![\"arakawa04\"](\"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/arakawa04.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGetting on the tram at Waseda<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Toden (short for Tokyo-to densha<\/em>) used to be a major form of urban transportation in the postwar period, when many lines traversed<\/a> the inner city. They were gradually dismantled as the city became more motorized and as the metro network expanded.<\/p>\n In its heyday, the system had almost two million riders a day, with more than 40 routes along 213 kilometers of track. Click here <\/a>for a nice shot from Ginza circa 1960.<\/p>\n Crossing the train tracks offers a pretty untypical vista for today’s Tokyo.<\/p>\n There are several former substandard housing districts along the railtracks, so I decided to have a look. (I wrote a little about my work on them here<\/a>.)\u00a0The survey I am currently looking at is from 1959. By 1973, most of these “slums” had already disappeared, so it’s not surprising to see virtually no trace of these areas’ past today.<\/p>\n This former substandard housing block has the same typology as many major-street facing districts (Meiji Dori). There are some relatively high-rise apartment blocks, whose development may have benefited from a clearance project as well as a zoning regime that permits a higher floor count in these locations.<\/p>\n Many\u00a0of the former substandard housing districts gave way to public infrastructure, e.g. schools or parks, as below.<\/p>\n Some of the buildings could have predated the 1959 survey, such as the one above. It looks as if it had been a relatively solid construction at least at inception, so it may have escaped the wrecking ball back then, although it looks fairly substandard today.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n