Gentrified Post-towns

Nightlife today is varied and intense. Both large and small cities have areas of concentrated nightlife: rows of pubs, bars, cabarets, restaurants, coffee shops, discotheques, ‘love’ hotels, games parlors, pachinko joints or tall buildings with the rows of advertisements running vertically up the facades instead of horizontally. Areas of Tokyo like Kabukicho in Shinjuku are… [Read more]

Itabashi is typical of many gentrified post-towns: few of the old buildings of the post-town remain, but the route of the old highway is still easy to spot running as a narrow back street while the modern highway by-passes the town at a respectful distance. It is not uncommon for areas within urban districts which… [Read more]