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Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

economist.com

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Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#161

Post by ehnto »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #111
ehnto wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a really hard thing to be objective about I think, the lists are never going to be particularly useful. There are definitely parts of Tokyo life that don't score well, like house pricing, size and type. The concrete jungle isn't for everyone either, there is an amicable amount of greenery but it's mostly concrete. The lists seem to bias toward those things you mentioned, family homes and access to nature, so I t…

It is interesting you wrote > when the post above specifically mentioned Adelaide, Auckland and Wellington. Compare Tokyo house price inflation in last 10+ years to those others. Tokyo is a steal by comparison. It is a myth that Tokyo is still crazy expensive like in the 1990s. And when publications like The Economist talk about housing prices, they are looking at how senior executives live in the center of the city.…

The other stereotype is that housing is very small by comparison to a city like Adelaide, is that not true still?

For example in Adelaide, a 3 bedroom home with a garage, front yard and large back yard is pretty common. But mostly I see two story narrow townhouses, or small apartments in Tokyo.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#162

Post by bedobi »

have_faith wrote: post #92
bedobi wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making cars electric doesn't solve any of the problems with cars though. Cars, no matter the technology, are the problem. I'd much rather get rid of more or less all cars, permanently, period.

Cars create opportunities for working class people that wouldn't exist otherwise. You're advocating for removing mid to long range personal transportation entirely? what's the basis for this? I'm all for city neighbourhoods being less car centric.

Of course you can't stop at simply getting rid of cars and calling it a day, there's countless other things that would have to come with that. Obvious ones include improving public and active transport, but really, fundamental transformation of entire cities to be less like Houston and more like Tokyo and Amsterdam is what's needed.

People love to respond that that's too expensive or unworkable or unrealistic or whatever, ignoring that it's actually the status quo that is too expensive, unworkable and unrealisitc, and that there are now a bunch of previously car centric cities that have been deliberately and fundamentally changed very successfully.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#163

Post by karterk »

greggman3 wrote: post #141

I love Tokyo but I know lots of Japanese people that love suburban America. They love the space. I quick search suggests the average size house in Tokyo is 66sq meters where as in LA it's 167sq meters or nearly 2.5x larger. And that's just LA. My guess is plenty of other suburbia cities the average is even larger. I lived in Tokyo for 15 years. My last place was 54sq meters. I like there are more options in sizes tha…

Does Japan have a concept of suburbs? Are houses larger on the outskirts of Tokyo?

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#164

Post by Dracophoenix »

presentation wrote: post #99
bobthepanda wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New York is quite loud, which is not good for your hearing and causes a whole bunch of health problems. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/31/new-yor... I would also say that navigating the piles of garbage on the sidewalk is not fun, either.

This 100%, I measured the volume in my neighborhood in Central Tokyo 5 mins from the nearest station (it’s one of the more popular spots in the city) and it clocks in at 30dB or less. Compared to Manhattan where it’s deafeningly loud all the time. Aside, NYC’s train system is, besides being filthy, unreliable, slow, poorly maintained, and a pain to switch between transit agencies, it’s also unfriendly to anyone who i…

>This 100%, I measured the volume in my neighborhood in Central Tokyo 5 mins from the nearest station (it’s one of the more popular spots in the city) and it clocks in at 30dB or less. Compared to Manhattan where it’s deafeningly loud all the time.

Shibuya?

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#165

Post by deltaonefour »

theli0nheart wrote: post #151
deltaonefour wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This type of urban design is unsustainable. It is the reason why the US is number one at producing greenhouse gases.

> It is the reason why the US is number one at producing greenhouse gases. This is incorrect. China currently holds this spot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhous...

per capita is the more accurate measure. Yeah I note my mistake in another reply.

Even so, the US historically took the number one spot for both total greenhouse gases and greenhouse gases per capita. If you look at it from a perspective of a longer timespan, the US is basically number one.

It is only in recent times does the US now currently take the number two spots for both categories.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#166

Post by Dracophoenix »

tkgally wrote: post #81
bedobi wrote: post #8

Having lived in Tokyo for years, the elephant in the room is "cars". The whole city is full of pleasant mixed use neighborhoods that are more or less car-free, and centered around public transport hubs that have everything you need around them. People, including unaccompanied children, can and do safely walk and ride bikes everywhere at all hours of the day, including when grocery shopping etc. The world can learn a…

Another Japanese city that would be quite livable without a car is Osaka. I myself have lived carless in Tokyo and Yokohama for nearly forty years without any problem. About ten years ago, I started going to Osaka several times a year and have found it similarly easy to get around on foot and public transportation. The center of Osaka is quite flat, and a lot of people there also use bicycles. If I weren't settled in…

What got you into Tokyo 40 years ago?

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#167

Post by twobitshifter »

It’s interesting to look at Tokyo from space, what you’ll see is a type of sprawl but it’s an dense urban sprawl. In the us we have taken to trying to constrain growth to small specific areas to drive up density, but that wasn’t needed in Tokyo to achieve density. It tells me that in some ways our attempts at urban planning through zoning have been ineffective. The reason why a location 5 miles from a city center can only house a single level big box store isn’t due to cars or the great expanse of America. That piece of property could be put to better use if people were able to build as they do in Tokyo.

On the other hand, if we aspire to be like Tokyo, we might consider what the Tokyo area originally looked like as a natural environment and how the unchecked growth in density turned most everything to concrete.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#168

Post by deltaonefour »

bluepizza wrote: post #109
cameronh90 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's just me but racism on the level of being kicked out of places for being non-Japanese a handful of times in 5 years sounds terrible. Even once is insane. I'm white so don't have any personal experience, but my partner is a brown immigrant to the UK and has experienced nothing even remotely close to that anywhere she's been in UK or Europe.

If those places were kicking him out, it’s probably because they were very shady. Criminal gangs hangouts, scammer hangouts, sex worker meetup places. There is your occasional nutjob small business owner that also kicks foreigners out, but that’s actually quite rare. But this is the racism that Western people suffer. Chinese people, especially mainlanders, are targetted quite badly.

Hah, I should mention, I'm a westerner, but I'm ethnically Chinese. I look Chinese but I can't read or speak Chinese. This type of targeting is def an important factor against not going to japan.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#169

Post by CryptoPunk »

karterk wrote: post #163
greggman3 wrote: post #141

I love Tokyo but I know lots of Japanese people that love suburban America. They love the space. I quick search suggests the average size house in Tokyo is 66sq meters where as in LA it's 167sq meters or nearly 2.5x larger. And that's just LA. My guess is plenty of other suburbia cities the average is even larger. I lived in Tokyo for 15 years. My last place was 54sq meters. I like there are more options in sizes tha…

Does Japan have a concept of suburbs? Are houses larger on the outskirts of Tokyo?

I am not a Japan expert, but my understanding is that houses are generally smaller across the country, because land has always come at a premium due to higher population densities.

Re: Tokyo: A big city that is also pleasant to live in

#170

Post by ehnto »

bedobi wrote: post #74
franciscop wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also live there and one interesting bit that, in retrospective is OBVIOUS, is that there are also no cars parked on the streets! Like, if you look at pictures or walk down the street it feels so pleasant for some reason but difficult to put your finger at it, until you realize there's no huge cars piling on the sides. I prefer European Architecture for downtown buildings, but the no cars bit generally overpowers th…

Yeah, it really adds to the pleasantness of everything when everything is not covered in cars and infrastructure for cars. The whole notion of street parking is bizarre. No one would tolerate if you used public space in the middle of a busy city to store your stuff. But if it's a car, suddenly it's OK. Just what?

Bike parking is everywhere too. Trying to get bike parking in our city is like asking for the council for their first born. All of a sudden funding and public safety are all extremely dire concerns. Whipping a 4x4 through the CBD and plonking right in front of a business is fine though.
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