The arrangement of streets in Tokyo make the random patterns in a large bowl of Chinese noodles look organized. If you decide to venture off one of Tokyo's main streets without carefully taking account of your bearings, you may quickly find yourself entangled in a maze of ever circling side streets and alleys. Take a glance at any detailed Tokyo street map and you will get the picture.
The overwhelming majority of streets end a few blocks from where they began. Only a handful of streets can be used to go straight from one section of town, say Ginza, to another, say Shinjuku. In addition, only a few of the streets have names.
Imagine that, one of the largest most important cities on Earth setup like this.
How did this come about! Well, this is what was gleamed from a bit of research: originally Tokyo was a city composed of numerous villages. On Sept 1, 1923 this multi-village city was hit by a colossal earthquake and fire, then World war 2 brought the horrendous US fire bombings. During the rebuilding, in spite of what the linked NYTimes writer claims, a coordinator was not consulted rather it was first come first serve. The first building completed in any given area was designated number 1. The second finished in that area would be numbered 2. And so on. Keep in mind that an area might included numerous blocks. So building number 8 might end up next door to building number 53.
Once this random process of the rebuilding was ongoing, there was no easy way to get out of it. It was literally written in stone. Written addresses follow the format 12-27-5. Where 12 designates a multi block area called a chome, 27 is the number given to the block and 5 is the building number.
So basically you really need to get hold of a street map, locate the correct chome number then scout around looking for the building number which, if you are lucky, is posted on a 3 inch square metal plaque located somewhere on a wall near the buildings entrance.
Not able to read or speak the local language ? Priceless!
Years ago when i first arrived in Tokyo, Japan, i was on a errand with an associate.We were trying to locate a government research laboratory near Tsunashima in Yokohama (Tokyo's sister city to the south). In spite of the fact that my associate was Japanese and we had the address written on the back of a postcard, getting there turned out to be the real project.
It took almost 45 minutes and lots of help to maneuver through the labyrinth of tiny side streets. And then only with the help of a local marketing rep who just happen to be in their office.
"Where are you?" the rep would ask."We're in front of the orange elephant behind the green and blue, 3 story apartment building ," we answered."Oh you are half way here," the rep would say." Call again when you see the tiny coffee shop between the blue gasoline station and the branch office of the Bank of Yokohama."
Additional help comes from three sources: the closest police box , a passerbyer, the occasion map posted on some streets.
We are located in Tokyo Japan and can help you: 1. find offices space 2. procure services 3. purchase wholesale materials 4.translate 5. act as a rep 6. Search for missing people 7. Scout locations 8. business research 9. ship parcels 10. interview 11. obtain offshore storage space 12. receive and forward packages and documents 13. fact finding 14. run errands 15. representative 16. interview and 17. outsource.
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