Shanghai We had a magical day in Shanghai for Christmas. Delightfully, there is no real commercialism for Christmas here. One sees some Christmas trees in the lobby of hotels currying dollars from the tourists of course, but none of it has any meaning to the millions of Chinese in the city. It’s another Monday, just another …
Category: Ideas and Issues
Super Levees of Tokyo
Tokyo For all of the talk about what is wrong with the fools in New Orleans to have located their city in such an environmental crossfire, the attitude in Tokyo, the world’s largest city, seems to be to choose “safe rather than sorry.” The city is built in a mix of mayhem. Rivers frequently flooded areas …
Matsumoto: A Stream Runs Through It
Kobe We had been having trouble connecting with some of the planners and professors in our own version of the Sophia Coppola movie, ‘Lost in Translation,’ so we left from Shinkobe (the Kobe subway train station) in plenty of time. Professor Ohnishi had told us to meet his colleague Ikuo Kobayashi, the President of CO–PLAN …