myothercarisajumpsuit wrote:where's that at?

myothercarisajumpsuit wrote:taro babe
cool pic up top.
where's that at?

Mulboyne wrote:Kyodo via Crisscross: Koizumi asks city planners to restore Nihonbashi scenery

Mulboyne wrote:Kyodo via Crisscross: Koizumi asks city planners to restore Nihonbashi scenery

The government is working on a project to improve the townscape around the Nihonbashi bridge in Tokyo. To do so, it is relocating the part of the metropolitan expressway that runs over the "mile zero" marker for Japan's highway network, which dates back to the early 17th century...The ultimate cost has been estimated at somewhere between 300 billion and 650 billion yen. I won't dispute the importance of improving landscapes. But from the viewpoint of cost-effectiveness, the proposal is highly questionable. I often take foreign visitors around the sights of Tokyo and the rest of Japan. Many German visitors, especially, have told me they have been disappointed by the ubiquitous telephone poles and overhead utility lines that disfigure landscapes across Japan...When it comes to installing utility services underground, Japan lags far behind these countries. Even in the 23 wards of Tokyo, utility lines are underground on only 3 percent of the ward-operated roads (which account for 90 percent of the total road length in central Tokyo) and 36 percent of the metropolitan roads as of the end of March 2004... According to Tokyo government and wards officials, the cost of converting overhead utility lines and associated facilities to underground service is around 4 million to 9 million yen per pole, depending on the condition of the site. That means the money needed for the Nihonbashi beautification project would be enough to remove tens of thousands of telephone poles from the urban landscape. That represents a sizable portion of the half-million or so poles in Tokyo's 23 wards...more...

BIGGEST EYESORES

1 Nihombashi Bridge and the flyover from hell

2 Kawaguchi Station the most chaotic bicycle park in Japan

3 Kinugawa the ghost town the bubble built

4 Omuta city the shopping arcade of a thousand bankruptcies

5 Hamarikyu Gardens built for an emperor, but collects all the flotsam in Tokyo Bay

6 Fuefuki discount shopping centre the most garish in all Japan

7 Utsunomiya station the nest of the loan sharks

8 Akasaka ghost house not a square inch without graffiti

9 Shibuya river where even the water rats fear to tread

10 Yashio the industrial dump next door

IkemenTommy wrote:What Tokyo really needs is a catastrophic earthquake and rebuild everything from scratch like in that game SimCity.


OK that was a joke. Just watch this place flood with anger now!:cool:

dimwit wrote:This is why we always root for Godzilla

Urban Renewal Baby!

IkemenTommy wrote:What Tokyo really needs is a catastrophic earthquake and rebuild everything from scratch like in that game SimCity.


OK that was a joke. Just watch this place flood with anger now!:cool:

Catoneinutica wrote:It's not really a joke among the construction-company string-pullers behind the LDP. One imagines them slavering like a famished shiba inu at the prospect of all the rebuilding projects. Plus, when EVERYTHING collapses, the systematic earthquake data manipulation that characterizes the industry, a fetid iceberg of which Aneha/Huser/Kimura is only the tip, will be magically cleansed from the collective J-consciousness.

Look at what an immense boon(doggle) Kobe was for the zenecon and kensetsu kidz. Multiply that by 100 in the case of a Kanto quake, and you've got construction company oyaji coming in their pants.

BIGGEST EYESORES

7 Utsunomiya station the nest of the loan sharks

BIGGEST EYESORES

9 Shibuya river where even the water rats fear to tread

About 36 percent of state-controlled river levees do not meet the safety standards of the Construction and Transport Ministry, with lots of coarse-grained sand making it easy for water to soak into the ground, it was learned Sunday.

Following a request by The Yomiuri Shimbun to disclose such information, the ministry said 117 river levees with a total length of 2,113 kilometers out of the surveyed 133 levees over 5,922 kilometers did not meet the standards as of end of March.

While river levees have been repeatedly reinforced and repaired, their actual condition came to light for the first time since records were first kept.

According to Nihon Shoki, or Chronicle of Japan, the earliest river conservation work was done in the year 323 on the Yodogawa river in Osaka, but the strength of levees has not been quantitatively checked since then.

About 58 percent, or 123 kilometers, of 212 kilometers of the Arakawa river bank in and around Tokyo and neighboring prefectures did not meet the safety standards, it said.

Seventy-one percent, or 51 kilometers, of the 72-kilometer Shonaigawa river in Nagoya, whose embankment was breached after torrential rainfall in 2000, and 90 percent, or 48 kilometers, of the 53 kilometers downstream of the Kizugawa river in the Kinki region, did not comply with the standards, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, reinforcement work has not been properly fixed because of budget shortfalls.

"Especially for river levees that were constructed with great haste at a time of short supply, such as after the end of World War II, sometimes tiles and pebbles were mixed into the banks and, therefore, the kind of materials that were used has not been established," said Hideaki Oda, former Construction Ministry River Bureau director and adviser of Japan Water Forum.

The Nihonbashi area in Tokyo is drawing attention for the movement to restore its famous cityscape. Local companies and residents want to see the open sky again above the Nihonbashi bridge and its namesake river, which now are literally overshadowed by the elevated Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway. It was April 11, 1963, when the portion of the expressway above the Nihonbashi bridge was put in place. Yasube Hosoda, 79, remembers seeing the elevated highway when he arrived for work that morning at Eitaro Sohonpo Co., a confectionery that his family had run for five generations before him. "It was a nightmare," he recalls. The underside of the elevated expressway passed just six meters above the historic old bridge as it followed the course of the river. Hosoda, now an advisor to the family firm, remembers that as he stood on the bridge he felt as if he would be crushed. He says: "I had never seen an expressway before, so I couldn't imagine what it would be like when I heard it would be built over the bridge. If I had known how it would look, my neighbors and I would certainly have launched a campaign against the plan." It was a year before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and Japan was busy preparing for the event. The metropolitan expressway was not the only big public works project at the time. The Ritto-Amagasaki section of the Meishin Expressway opened in 1963, and the Tokaido Shinkansen started operation in 1964. The metropolitan expressway, too, had to be completed by the Olympics. The expressway route was set over rivers and roads, space that could be used without purchasing land and therefore saved time and costs. And people were happy with the development. Even Hosoda admits, "I liked their catchphrase, '15 minutes to Haneda [Airport].'" But when the Olympics were over, people calmed down and took a look at the aftermath. Nihonbashi residents realized they had lost a priceless part of their lives: 400 lively years as the focal point of the nation's transportation network.

Nihonbashi was the starting point of the Gokaido--five major highways, including the Tokaido and Nakasendo roads to Kyoto. It was also a place to unload freight from boats and distribute it by land. Hosoda remembers going down the river on a boat to Urayasu for clam digging. He also remembers watching the boats carrying adzuki beans, flour and other ingredients for his shop's products. "The river and the bridge were close to our daily lives," he says. Since the expressway was built, the river has been dark and less lively. Even though Nihonbashi is still the starting point of National Highway Route 1, it's less significant than the metropolitan expressway. To turn the situation around and pass on Nihonbashi's charms to the next generation, local communities and companies launched a conservation group in 1968. The group, named Meikyo Nihonbashi Hozonkai, has organized bridge cleaning days and persuaded organizers of the Hakone Ekiden relay race to change its route to cover the area. Hosoda, who currently serves as the deputy head of the group, says: "The important thing is to make the river as familiar a place as possible. We want to make it a pleasant place where anyone can stop by. That's why we want the expressway moved." The group has proposed rerouting the expressway since October 1983. But it was not until February last year that their idea drew wider attention, when a committee of experts studying ways to revitalize the Nihonbashi area was convened at the instruction of then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. In September, the committee proposed in its final report that the section of the highway over the river be transferred underground. Hosoda recalls, "It was a sudden tailwind" boosting the group's efforts. Critics say it's an impossible project, citing the estimated cost of 500 billion yen. Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has said that three ring road projects have priority.

But Akinori Nagamori, the conservation group's administrative director and an official at the Mitsukoshi department store in the area, argues for the project's value, considering the expressway's age and the anticipated economic impact from the renewal. "The Nihonbashi renewal project can be a model for restoring what was lost in the process of urbanization," Nagamori, 64, says. The younger generation have begun making moves, too. A group named Nihonbashi Chiiki Runessansu Hyakunen Keikaku Iinkai has 300 members, including residents in their 30s and 40s. The association's Katsuya Yamamasu says: "The route over the bridge is an artery that connects Chiba and Tokyo. It will take time to actually transfer the section underground." "But meanwhile, we residents are discussing what Nihonbashi should be like." The association currently helps the operation of a local loop bus service and periodically holds study sessions on Nihonbashi's history. The group's conceptual drawing of a yet-to-be-restored Nihonbashi cityscape shows the replica of a wooden bridge built in the Edo period, along with the existing bridge, which was built in 1911. There are boats on the river and people on the riverbank. The sun shines down on them. That was an ordinary scene 40 years ago. Nihonbashi residents dream of making it so again.