Tokyo South East 東京南東

(The history of Amsterdam South East shows remarkable similarities with Tokyo South East.)


For walking mortals in Tokyo, the view on the sky can be limited. We already introduced the phenomenon of the Metropolitan Expressway a few months ago. Today we go by metro to Odaiba, the south eastern part of Tokyo.


The track runs above ground here. The ride offers a spectacular view.


The Rainbowbridge connects central Tokyo to the new land of Odaiba.

The centre of Tokyo is near Tokyo Bay, a bay of the Pacific Ocean. During the economic bubble in the seventies and eighties land was on high demand in central. Mountains in Chibas region were demolished and the out coming debris was used to create a landfill in Tokyo Bay, the present Odaiba. It was quite an enterprise compared to the Dutch Flevo polders. For Dutch polders only the surrounding dykes are made. The enclosed water is pumped out and the see floor becomes the new land. Not so in Japan. The whole thing is filled and topped up. And Tokyo bay is quite a bit deeper than the Dutch lake of IJsselmeer. For the construction of Odaiba several cubic kilometers of material were moved.

Near Osaka comparable operations have taken place for the Construction of Kansai International Airport. This airport is on an artificial island in the sea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_International_Airport.

On the other side of the water lies Tokyo midtown.

The land was claimed and big buildilng could start. The metro was built. And then the economic bubble burst. In 1991 the house of cards collapsed and a huge amount of useful land remained bare. The investments done by the government will not return sufficient earnings. Odaiba is about to become a financial disaster.

Meanwhile some places show newly built. Mainly large scale projects. They contrast with the vastness of the empty areas.

In an attempt to vitalise Odaiba an amusement park was created with a ferris wheel. Next to it a complex of fair halls. We had the Design Festa over there, see the archive.

Large scale mass housing next to the metro station. Similarities with Amsterdam South East. The white buildling is fun. The grey thing looks like a shadow but is not.

Ah look, a corporate building at last! Fuji television, a right wing conservative channel, has its head quarters here. It was designed by, the son of Kenzo Tange, the godfather of post war Japanese architecture.

Why such a extremely expensive design in times of economic downfall? It may have to do with the two faces in Japanese society, honne and tatame. Tatame is 'as it ought to be'. All that politeness, proper dressing and the tea ceremony and so on all belong to the Tatame. Honne stands for the real intentions. And those may be very different. One should not decline an invitation (tatame) when for example timing is inconvenient (honne). You can answer with: "The time is a bit...er..." and it is perfectly clear to everybody that you cannot come. No further question. You wrapped the honne in the tatame. In Japan people are very skilled in juggling with the desirable thing and the real thing.

And not only inter human traffic is concerned. It goes with everything. Even in (governmental) finance. Odaiba may be a disaster (honne). Economy is in low tide (honne). We are doing very well and we can afford an overpriced building in Odaiba (tatame). Got it? The World of economics and finance in Japan are very creative with honne and tatame. Banks bring bad debts in separate companies, so called kiting. Thus the bad debts fly from the books of the bank (tatame) while effectively the bank is already bankrupt (honne).

The principle of tatame and honne sits so deep that it could happen that in the international bank traffic a scandal with the US occurred. A Japanese bank got on the wrong side with US financial authorities over such bad debts. Loans to companies in the US lacked cover of sufficient assets. The Japanese were shocked. How could the Americans have so little respect for Japanese culture?

Source: Alex Kerr, Dogs and Demons, the fall of modern Japan. Penguin Books 2002. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Kerr

Back to Tokyo. The metro runs over Rainbow bridge through a kind of cage.

Rainbow bridge is high for sea traffic reasons. In order to land the road and the metro have to go down again. That requires space and therefore the road runs down in a loop making you cross the same bridge on a lower level.

The metro track really looks like a roller coaster.

Cramped construction: Airco-units of the buildings under the tracks.

Stacked sections of the Metropolitan Expressway.

A few people can be seen in this fully built up environment.

An advantage of this metro is that it is unmanned. You can take the drivers seat!

We are being taken over by the high speed train. This is Nozomi 500, the fastest shinkansen nowadays. It is round like the London Underground and totally grey. Like an eel.

Shimbashi station. Doors on the platform edge. The train is not manned, remember? Also metro lines with manned trains have doors on the edge sometimes. To prevent suicide.

End of the ride!