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| Japan. Honshu. The Streets of Tokyo. Tokyo became Japan's only capital in 1868, when Emperor Meiji Tenno settled here in order to modernize the country. At first sight, this city of 12 million people herded together on 2,000 square kilometers (750 square miles) lacks charm. Fires, earthquakes, and bombings have destroyed it several times over the past century. In 1923, an earthquake of magnitude 8.2 on the Richter scale destroyed 575,000 houses. In 1944-45, U.S. raids killed over 400,000. After the war, the Japanese thought of reconstructing it according to Le Corbusier's grid plan and something of an affinity to that remains. The vary wide boulevards and stacked highways create districts whose more irregular streets themselves enclose smaller districts (chome) that are all but villages where, to the surprise of foreigners, many of the houses are wooden and have no addresses. In the vary heart of their metropolises, the Japanese have constructed intimate, private spaces that avoid the inhuman standardization of other cities' tower-block projects. |
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