(no subject)

Interesting pair of long (English) articles in the Yomiuri today about the ugliness of Japan's urban landscape (one theme of Alex Kerr's 'Dogs and Demons' book): part 1, part 2.

It mentions this list of the 70 worst eyesores in Japan [site in Japanese, but you can just click on the thumbnails to enlarge]. Some very characteristic Japanese urban landscape there; I don't think Kabuki-cho at night (#37) belongs on the list, though -- there's a place for that sort of neon-lit Blade-runner style cityscape too, surely?

(There's also a list of 30 examples of improvements, although it's not so interesting so I mention it mostly for completeness.)