So Lisa arrives in a couple of weeks and I've been trying to describe how for every 13th Century temple there is also a whole city that frighteningly resemble a not very glorious suburb of Toronto or Kansas City... It's odd: the modern Japanese city seems like almost an absence of architecture... but on the other hand they do urban living spectacularly. The urban spaces are populated and busy and clean and exciting. These ugly buildings might be taken over by 6 different restaurants and clubs - each taking up one floor. So the actual components of the urban space can be really ugly...but they all work really well together... so... here are a few photos for Lisa of Nagoya in all its glory...
Nagoya was bombed flat in the war and they replaced it with this sort of anti-city... most of the downtown streets have shopping malls built beneath them (even thought the climate is pretty mild) so the streets are basically deserted at all times, but malls are packed... it's very odd (there's that word again)
and then they have the mega-projects...
honestly couldn't get out of Nagoya fast enough... but it was very interesting...
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