Note that the currently posted Streets albums may be viewed at the following links: Tokyo, London, Seoul, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Andalusia.

In my recent correspondence:

“I’m confused… You go all the way to Tokyo and spend your time taking pictures of manhole covers and sewer drains? Am I missing something here?”

 * * *

“I didn’t know you like photography. Cool. What made you decide your particular focus?”

* * *

“What also struck me powerfully was how many of your photos were photos I’ve taken, if less artistically. I’m so fascinated by shapes and textures, and of concrete material goods that lead an abstract existence simultaneously.  Picking up on the geometry of the Seoul palace, walls, and pothole covers are all in my repertoire as well. […]

“A word about the architectural symmetry and how it spoke of the power and authority of the monarch. According to Confucian thought (which lives strikingly in Korea even more than in Japan or China), there is Heaven and there is Earth (including humanity), and it is the responsibility of the ruler to put Earth into order according to the divine principles of Heaven. What better way to represent the monarch’s ability to create order than to create symmetrical space?”

It’s time for me to talk a little about this manhole cover fetish fascination…

Lens focus? Interest focus? Nokia made me decide my particular focus, you might say — the pictures are all taken with my cell phone (not so amazing), because it’s there with me. I do take pictures other than streets (!) but I post the streets, because it is something different from the norm.

I am interested by a couple of aspects of “street design”:

(1) There is a conversation that happens on the ground. Sometimes it’s very loud, as in colored signs and lane markings, communicating between the city or an institution and the public. Sometimes it’s subtle, as in spray painted notations by city workers. I like eavesdropping on that conversation, and I’m interested in the communication and “language” that is used; the assumptions made about who is listening, and what they understand.

(2) Different cities have very different patterns and systems for infrastructure access holes — in some places, everything seems modular (a few standard sizes); in other places, everything looks pretty chaotic. Some cities seem to care a lot about the beauty of even the manhole covers; some really don’t. I think that says something about a culture and about feelings about the city.

(3) There’s design at work even on manhole covers — some are beautiful; others ugly. Some are very useful, and identify what’s in them very specifically; others are generic, or nearly so. That’s a form of industrial design that probably has scope for improvement, and seems interesting — identifying who needs to know? (the public? the maintenance workers? other repair people?) what do they need to know? how best to convey the information? what are the risks of making the information known?

Anyway… you’re getting an earful!

Best,

Sarah

Arutz Sheva reports:

New Zealand’s first kosher restaurant will open by the end of this year, according to the island-country’s Chabad Rabbi Mendy Goldstein. It is being built on the first floor of Chabad offices in the city of Christchurch.

I’m really happy to hear this news. Honestly.

Remembering the reticence of Chabad representatives to use the word “Santa” in my hometown of Santa Monica (known by the Lubavitcher hasidim as “S. Monica”, in company with S. Barbara and many other California towns boasting Chabad branches), is it disrespectful for me to wonder how they are coping with the name of this Chabad branch in New Zealand?

I would like to note that I’ve been the recipient of so much gracious hospitality, food and personal referrals from Chabad representatives in Orlando, Helsinki, Tokyo, Barcelona (where they spell it, endearingly, Jabad), Bangkok and other locations that my gratitude is endless (even if my path in Torah is not the same).

Seen in Tokyo: 

Suddenly, I’m not that thirsty.

Seen in Tokyo (Minato-ku): 

The sign in front of the fire station reminds passersby that fire has potentially nasty undesired effects.

Why the use of the English “or”?

Is this a sign that can be taken in at a glance? Is it assumed that passersby will quickly absorb the message?

Seen in a Tokyo hotel: 

The lobby is fully carpeted. The elevator call button panel has an extra little section between the UP and DOWN buttons: touch the metal plate here to discharge static electricity buildup before pressing the button.

Imagining the events leading to the decision to install the enhanced panel makes me laugh!

Shibuya’s main intersection:

The pedestrian overcrossings form an elegant full four-way crosswalk right over the street. Here’s a stairway detail:

There are stairs with integrated ramps in Jerusalem, too (to help mothers pushing strollers). My friend calls them “suicide ramps”. This is such a long one that it does look suicidal. Yow.

Seen in Tokyo:

A pair of bumper sticker-type ads on the train doors:

+ Touch Sensor = Softbank

+ Motion Sensor = Softbank

That’s interesting to me. Not so much that Softbank is pushing a touch- and motion-sensitive phone (whoever isn’t doing that already will be soon), but that they are pushing the technology inside. Both touch and motion sensing have been around for a long time; now there is a sense [!] that consumers care that those capabilities are inside the box, much as they care about WiFi, a TV tuner, or GPS.

Wow, times have changed. Do I attribute this to the iPhone Effect? You betcha.

Savoring interpretations of the basic outdoor bench in Tokyo’s Ebisu neighborhood:

Here’s a short video clip showing a child-friendly train car in Tokyo. It’s too good to be true, especially in a country where pressure to keep public areas quiet — including train cars — is tremendous.

For me, the most striking things about Tokyo were its silence and its cleanliness. It is all the more noticeable when you come from Israel, where, sadly, love of the land is not always demonstrated by litter control.

In Tokyo, a city of over 12,000,000 residents (not counting workers who come in daily), I saw one — ONE — piece of litter in the street during a 10-day visit. And that was an empty beer can blowing down the street in a typhoon. It’s refreshing and remarkable, although I’m sure there’s a price to pay, as there is in any very clean environment.

[Amusing: en route to a meeting, we collected a granola bar wrapper which we had to carry for 15 minutes through Tokyo Station before finding a trash bin. So very, very clean, and yet so few places to dispose of litter!]

More great pictures of the children’s train at Deputy Dog.

Reuters is reporting on a British fad for pet costumes.

I’ve noticed that the Japanese go for this in a big way. This October in Shinagawa, I passed a storefront selling doggy and kitty costumes. A whole store. I wanted to think that it was just the influence of the imminence of Halloween celebration, but further evidence suggested otherwise.

Lots of pups wear sweaters and jackets in Tokyo. I make allowances for the fact that they are for the most part small, scrawny, and short-haired.

Seeing dogs taken for walks in doggy strollers stopped me in my tracks (the first time). Aside from the expense (and how ridiculous their owners look), doesn’t a doggy stroller defeat the purpose of taking the dog for a walk?

Seen in the Yebisu Garden Place mall: a cat in a sweater and rhumba pants (panties with ruffles on the rear). Wearing a Minnie Mouse ears headband. Strapped onto a tricycle, which was pulled on a leash by her proud owner. I could not make this up. I felt embarrassed for the cat.

Felines have dignity. Even dogs do.