastically in the next decade.

The final neighborhood looked at was Nihonbashi, fueled by talk of burying the raised expressway in order to let light shine on the center of Japan for the first time in decades. However, their real study area includes Marunouchi and the placemaking Tokyo Station City project, which is now already half complete.

I sincerely hope that the students have a chance to revisit their project areas, talk with residents and workers, and consider not only how much of their vision was realized, but also where their vision was flawed and what constrained their impact.

Having myself taken a deep look at Akasaka and its hills, I think I can comment most effectively on the two teams' ideas there.

The Keio/Meiji students were most concerned about difficulty in automobile travel combined with heavy pedestrian traffic, as well as the poor access for valley residents to hilltop open space. Significantly, they specifically mention dissatisfaction with the "proposal at Yagenzaka," and suggest creation of a bridge from north to south, an elevator to a raised park area, and addition of a dentist and day care center. Apparently their feedback was heard and appreciated by the developers, because Akasaka Garden City already includes a dentist, elevator, and small park. Park Court Akasaka will include a much larger park stretching to the south end of Yagenzaka, and a bridge will be added to link the parks' raised edges. With just a couple of small connections, all of the major park space in the area could be linked: Takahashi Korekiyo Memorial Park; Yagenzaka; Akasaka Park Building and its memorial to WWII veterans; Akasaka Sakas' new park areas; Hitotsugi Park; and Hitotsugi Children's Park.

At that point Akasaka will be ready to pass my dog pee test. If you own a dog in the neighborhood, there will be enough contiguous space with grass or dirt that your dog can manage their territory, staying sane by not peeing on cement poles nor using the same patch of grass over and over and over.

It will be ready to pass, but in reality it will fail. The truth is that dogs will be forbidden from almost all of this space. Public parks in Minato Ward, like most of central Tokyo, are off-limits to dogs.

More significantly, all semi-private park space around buildings is off-limits - I've never seen a building that invited dogs. To me, this is a sign of the limitations of ornamental landscapes at the base of new developments. The government feels that trading height limits for open space will relieve psychological pressure from shoulder-to-shoulder neighborhoods, and remove physical fire danger. Personally, I'm not sure the public benefit is really so great. It would be interesting to see a comparison of Takahashi Park to the towers' open space. Measure the temperature and humidity in different seasons. Count bugs and birds. See how many people choose to eat lunch there or bring their kids or pets out for a walk. My pee test is a measure of psychological impact on dogs, but it carries over between species.

The Harvard students' take on Akasaka is tough to read. Particularly, I am a bit stumped by their first proposal, replacing an abandoned school and parking structure with a road, which supposedly will suddenly spark development. It seems like a very old-fashioned approach to development, and doesn't leverage any of the strategies they laid out previously. I believe the area that they're talking about is Akasaka 4-1, in which case the road would run straight through a temple and graveyard, a fact that should have been obvious in the site visit. I also think the parking belongs to the temple, so it would be tough to just lay claim to it. Significantly, this area is directly adjacent to Aoyama Boulevard, and pedestrians can already cut through the temple. I don't think access is the problem. Maybe I'm wrong about the location, though, or maybe they know something I don't. On aerial photos I can see a surface parking lot hidden in between bulidings, which might make a great spot for a park, maybe that's what they meant? Certainly they didn't explain themselves well.

Their second proposal aims to kill two birds with one stone: remove unsightly, combustible houses at the base of an embankment, and provide access from valley to hilltop. Unfortunately, TBS didn't expand their Akasaka Sakas project beyond the hillside, and the adjacent properties remain unchanged. Really, the idea and only suffers from the same problem of all of the Akasaka proposals: forced gentrification of both residents and workers.

I would have liked both groups to visit with nearby community associations and business assocations and understand the people's vision for the future, and how to keep current residents and shopowners present and involved in Akasaka tomorrow. On that note, I'd really like to read something about Akasaka Community Plaza, what works about it and what doesn't. Maybe something about the possibilities for the public housing adjacent to TBS. And considering that the neighboring Akasaka Police Station is being leveled right now to make way for a new one, it's too bad that wasn't included somewhere in the vision.

In all though, I was very impressed with the proposals, and the book stands well on its own, not just as a public display of graduate projects. Harvard's "timescape" toolset used in Nihonbashi, and the combined vision of a diverse neighborhood in Roppongi were very thought provoking and well presented.

For views of some of the mentioned developments, check out my article Skyscrapers of the Future. To read about Akasaka's spatial anthropology, read my series Akasaka on the Rise. For a peek at my dog pee theory, you can look through my Dog Doo Signs of Tokyo.

Among the most famous Japan lore as the vending machines found on Mount Fuji, loaded by old guys humping bottles up the mountain.  Mount Takao is more amusement park than alpine nosebleed, but there are great vending machines to go with the clientele of families and elderly.

In the waiting room at the base of the Cable Car is this Hello Kitty popcorn machine.  Right next to it is a cup coffee vending machine for dad.

The cable car track is a crazy quarter-pipe, with max incline of more than 30%.  Up at the top station, you can get some gum to help pop your ears. (note to self: no need to photo the Green Gum machine in Shinjuku now!)

Around the corner in the tourist shop is this film and instant camera vending machine.  This is a relic!  Maybe some of the hordes of elderly hikers still use chemical film.

This ice cream machine is just outside of the Takao Monkey Park.  At least one more of the same type is located down in the shopping district at Takaosan-Guchi Station.  This is Lady Borden, a brand of confectionery giant Lotte, from Korea.  In my ranking of snack food companies, Lotte is at best number four behind Morinaga, Meiji, and Bourbon.

They've got a catchy tag line, though: "Lady Borden Premium Ice Cream.  Just choose your favorite one and its delicious taste will take you to the world of happiness. . . ."

Next to the ice cream machine is a cup vending machine for soft drinks. 

Up in the top left is the vending machine license.  The police department requested to have every license include the address that the vending machine is located at.  Not only does this stop people from putting machines in illegal locations, it also serves a much more practical purpose.  When people call 119 (police emergency number in Japan), the operator asks them to find the nearest vending machine and read the address.  It's a very reliable way of getting the caller to accurately give their current location.

On this machine it just says "Hachioji, Tokyo."  not very helpful.  you'd think they'd include information about which trail it's on or something more useful.

Check out some other posts on vending machines: sundry, beverages, or rarities.

Musashino City in western Tokyo encourages walking by laying maps out on the sidewalk with interesting routes.  This map is just outside the north entrance of Mitaka Station, and itentifies two courses, Aqueduct and City Hall. 

The aqueduct course follows a dirt path along Tama River Aqueduct, then up the pedestrian promenade of Green Park to Musashino Central Park.  The promenade was formerly a small gauge rail bed, and Central Park was a fighter plane park factory in WWII and then a baseball stadium.  The course loops back past the water resevoir to the station.

The City Hall course loops out past municipal landmarks: the cultural hall, community gym, and City Hall.

Other, much smaller tile maps are scattered around Musashino City for wayfinding. 

On this one, the arrows on the corners point to nearby parks. 

In the top left is a "you are here" marker.  We're on a walking route that starts at Musashi-Sakai Station.  The route drops onto a couple of dirt pedestrian promenades and passes fifteen parks.

This sign found on Mushino City's aqueduct walking course is shaped like the tiles and provides more details of the route.  The images of frolicking children, strolling couples, and bountiful green are the real deal, and not just wishful thinking.

The caption on the right says "On this course you will listen to the babbling brooks of Tama River Aqueduct and Sen River Aqueduct, explore pedestrian promenades, and take break in the prefectural Musashino Central Park."  On the top the title exclaims "Take a walk!  Everyone's promenade"

Found in southern Suginami, this map has a punned title that I'll translate as "Beautiful Leaves: A path of tree-mendous, fateful encounters." 

On the left side, text describes the Korean Fir which stands behind the sign.  Along the walking course there are six more spots with tree descriptions.  In addition, there are about twenty spots marked with memorable, though commonplace trees.

Found in Suginami City's Silk Forest Park, this simple, steel map plots two jogging courses through the park.

This map is on a bus shelter located just outside of the north exit of Mitaka Station.  Most bus lines in Tokyo are privately owned, but recently cities have launched community buses using small vehicles and doing short loops on poorly served routes between stations and public facilities.  This stop is for one of those, Musashino City's "Mu Bus".  The map makes it clear where the bus goes, and where to get off for your destination.

At an entrance to Toei's Shinjuku Station, this map is for visually impaired commuters.  The top right button gives a spoken description of how to get to ticket dispensers and turnstiles.  The second does the same for exit A1.  A third button is unlabeled and apparently does nothing. 

The fourth button is labeled "Intercom to Station Attendant."  However, the fourth button is taped over with a sticker that says "call button."  It looks like the maintenance people missed the whole point of the braille and voice map.

The map itself is quite functional, with routes mapped out where the yellow tiles are laid.

Another route map in a station, this is for the JR Chuo Line.

Growing out in either direction are the times from this station.  Spread out to the left are a variety of express trains.  Since the expresses don't actually stop at this station, they don't give any benefit to riders.  The farthest posted stop, Ootsuki, is only a minute faster (72 vs. 73) on an express.

This route map is inside a Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line train.  It's by far my favorite in-train route map. 

Keio trains have a baffling paper map with about 20 possible branches on it.  JR trains vary by age - newer ones have displays that rotate a variety of route and station information.

The Marunouchi map elegantly shows a light for the current station and direction, and a simple linear representation of a near-looped train line.  If you wake up in a panic it provides an immediate understanding of where you are, with no thought required. 

They can get away with it because cars are never used on other Metro lines, and the Marunouchi does not continue on other companies' rails.

In Nakano, this map shows the locations of neighborhood businesses.  It's hand written in red and black over a print out of the street network with major property lines.  I find the use of red particularly interesting.  It is used to write the type of business, for folks to easily find the what they're looking for.  It's applied some what prejudicially, though, because not all businesses are included.  An architect is, but not a construction tool shop.  For a yakiniku restaurant, but not a yakitori restaurant.  A convenience store, but not a cookware shop.  Red is also used to make symbols stand out: a cross for a Christian church, a swastika for a buddhist temple, a postal symbol for a post office, and a "7" for a 7-11.  Only two phone numbers appear on the map, both in red, for a dentist and an internal medicine doctor.  A gynecologist has no number.  The final message in red is in the bottom center, saying "Shin'i Yakushi Area Business and Industry Guide Map - Kanto Sign Design Company". 

There's a great selection of maps like this - and the one below - at the site Scenes with Trains.  The author, a model train fanatic, noticed these maps everywhere as he traveled the country taking train photos.  He comments that there are nothing unique about them regionally, they only net $50 or so for the advertising agency, and he's yet to find one with useful information (to him).

This map of southern Koenji shows businesses and major property owners.  As with the above map, text is hand written in red and black, though the red has faded badly.  Red is used for the gate symbol of a shrine, parking lots (P), condos and apartments (which are not named), and business types.  Driveable (?) roads are marked in yellow, and red is use to indicate a staircase.  Someone has written in a mobile phone number, apparently for a paint supply store.

One thing that jumps out at me is that there are a number of foreign names (written in katakana) for businesses along the wide north-south highway, Ome-kaido, but almost none elsewhere.

It's strange that the train buff above was so stymied by the prevalence of these maps throughout Japan.  To me they're clearly direct descendents of Japanese maps made up until the early 1900s.  Compare it to the map I included with my article about Fukuyoshi Rise, from 1858.  No red is used on this map, but the streets are yellow.  Shrines have a gate symbol next to them.  Property "owners" are written along the street.  Instead of アパート (apartment building) and マンション (condominium), it has クミ (communal home) and 小ヤシキ (shack).

A sticker in the top left indicates that this map was produced by 都市町村標識社 (To Shichouson Hyoushiki Sha, Capitol Municipalities Sign Company).

Here's a bureaucratic take on a community.  It was made by one of the departments of the city of Shinjuku.  Like an Edo era tourism map, there are major area sites pictured on either side, including Kumono Shrine, the Municipal Art Gallery, Shinjuku Central Park, Naruko Shrine, and Joen Temple.  Oddly - maybe ominously? - one of the sites has been hidden by a blank sticker.

The map itself is colored to reflect postal address divisions.  Text indicates the names of those address divisions as well as the locations of shrines, temples, skyscrapers, schools, hospitals and parks.  Street names are also listed.

In southern Nakano, this streetside pedestrian map shows the building locations for the headquarters of the Japanese Christian church Rissho Kosei-kai.  The major destinations are again imaged in the Edo tourist map style.  Other than Rissho institutions, only a Salvation Army Hospital, two public schools and two subway stations are named. 

A post office is pointed out with a symbol no one in Japan will recognize.  And out of some sort of brotherly love, they've chosen to pinpoint the locations of neighboring Buddhist temples.

One of the oddest aspects of this map is the huge legend on the left.  The map's colors and icons really need no explanation because they are very clear.  The only information to be gained from the legend is the names of the parking lots.  They also try to describe the two most used bus stops, but people must only be more confused by the odd reference system - just label the bus stops themselves!  Without the legend, the map could have been enlarged, with totally empty areas at the south of the map removed.

In southern Koenji, this map shows the community development (町づくり) activities of  the city planning department.  Really, it looks like an appeal to the local population that someone does care.  A full half of the space is a textual description of planning board names and when they were formed.  Finally they give the three categories of development: fire preparedness, livability, and street work.

Looking at the map, all I can see are numbers.  They're the postal block numbers.  Next is the blue dotted line, which are two roads that have been designated as sub-arterials, and will be widened to six meters.  They ain't there yet.  The green trapezoid hits me next, but the legend says it's a pocket park or plaza - huh?  Searching the text on the map, I find an indicator that explains it's a pedestrian loop that has been created through the planning process.

The map is really a total failure.  This group has done excellent work on their three goals within the project area, but it's tough to tell with this placard.  The map does nothing to inspire new residents to get involved, or reassure old ones that their community is in good hands.

Okay, this isn't Tokyo.  It's Yokohama's Chinatown.  Close enough.  This is very tasteful map, split in two parts.  To the left is a broader area map showing how to get to the nearest train station.  To the right is a map of the Chinatown gates (there are a dozen or so), as well as street names, public instituations, hotels, and parking.

Another map found in Yokohama's Chinatown, this was placed on a utility cover by NTT, the phone company.    It was done in celebration of 100 years of phone service, in 1990.  It's not nearly detailed enough to be of use, but gives you an overall impression of the greater area and Yokohama's character.

With the reduction of kiosks, JR has installed a number of new vending machine varieties.  This is for newspapers. There are four different papers being sold through ten slots.  According to JR's Kiosk site, breath freshners are the top selling candies and gums, so maybe we'll see another new machine soon.

Outside of a newspaper delivery depot is this smaller news vending machine.

I remember cigarette machines in the US 15 or 20 years ago, but they're still everywhere in Japan.  Maybe they'll suddenly dwindle like beer machines, but for now they proliferate with more than 630,000 country wide.  The first step comes next July, when all machines are required to confirm the buyer's age electronically.  Just west of the north exit of Koenji station, this machine goes all out, selling chewing tobacco and cigars.

  Until recently machines selling snacks were fairly uncommon, except at bowling alleys and movie theaters (instead of a refreshment counter, most theaters have a bevy of machines).  This is in a train station, filling in the kiosk niche.

On the truly rare side - probably one of a kind - here is a Disney themed snack machine.  It's at Maihama Station, next to Tokyo Disney Resort.

I'm sure there are more of these around, but I sure don't see many on the street.  Like the snack machines, ice cream is common at karaoke boxes, bowling alleys, ping pong spots, and other sporting/youth activity businesses.  This one is for Glico ice cream, and is right next to that Disney snack machine in Maihama.

Here's the other ice cream machine I know of, at Kichijoji Station.  It sells Morinaga, my favorite snack maker.  I've tried just about everything, and I think there are 3 or 4 snacks I didn't like.  Best chocolate, best cookies, best ice cream.

Now for some heathly eating.

Perhaps common in rural areas, this sight will surprise new visitors to Tokyo.  It's a fresh egg and produce vending box outside of a small farm on the border of Mitaka City and Chofu City, Tokyo.  Small farms are plentiful from here on west, throughout Musashino, Koganei, Fuchuu, and other cities in the area.  Most of the farms sell some of their produce - and maybe flowers, rabbits, chicks, and other sundry - right on the spot.  Often you'll see tables set up for a few hours a day.  Others have setups like this, which are refrigerated but look more like station lockers or surplus shoe rental maybe.  Every once in awhile you'll see a spot selling on the honor system, with a piggy bank nailed to a post for payment. 

This farm has a slew of chickens sheltered from the sun (and fed by?) kiwifruit vines.  They sell eggs in packs of 5, off on the left.  The daily vegetables hadn't been placed out yet when I took the photo, with only a few bags of potatoes up for grabs.

First up, beverages.

Folks who visited Japan up until the mid-90s will remember beer machines on every street corner.  Beer was just another beverage, and any mom or pop could buy it and stick it out in front of their neighborhood business.  Probably most of them did it to get discount beer for their own consumption. Way back in 1922, in became law in Japan that you must be 20 to consume alcohol.  It's still not enforced at all, and until recently all those beer machines meant anyone who could reach a button could buy.  Finally in 1992 the National Association of Alcohol Retailers (Zenshukyo) passed a resolution to limit the selling hours, locations, and place other restrictions on beer vending machines.  A few years later, under pressure from the World Health Organization, citizens groups, and the Japanese government, they actually started enforcing those rules.

You can still find them around, but I've seen many more in hotel ice nooks than on the street these days.

It's amazing the variety of machines that are available for each distributor.   This Coke machine is the only machine I've noticed with 1.5 liter bottles in it.  Disturbingly, they have big bottles of both Fanta orange and Qoo orange - somebody has an orange drink addiction, I'd say! 

Adjacent to it is a machine with regular, smaller bottles.  They're located on a high traffic corner next to a pedestrian/bicycle-only train crossing of the Chuo Line.  During the 10-to-30 minute wait while the crossing bars are shut, you might actually be able to finish a whole bottle (the wait was cut to just a couple of minutes recently as phase two of JR's raised railway was completed).  I really can't shake the feeling that the business owner put these machiens in for their own pleasure, but then again the nearest convenience store is maybe 10 minutes away by bicycle. I could hang around for a few days to see who buys, but the biggest entertainment would come from someone opening a big bottle right after it gets shaken up in the shoot.

In this 120 yen era of soft drink vending, it's truly a rare site to see this: an 80 yen machine!  This was way out in the middle of nowhere, a 30 minute walk from Takao Station, opposite diretion from Mount Takao.  There's Coke in there, but I bet it's sold out all of the time.  The machine is mostly packed with second rate drinks like Pokka Coffee.  The bad taste in drinks goes along with the bad taste in store names: Blackie Lounge.

Obviously this isn't a vending machine.  This is a Kiosk on JR's Chuo Line, Ogikubo Station.  The vendors used to be extra eyes and ears on either end of each platform.  In a recent cost cutting move, JR East has begun shuttering them after the morning rush hour, and replacing them with vending machines, like the one just below.

This machine is for herbal drinks. Let me come at this from the side. There are two kinds of medicine in Japan, Western drugs and Japanese herbs. If you notice early symptoms, run to a 薬局 (yakkyoku, herbalist), who will give you preventative medicines. If you find yourself floored by something, or dying of something, get a prescription and pick it up at a ドラッグストア (doraggo sutoa, drug store). Both require difficult licences to run. Definitely the most common herbal remedies are for hang overs, and every convenience store sells watered-down versions of them. So does this vending machine, located on a train platform.

In Tokyo Station, this is a true oddball. Coffee has been vended in cans in Japan since the late 60s. Cup machines like this, while still found in private businesses, are almost unheard of in public. I know of two (the other is below). This is over by the Keiyou Line platforms.

Here's another, newer cup coffee vending machine, found in a lonely, subterranean part of Shinjuku Station, in between Marunouchi Line Shinjuku Station and Oedo Line Shinjuku-Nishiguchi Station. In lieu of selection, they have an LCD screen with advertising to make some extra cash.

Here's one you'll never find on your own.  A milk vending machine, outside of a mom and pop milk seller on a neighborhood shopping street in southern Suginami-ku.  They sell Koshin Milk, from Chiba.

Normally I take dog poo signs in Japanese and translate them to English.  It's an ongoing addiction I've enshrined as the Dog Doo Signs of Tokyo.  This time they're from the US-of-A, so I'll do the opposite.  But I'll provide some commentary to keep the search engines happy.

ふんは片付けましょう。園内ではかならず引き綱をつけ！他人や環境に迷惑を掛けないようにしましょう。On the side of the dispenser is a handy guide on how to use a dog doo bag.  Step two is missing some sort of "hold your breath" graphic.
非常警備ボタン。警報がなる。つないで始末。So, are you supposed to call the guard if you see a dog off leash, or someone leave a pile behind?  Or will it sound automatically?
 犬を花壇に上げないでください。This is very tasteful.  I'd like to think they chose the paper stock before the flowers bloomed, and are just that talented of gardeners.