Tokyo, Japan

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Where were you Shinjuku?

Just outside the Shinjuku Gyoen (National Garden) there is a vague municipal department building labeled something like "Tokyo Roads and Transportation Department". I was unable to discern its true meaning given the building was too small for anything Tokyo transportation related.

There is a campaign to bring back some memories from the Summer of 1962 in Shinjuku. They have painted huge billboards enclosing the parking lot advertising the Website -- http://www.shinjuku-ss.jp. Unfortunately, the Website is currently out-of-order.

Nostalgia for the Nineteen Sixties is pretty limited in Tokyo, probably because it was still largely under development. Regardless, I am curious about the clothing styles and popular trends of the time. There wasn't nearly then the level of cultural excess that exists now so perhaps popular culture was fairly limited. (This, of course, is speculation.)

Even the gasoline lines of the Nineteen Seventies oil crises in the United States can be considered popular culture. What was it like for Tokyo? I never here anything about this. If I could read Japanese media this would be a different story.

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