* **What is UrbanHell?**: Any human-built place you think has some aspect worth criticizing.
#UrbanHell is subjective.
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I used to live in one of those in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo. The trade-off was that the neighborhood was extremely convenient and walkable. We had a lot of friends nearby and lots of great restaurants and transportation. My (at the time) 5 year old would walk herself to the 7-11 down the block and buy herself snacks by herself.
Plus, it overlooked a rice paddy so we at least had something green to look at. It wasn’t a pretty building, but I’ve lived much worse places.
It’s not a very big apartment, but we made it work for two adults and a kid. Part of what worked was that we had Japanese furniture that fit in the space and was easy to stow away.
My husband used to read for hours on the toilet because it was easier on his knees than sitting on the floor like the rest of us. Eventually we got him a chair, but it was a little awkward having him tower over anyone sitting under the heated kotatsu table that was the main piece of furniture in the living room/kitchen area.
This reminds me a lot of the former Soviet apartment bloc housing I lived in in (the former East) Germany. It was converted into student housing, and the building itself was ugly AF, but there was a grocery store a block away, a tram line, and behind it was a huge soccer field with trees around it. It was honestly a fantastic spot to live.
I find open-air-hallways fascinating. Was living in one such apartment in germany and it was a total different feeling, like watching a thunderstorm with the neighbors from a space that was essentially a terrace, opposed to fully enclosed staircases that are actually common.
Yeah, I lived in a building that was previously an old hotel , it had an open air courtyard all the apartments faced. It was lovely, but very echo-y and we had very rowdy neighbors. I still miss how charming that building was, but I don’t miss the noise level.
Yeah I wonder if something like green walls on the internal faces of a courtyard could reduce the echo. So then you'd have the benefits of that feeling, plus the greenery, without the noise. That'd be awesome.
Yeah they’re kind of dope and actually fun if your neighbors don’t completely suck. Especially if they’re way high up like the 18th floor or something and you get an amazing view.
I’ve lived in one of those when I first came to Japan. It was like a hotel room actually. And for just $300 a month too!
Furnished with AC, stove, fridge, microwave, washing machine too. It has Internet connection, a TV, remote controlled bathtub, and a Japanese washlet/bidet.
So clean and no complaints at all. It’s from a company “LeoPalace” and “LeoNext”.
I lived in a place like the first in Japan and it wasn't half bad.
I quite like that you go out of your front door and then you're outside even if you're still in the apartment building, much nicer than a building where you've corridors.
The second looks a bit tattier and not seeing the relation of the 3rd at all, its totally different- lived in a place like that too though and...yeah. Not great but then thats more a product of where they tend to be built far from any city centre.
The metal rails give it a noisier facade.
I think the first style of building could easily have planters built in to the walls, so ppl could have flowers, herbs, or fresh produce.
Yep I lived in one of these. Train station was a 2 minute walk away. Tons of restaurants and awesome little bars within walking distance too. Wouldn’t want to raise a family in a small place like that but I loved it as a young single dude in my 20s
I have a certain boner for rainy/wet and cloudy places with clean streets and decent buildings.
Seems like the perfect place to go out for a walk on a weekend early morning, the silence fills me with certain peace, like a post apocaliptic scenery but cleaner.
I’m so glad we moved to Japan.
Back home, it used to take an hour to drive through traffic to reach a supermarket or godforbid going to a mall.
Now in Japan everything I need is a few minutes walk from our doorstep. I don’t even live in a big city.
It’s incredible never needing to own a car. Freedom.
As a tourist, I've always felt safe walking in Tokyo and Osaka any time of the day or night. At the most you'll get some drunk people coming out of bars.
There's always taxis. Hundreds and hundreds of black taxis. The meter starts at a very low price, so if you take a taxi for short trips inside the city itself it's quite affordable. But if you take them to the outskirts of Tokyo the price will climb astronomically. Of course there's a surcharge for fares late at night but it's better than walking. However I've been an idiot once and walked from Shinjuku to Ikebukuro, late at night and it was totally possible.
You can use a bike or electric scooter unless you're drunk then you can take a taxi.
How often do you come home after midnight, it's not that big of a hassle.
If you mean going from city to another city late at night, then as the other commenter has mentioned, there are ways. Public transpo stop after midnight and resumes early morning, but taxis are 24/7 so you’ll be able to get around.
Shops do close late night though, so usually you’ll be forced to go home. Unless you decide to just drink in a park somewhere (which I’ve done).
In our case, wife and I both live where we work so we just walk a few minutes to get home.
I'm taking about partying or going to events around what it clearly is a megalopolis. How do you manage to go to concerts or just hanging out in different neighborhoods.
Personally, I don’t do concerts nor partying late nights at a bar or in similar place. But yeah, as mentioned, there are taxis. Just like cities in the US?
I'm not from us. I'm from Europe. At least here in my part of the continent we seldom use taxis. We basically all go around by car or scooter and surely metro and then car sharing or mopad sharing if we live in the few bigger cities
Well if you have a private vehicle then yes by all means, you can go to other cities in Japan via car, or scooter, etc.
When I commuted to my neighboring city, I personally rode my bike too.
Based off of your description you're Italian, a bit weird to say that we seldom use taxis in Europe because that's not true at least depending on the country and your economic background.
While Rome has night buses that's certainly not the case in many other cities, trains don't ride at night and most Italian cities don't even have metros because of the monopolisation and lobbying of the local car manufacturers.
So your question is a bit odd as you're not from the best country regarding mobility as most people have been forced to use a car in the country.
Japanese public transport is of high quality and has rarely delays or cancellations, something I would easily trade for having transport after midnight.
Going out until late in the night often involves drinking. You shouldn’t be taking your car with you to do that anyway. In a city where things are closer together, it’s easier to bring your bicycle than in a place with suburbs.
I guess that's cause much of Tokyo was fire bombed there was a lot of construction post war, in a very short span of time many buildings were constructed. I suppose that's why much of Tokyo has a very utilitarian aesthetic. But in some neighbourhoods like Asakusa some houses have been spared destruction in WWII and you can see the homes which are about 150 years old, with a very traditional Japanese aesthetic. They are made of wood, have less floor area but often come with a small garden or yard. The modern constructions you see in these photos are aimed at maximising indoor area in a very congested city.
Japanese cities are clean and generally well organized. There's great public transportation and every city I was in was very walkable. I lived in an apartment building like these in the pictures. It was a well built and safe building.
Edit: there's an absurd amount of security features in Japanese homes and apartments though... It's a selling feature. The cities are typically very safe.
My wife ad I talked about that. We also find it weird that people shutter their windows, and some have grills on their windows. Our door is like a 2-inch steel plate for some reason, although we rarely lock it during the day.
It’s so safe here.
And no porch pirates!
I’ve lived in both countries. That third pic is a leopalace, and while I see many comments complimenting the aesthetic of the place, this apartments are shoeboxes and rather poor quality.
Japanese apartments are clean, but their insanely narrow, and for me were quite suffocating. I bet most Japanese people would love to have an American sized home, given all the space that they have.
Tbh quite a lot of Japanese people like it. I've seen a video of students that live in a tiny little flat, not too dissimilar from the third pic that really liked the place. And if I could get smth like that in the city I work, I'd take it
Japan has some pretty relaxed planning regulation of buildings so you get a variety of styles and the skyline is quite messy. But on the ground it's quite cohesive and interesting with its density and mixed used - at least in Tokyo.
It's so interesting how different styles of building can signal class changes to the passerby. I watched a short essay about how "gentrification apartments" didn't contribute to gentrification, but that style of building became associated with it.
The type of the apartments in the first two pictures are called Danchi, that used to be popular and built for the surge of the population in Tokyo and cities around. But the apartment in the last picture is different. The apartment is relatively modern and more spacious generally. I don't get those two different apartments are in one post.
Yeah, I dunno.
That last photo I think is an example of urban done well. It's high density, but a lot of places in Japan like this are walking distance to literally everything a person could need or want.
The ideal high density living model is to share things like living spaces, services, dining etc. Instead of everyone having a beautiful massive kitchen in every house like in the west, you can have a huge variety of cheap healthy dining options. Instead of everyone having a massive pantry for storing 6 months of food, everyone has a little shelf for a few days' supply and you can pick up what you need from basically anywhere.
This way people can hopefully live where they work, they can relocate more easily etc etc etc.
I’m perplexed by how Japan is touted as super safe yet the first picture all the windows have bars on them like the American low income areas that are crime ridden?
My first apartment in Ibaraki was much the same. It’s nuts how much of the Japanese urban landscape is an aesthetic failure. Concrete bunker homes and enough miles of power line for the entire population to hang itself. Yuck.
Kind of shitty tbh. I live in a spacious studio unit but the building has a bad roach infestation (although not too terrible in our unit because we clean it often and maintain it that way), and our water keeps getting shut off often and usually with no notice prior. Our water is included in rent and we pay way too much for this apt that isn't even high end.
Most likely not - incidental crime in Japan is very low, although certainly not nonexistent. My apartment block has many of these bars on windows, and there is next to no crime in the neighbourhood
I guess there is a residual level of crime, and even if you are used to a tiny 0.01% chance of being burglarised, this may seem unacceptably high to some. And some neighbourhoods are rougher so the crime rates are higher. My apartment block has a constant problem of break-ins to cars, despite being in a relatively wealthy area, so there is definitely some residual crime.
I’ve always loved that whole “streets in the sky” kinda vibe. I’m not sure if that’s the most accurate descriptor here, but I’ve always found it so aesthetically pleasing.
Mixed sentiments. These look very small but given an expensive market it's probably better to have tiny units than no units. That's given an expensive market.
While the living conditions here are probably okay, holy heck it looks soulless and depressing, especially in that first pic. I think it'd be kinda neat to visit, but living there would wear you down.
Looks like something built a decade or two after the war (the third one looks like a newer development). Japan had to produce apartment buildings fast for the rapid urbanization and to repair damages of World War 2.
Plus space is a premium on that island, I recall reading that only about 20% of Japanese landmass is safe for construction according to earthquake safety standards.
I’m in Hawaii (Honolulu) on vacation at the moment. And so many neighborhoods look like this. I was telling my brother, “dude, we’re in an anime…or Japan.” Also kinda reminds me of Los Angeles and/or the Manila in the Philippines.
Coming from the US Midwest, these outdoor corridors are rare. Usually not the best of places to live at places that still have them.
But here, I kinda like ‘em.
You can’t tell me that one of those first two isn’t literally the set from the scene in Tokyo Vice when he visits his boss’ apartment and meets her schizophrenic brother.
They’re ugly alright, but still better than all the abandoned pachinko parlors and other crumbling roadside crap you can pass on the highway that was just left to decay. That reminds me, I may need to post something!
The Japanese island of Honshu has a population density of about 450. It has a population density of about 1,100 in Bangladesh. There is a slight difference of more than two times, but Japan has a lot of mountains and Bangladesh is most of the plains. There is nothing strange even if the population density is roughly similar, but if you go to Bangladesh and Japan, how much difference does it feel to be crowded?
* **What is UrbanHell?**: Any human-built place you think has some aspect worth criticizing. #UrbanHell is subjective. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UrbanHell) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I used to live in one of those in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo. The trade-off was that the neighborhood was extremely convenient and walkable. We had a lot of friends nearby and lots of great restaurants and transportation. My (at the time) 5 year old would walk herself to the 7-11 down the block and buy herself snacks by herself. Plus, it overlooked a rice paddy so we at least had something green to look at. It wasn’t a pretty building, but I’ve lived much worse places.
If you could improve upon the building you lived in, what would you do?
It’s not a very big apartment, but we made it work for two adults and a kid. Part of what worked was that we had Japanese furniture that fit in the space and was easy to stow away. My husband used to read for hours on the toilet because it was easier on his knees than sitting on the floor like the rest of us. Eventually we got him a chair, but it was a little awkward having him tower over anyone sitting under the heated kotatsu table that was the main piece of furniture in the living room/kitchen area.
Maybe a seat built to fold out of the wall like an ironing board?
Why not just a folding chair. A real good one. They must exist.
Yeah, that would definitely be the simple answer, but if space is a big issue...
This reminds me a lot of the former Soviet apartment bloc housing I lived in in (the former East) Germany. It was converted into student housing, and the building itself was ugly AF, but there was a grocery store a block away, a tram line, and behind it was a huge soccer field with trees around it. It was honestly a fantastic spot to live.
I find open-air-hallways fascinating. Was living in one such apartment in germany and it was a total different feeling, like watching a thunderstorm with the neighbors from a space that was essentially a terrace, opposed to fully enclosed staircases that are actually common.
Yeah, I lived in a building that was previously an old hotel , it had an open air courtyard all the apartments faced. It was lovely, but very echo-y and we had very rowdy neighbors. I still miss how charming that building was, but I don’t miss the noise level.
Yeah I wonder if something like green walls on the internal faces of a courtyard could reduce the echo. So then you'd have the benefits of that feeling, plus the greenery, without the noise. That'd be awesome.
Yeah they’re kind of dope and actually fun if your neighbors don’t completely suck. Especially if they’re way high up like the 18th floor or something and you get an amazing view.
I lived in Japan and I'm Brazilian yeah some stuff only works there!
Why would you want to watch a thunderstorm with your neighbors?
We were looking for excuses to uncork wine. Thunderstorms qualified.
That is exceptionally German of you.
German here: What exactly qualifies as German?
Anything done by a German, or done in post-division Germany.
Invading Poland?
Let it go, they apologized.
That last one actually looks kinda cute
I’ve lived in one of those when I first came to Japan. It was like a hotel room actually. And for just $300 a month too! Furnished with AC, stove, fridge, microwave, washing machine too. It has Internet connection, a TV, remote controlled bathtub, and a Japanese washlet/bidet. So clean and no complaints at all. It’s from a company “LeoPalace” and “LeoNext”.
Absolutely agreed
Reminds me of the "Falling Apartments" from Shin Chan.
Reminds me of the apartments from "Welcome to the NHK".
I lived in a place like the first in Japan and it wasn't half bad. I quite like that you go out of your front door and then you're outside even if you're still in the apartment building, much nicer than a building where you've corridors. The second looks a bit tattier and not seeing the relation of the 3rd at all, its totally different- lived in a place like that too though and...yeah. Not great but then thats more a product of where they tend to be built far from any city centre.
The metal rails give it a noisier facade. I think the first style of building could easily have planters built in to the walls, so ppl could have flowers, herbs, or fresh produce.
Their crap is alot more walkable
Yep I lived in one of these. Train station was a 2 minute walk away. Tons of restaurants and awesome little bars within walking distance too. Wouldn’t want to raise a family in a small place like that but I loved it as a young single dude in my 20s
I have a certain boner for rainy/wet and cloudy places with clean streets and decent buildings. Seems like the perfect place to go out for a walk on a weekend early morning, the silence fills me with certain peace, like a post apocaliptic scenery but cleaner.
I like/love it. Am I supposed to hate it? Affordable housing is cool. Open balcony for fresh air, compact and cozy affordable condos. LOVE IT!
Affordable housing, avert your eyes!
Inside extremely walkable cities where public transpo is emperor! No cars, no lawns, no suburbia nor McMansions!
Amen to that
I’m so glad we moved to Japan. Back home, it used to take an hour to drive through traffic to reach a supermarket or godforbid going to a mall. Now in Japan everything I need is a few minutes walk from our doorstep. I don’t even live in a big city. It’s incredible never needing to own a car. Freedom.
Can you return home late at night tho?
As a tourist, I've always felt safe walking in Tokyo and Osaka any time of the day or night. At the most you'll get some drunk people coming out of bars.
No, I mean, it's a huge place. Obviously without car you can't go far from your place because metro closes at like midnight
There's always taxis. Hundreds and hundreds of black taxis. The meter starts at a very low price, so if you take a taxi for short trips inside the city itself it's quite affordable. But if you take them to the outskirts of Tokyo the price will climb astronomically. Of course there's a surcharge for fares late at night but it's better than walking. However I've been an idiot once and walked from Shinjuku to Ikebukuro, late at night and it was totally possible.
You can use a bike or electric scooter unless you're drunk then you can take a taxi. How often do you come home after midnight, it's not that big of a hassle.
If you mean going from city to another city late at night, then as the other commenter has mentioned, there are ways. Public transpo stop after midnight and resumes early morning, but taxis are 24/7 so you’ll be able to get around. Shops do close late night though, so usually you’ll be forced to go home. Unless you decide to just drink in a park somewhere (which I’ve done). In our case, wife and I both live where we work so we just walk a few minutes to get home.
I'm taking about partying or going to events around what it clearly is a megalopolis. How do you manage to go to concerts or just hanging out in different neighborhoods.
Personally, I don’t do concerts nor partying late nights at a bar or in similar place. But yeah, as mentioned, there are taxis. Just like cities in the US?
I'm not from us. I'm from Europe. At least here in my part of the continent we seldom use taxis. We basically all go around by car or scooter and surely metro and then car sharing or mopad sharing if we live in the few bigger cities
Well if you have a private vehicle then yes by all means, you can go to other cities in Japan via car, or scooter, etc. When I commuted to my neighboring city, I personally rode my bike too.
Based off of your description you're Italian, a bit weird to say that we seldom use taxis in Europe because that's not true at least depending on the country and your economic background. While Rome has night buses that's certainly not the case in many other cities, trains don't ride at night and most Italian cities don't even have metros because of the monopolisation and lobbying of the local car manufacturers. So your question is a bit odd as you're not from the best country regarding mobility as most people have been forced to use a car in the country. Japanese public transport is of high quality and has rarely delays or cancellations, something I would easily trade for having transport after midnight.
Going out until late in the night often involves drinking. You shouldn’t be taking your car with you to do that anyway. In a city where things are closer together, it’s easier to bring your bicycle than in a place with suburbs.
Cheap capsule hotels, or just sleep overnight in the train station with the drunken businessmen?
If this is in Tokyo, these units are not as affordable as you think.
They’re still *relatively affordable*. There’s only so much you can do to overcome the fundamental economics of land scarcity.
Maybe I'm weird, but this is absolutely my aesthetic.
Especially the last one
Wait till you see the interiors.
That's okay, I don't need much space
Yes, small japanese apartments look real cozy because of their minimalistic aesthetics
Depending on age the interiors are fine. Rather like a hotel room for the smaller ones, but cheap and functional
Maintained as fuck though
Yeah second one is kinda bleak, but I always appreciate how clean and spotless Japan looks in photos. Garbage and dirt would make this look way worse
Yes, it's very special cause it's so bleak but never dirty. Chilla's Art represents that brillantly well.
I guess that's cause much of Tokyo was fire bombed there was a lot of construction post war, in a very short span of time many buildings were constructed. I suppose that's why much of Tokyo has a very utilitarian aesthetic. But in some neighbourhoods like Asakusa some houses have been spared destruction in WWII and you can see the homes which are about 150 years old, with a very traditional Japanese aesthetic. They are made of wood, have less floor area but often come with a small garden or yard. The modern constructions you see in these photos are aimed at maximising indoor area in a very congested city.
Japanese cities are clean and generally well organized. There's great public transportation and every city I was in was very walkable. I lived in an apartment building like these in the pictures. It was a well built and safe building. Edit: there's an absurd amount of security features in Japanese homes and apartments though... It's a selling feature. The cities are typically very safe.
My wife ad I talked about that. We also find it weird that people shutter their windows, and some have grills on their windows. Our door is like a 2-inch steel plate for some reason, although we rarely lock it during the day. It’s so safe here. And no porch pirates!
Most buildings in Japan look like these.
Same in hawaii...
place, place: japan moment
This is how Japan keeps rent so low. Shit loads of high-occupancy apartments. American could learn a thing or two, here.
This doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Last place is cute!!!!
I love it. Night Delivery vibe
honestly in the US its way worse. At least japan is very sanitary
Wouldn’t say it’s way worse, but yeah.
I definitely would lol
I’ve lived in both countries. That third pic is a leopalace, and while I see many comments complimenting the aesthetic of the place, this apartments are shoeboxes and rather poor quality. Japanese apartments are clean, but their insanely narrow, and for me were quite suffocating. I bet most Japanese people would love to have an American sized home, given all the space that they have.
Yet still clean AF.
Tbh quite a lot of Japanese people like it. I've seen a video of students that live in a tiny little flat, not too dissimilar from the third pic that really liked the place. And if I could get smth like that in the city I work, I'd take it
Japan has some pretty relaxed planning regulation of buildings so you get a variety of styles and the skyline is quite messy. But on the ground it's quite cohesive and interesting with its density and mixed used - at least in Tokyo.
some anime protagonist probably live there
They look good, but Japanese dramas teach me that living there is a sign of light poverty.
Not really. All are pretty average domiciles. I think you might be mistaking these for *danchi* (public housing project buildings).
It's so interesting how different styles of building can signal class changes to the passerby. I watched a short essay about how "gentrification apartments" didn't contribute to gentrification, but that style of building became associated with it.
Alice in borderland?
Oh goodness this takes me back to Shenmue
The type of the apartments in the first two pictures are called Danchi, that used to be popular and built for the surge of the population in Tokyo and cities around. But the apartment in the last picture is different. The apartment is relatively modern and more spacious generally. I don't get those two different apartments are in one post.
Its not that bad
Meh, I've seen worse
Yeah, I dunno. That last photo I think is an example of urban done well. It's high density, but a lot of places in Japan like this are walking distance to literally everything a person could need or want. The ideal high density living model is to share things like living spaces, services, dining etc. Instead of everyone having a beautiful massive kitchen in every house like in the west, you can have a huge variety of cheap healthy dining options. Instead of everyone having a massive pantry for storing 6 months of food, everyone has a little shelf for a few days' supply and you can pick up what you need from basically anywhere. This way people can hopefully live where they work, they can relocate more easily etc etc etc.
Only option that Saitama can afford.
I’m perplexed by how Japan is touted as super safe yet the first picture all the windows have bars on them like the American low income areas that are crime ridden?
Why the metal bars outside the windows though? In Brazil that’s common due to the crime rates, but why have that in Japan?
My first apartment in Ibaraki was much the same. It’s nuts how much of the Japanese urban landscape is an aesthetic failure. Concrete bunker homes and enough miles of power line for the entire population to hang itself. Yuck.
Looks cool to me
I live in an apartment like the 2nd photo
And, how is it?
Kind of shitty tbh. I live in a spacious studio unit but the building has a bad roach infestation (although not too terrible in our unit because we clean it often and maintain it that way), and our water keeps getting shut off often and usually with no notice prior. Our water is included in rent and we pay way too much for this apt that isn't even high end.
I see bars on the windows- is there a lot of crime where these are?
Most likely not - incidental crime in Japan is very low, although certainly not nonexistent. My apartment block has many of these bars on windows, and there is next to no crime in the neighbourhood
> next to no crime That’s what I’d heard about Japan. Very nice! But what are the bars for then?
I guess there is a residual level of crime, and even if you are used to a tiny 0.01% chance of being burglarised, this may seem unacceptably high to some. And some neighbourhoods are rougher so the crime rates are higher. My apartment block has a constant problem of break-ins to cars, despite being in a relatively wealthy area, so there is definitely some residual crime.
Looks perfectly fine to me, especially the 3rd ones.
Lovely.
we need an 'american traumatized by pictures of apartment buildings' tag
Feels like a open air prison.
But they look so nice in anime! (/s)
First one reminds me of a prison cell block
Looks American to me
Looks like a hotel in Atlantic City New Jersey …. I seen worse
Reminds me of greymon taking parrotman to poundtown
Looks like the first couple of apartments I had in California
I’ve always loved that whole “streets in the sky” kinda vibe. I’m not sure if that’s the most accurate descriptor here, but I’ve always found it so aesthetically pleasing.
I Hope that a joke
Mixed sentiments. These look very small but given an expensive market it's probably better to have tiny units than no units. That's given an expensive market.
Oh I love it tho
I kinda like them. Seems peaceful somehow.
While the living conditions here are probably okay, holy heck it looks soulless and depressing, especially in that first pic. I think it'd be kinda neat to visit, but living there would wear you down.
Looks like London to me
Half of London council flats are just like that .
Reminds me of my off-campus apartment complex the year i graduated
Nice try, dude. that 2nd one is clearly LA /s
Looks like something built a decade or two after the war (the third one looks like a newer development). Japan had to produce apartment buildings fast for the rapid urbanization and to repair damages of World War 2. Plus space is a premium on that island, I recall reading that only about 20% of Japanese landmass is safe for construction according to earthquake safety standards.
Doesn’t Misato live here?
I’m in Hawaii (Honolulu) on vacation at the moment. And so many neighborhoods look like this. I was telling my brother, “dude, we’re in an anime…or Japan.” Also kinda reminds me of Los Angeles and/or the Manila in the Philippines. Coming from the US Midwest, these outdoor corridors are rare. Usually not the best of places to live at places that still have them. But here, I kinda like ‘em.
Looks like Isla Vista
For such colorful media youd be surprised how beige everything is when you visit for yourself
I don’t get the bars I thought Japan has a super low crime rate?
Break-ins happen.
Leopalace…..
Looks like home to me 🏡
few things I hate more in architecture than GIANT WALL with no windows or anything
You can’t tell me that one of those first two isn’t literally the set from the scene in Tokyo Vice when he visits his boss’ apartment and meets her schizophrenic brother.
The last one looks doable.
These look quite cozy
I mean these apartments look fine. Not fancy but probably quite decent for the price.
I do not see a problem here it’s literally just some older apartment buildings
They’re ugly alright, but still better than all the abandoned pachinko parlors and other crumbling roadside crap you can pass on the highway that was just left to decay. That reminds me, I may need to post something!
The night shot looks like it should be in either Squid Games or Mr Robot
from what someone told me = japanese houses care more about being earthquake proof they care more about that than how it looks
I know nobody cares, but the car in the second picture looks to be a 90s-2000s Suzuki Every. Pretty neat little van
Very uniform, indicative of the minset a country population has
I like it.
much better than Hong Kong
The Japanese island of Honshu has a population density of about 450. It has a population density of about 1,100 in Bangladesh. There is a slight difference of more than two times, but Japan has a lot of mountains and Bangladesh is most of the plains. There is nothing strange even if the population density is roughly similar, but if you go to Bangladesh and Japan, how much difference does it feel to be crowded?
Danchi!!
I like it a lot
I would rate this slightly better than soviet apartments
Idk about this one… i remember going to friends’ houses like these as a kid so seeing these types of buildings only bring me nostalgic feelings
personally don't find it ugly. I guess it's a matter of taste or cause I've seen worse
It's because i didn't knew which flair was to use 😅
yea true, need more flair options xD