Retro Japan: Housing complex in Tokyo's Ginza stands test of time for over 90 yrs
TOKYO -- A housing complex in the Japanese capital's posh Ginza district has stood as a silent witness to the area's ever-changing landscape for more than 90 years.
The Okuno Building (formerly the Ginza apartments) is located in Chuo Ward's Ginza-itchome area, where boutiques and jewelry stores line the streets.
Its main building was designed by architect Ryoichi Kawamoto (1880-1977), who also worked on the Kudan Kaikan hall (formerly the Army Hall) in Tokyo. The structure was completed in 1932 as a disaster-resistant reinforced concrete apartment complex during a housing shortage following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. The building was joined by an annex in 1934, connected via an interior hallway. The seventh floor was added around 1960, giving the structure its current form.
The vintage manually operated elevator -- a rarity in private residences at the time -- is still in use. The building was once a sought-after luxury residence, with telephone lines installed in each room and a large bath in the basement. The worn tracks in the hallways bear witness to nearly a century of human activity.
Today, approximately 70 rooms house galleries, antique shops and more. Room 306, which served as the Suda beauty salon from before World War II to the latter half of the 1980s, has been preserved by volunteers, retaining its round mirrors and red floor. One shop owner commented, "In Ginza with its glitzy image, this is a mysterious place that feels nostalgic."
(Japanese original by Kaho Kitayama, Fukuoka Photo and Video Department)
* * *
The Japanese version of this article was originally published on Jan. 15, 2023.
* * *
here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
SoraNews24
7 hours ago
- SoraNews24
Grow your own balcony rice balls with this new how-to book
With 30 seeds and 180 days of patience, you too can also eat rice from a bucket . You don't necessarily need your own plot of farmland, or tons of agricultural expertise, to try growing your own food. Just about anyone can grow a pot of baby carrots, and in Japan, even many elementary school students are given the summer homework assignment of growing a tomato plant at their houses, which is a wonderful way to get a hands-on experience of how food arrives on their plates. Tomatoes make a great crop for their summer homework, as they grow quickly and don't need a garden; they can be grown in a small pot on a balcony, which is perfect for more urban environments. Now, a new contender for do-it-yourself agriculture that you can do even in an urban apartment may be emerging, as it turns out that rice also makes for a perfect plant to grow at home. Instead of digging up your flooring to create a living room rice paddy, a recently released guidebook shows exactly how you can grow rice in a bucket right from your very own balcony. When people tend to picture the cultivation of rice, it usually entails a sea of green plants below a beautiful blue sky, rather than a cramped apartment balcony in the middle of Tokyo. ▼ Would you rather eat food grown here? ▼ Or here? However, the author of this latest book, Junko Nakamura, says that growing rice on balconies can, and should, be done to allow people to reflect on the effort it entails to grow Japan's staple food. ▼ From a Single Grain of Rice to a Rice Ball and Shimenawa: Growing Bucket Rice by Junko Nakamura (1,430 yen [US$10]) All you need is a bucket, soil, and water to create your very own miniature rice paddy right outside your house. With just 30 rice seeds you can harvest around 70 grams (about 2.47 ounces) of rice, which is about enough for one small rice ball. If you want to make something a little more substantial in size, two buckets might be a better idea. ▼ Let them germinate ▼ Plant them ▼ Transfer them to their buckets and then wait… Since rice takes about 180 days until you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, some people might wonder if all of that effort is worth it, if all you'll get out of it is a single rice ball. ▼ A comparison of the 'bucket rice' process (upper) to the traditional rice cultivating process (lower) from March to December However, the real value lies in the intangible results: a deeper appreciation of the many steps required to get a bowl of rice onto the dinner table. Unlike vegetables, rice demands long-term care and, after it is fully grown, sufficient processing. Not only is it necessary to keep the soil sufficiently submerged in water, but after the rice is ready to harvest, there is still threshing and polishing to carry out before you can even think about eating it. ▼ The book has cute pictures explaining each step. With a rice ball in hand, you might think the whole process is over, but that's not actually the case. Traditionally, Japanese people have repurposed leftover rice stalks into everyday items, leaving nothing to waste. These items could be bags, traditional footwear, or brooms, but Junko Nakamura suggests that your harvested rice stalks be made into shimenawa, the twisted ropes often seen at Shinto shrines or hung over doors at New Year's to ward off evil spirits, and provides illustrations in how to do so. Not only do you get a satisfying meal, grown by your hands, but even a little handmade New Year's decoration. If you're looking for a new hobby, or want to enrich a child's food education, bucket rice may be just the thing. It's a slow-paced activity that cultivates more than just the food in a bowl, but also patience, cultural and agricultural awareness, and an appreciation for every single grain. Related: Amazon, PR Times Top image : PR Times Insert images: PR Times, Pakutaso (1, 2) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
Yomiuri Shimbun
9 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan's Princess Kako Places Wreath at Cenotaph for Japanese Immigrants in Sao Paulo; Cherry Blossom Tree Planted in Park by Princess
< Kentaro Tominaga / The Yomiuri Shimbun Princess Kako places a wreath at a cenotaph for early Japanese immigrants, in Sao Paulo on Thursday. SAO PAULO – Princess Kako, the second daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, is visiting Brazil and went to Sao Paulo's Ibirapuera Park on Thursday afternoon (early Friday morning Japan time) and placed a wreath at a cenotaph for early Japanese immigrants. After laying the wreath, the princess bowed deeply and then signed a guest book. After learning about the construction of the cenotaph from those involved, she thought about the hardships faced by the Japanese immigrants who had undertaken pioneering work far from their homes. 'It must have been very difficult [for them],' Princess Kako said. The princess planted a cherry blossom tree at a traditional Japanese building within the park and also fed the Japanese carp nishikigoi.
SoraNews24
10 hours ago
- SoraNews24
Eel that looks like a banana caught in Shimane Prefecture
Come, Mister tally man, tally me eel. Unusually colored animals have long captivated us, whether it's golden snakes or a fish with the pattern of a human face on it. Now, a lesser-known uniquely colored animal has appeared in the form of an eel that looks like a banana. ▼ News report showing the eel swimming around some real bananas for comparison's sake The banana eel is just an ordinary Japanese eel that underwent a mutation, giving it not only a very banana-like hue but also spots that resemble a very ripe banana. It's also rather large, at about 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) in length and weighing in at 350 grams (0.77 lbs). According to experts, the fact that it's a nocturnal animal that burrows itself in the mud means the color was likely not a detriment for it and it was probably about 10 years old. In fact, its unique colors have spared it from ending up on the dinner table of Akira Ezumi, the 75-year-old fisherman who caught it in Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture. Ezumi said that he had caught especially large eels and even a blue eel before, but this one seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime catch, so he decided to keep it and said he'd donate it to someone willing to give it a good home. ▼ Izumo is very close to the hometown of our reporter Mr. Sato. Maybe his dad will invite a banana eel into his home. As rare as it is, this isn't the first banana eel caught in Japan. In 2022, seven-year-old Yoshihito Ueyama also caught one in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, and was thrilled because it gave him something to write about for his summer homework. Readers of the news online were also surprised and delighted by this kind of rare find, with some wondering what it would be like to eat such an eel. 'Awesome! I've never seen that before.' 'That eel has a lot of sugar spots.' 'Is it a golden eel?' 'I wonder if it tastes like banana.' 'I've seen eels with yellow bellies, but not like this.' 'I don't know why but it looks like it smells bad.' 'Is it a banana eel or an eel banana?' 'I thought it looked amazingly like a real banana, but then I realized I was looking at a banana.' 'It's like a partial albino.' 'Maybe it's caused by global warming.' 'It looks like an electric type.' 'It's way too big to look like a banana.' Some readers also made the common Japanese language mix-up of thinking it was a rabbit that looked like a banana. This is because the Japanese word for eel is ' unagi ' and the word for rabbit is ' usagi. ' Even when reading the Japanese characters it can be easy to gloss over that middle one and make a careless mistake. Unfortunately, for those of us who fell into that trap, it is now impossible not to imagine a rabbit that looks like a banana and want to see one of those too. Hopefully, someone will hurry up and find one soon. Source: TBS News Dig, Sanin Chuo Shinpo News, Yomiuri Online, Hachima Kiko Images ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
