Thursday, January 27, 2011

Small spaces

As you probably know, Japan is a country with very little space.  There are 120 million people, and the country is smaller than California (which has 35 million).  Plus, it is quite mountainous, so half of the area (or more) is unbuildable.   So you get the idea, there's less space per person than the US, for example.
And this is not new, Japanese towns have historically been much more compact.  So people deal with it.  Here are some examples:


Narrow streets (yes, this is a two-way street); many people choose a car by the width of their street!  Also notice: no sidewalks.  But of course that has no relation to how much people walk.  Not by design, but it is traffic calming.

Smaller parking spaces (and less than one space per apartment here); everyone stays in the lines!
Kids play wherever (and they play outside more than most kids with big yards in the US...)
Urban farming (they grow lots of vegetables on this little plot)
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 31, 2011 at 8:22 AM

    Do you think bad driving is an American syndrome? That the lax driving tests have cultivated a large pool of subpar drivers/parkers? When I visited Paris, I noticed the stellar parking (and driving) skills of Parisiens. I was told that a requirement of the parking exam was to be able to parallel park in a space that would only yield about a 1 foot (max)buffer each in the front and back of the car. If you tapped either car in the process of parking, you'd immediately fail.

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  2. MarshallJanuary 31, 2011 at 8:56 AM

    Yes, I agree. 1) we build our cities for cars, to make driving easy; 2) driving is a necessity, so we can't fail people; 3) Americans are notoriously "carefree"....
    In Japan, driving school is mandatory and expensive ($3000+), test is hard, and you have to be 18 to apply. Plus, narrow streets are good training!

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  3. UnknownMarch 3, 2011 at 7:55 AM

    Hi Marshall. You know what else is small but packs a big punch? Those red tins of x-mas cookies we get at the office. This year we have three in our room. Somehow despite their size they last forever. We're hoping to see a new post from you before we finish them, sometime this year :)

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