Japanese Furniture
Asian-inspired furniture and kitchen cabinets from greentea design
Old Books on Japan
Find rare and collectible books on Japan at eBay!
Japanese Friends
Make friends or find your perfect love. 1.5 million+ members!
In 1878, just 19 years after Japan opened it first ports to the world, and a mere ten years after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, an adventurous 47-year old woman from the UK set out to explore the interior of Japan. The country was virtually unknown to Westerners, and a woman traveling only with a guide seemed outrageous. Everybody advised her not to, but she went anyway and wrote this unique and vivid journal of what she saw and experienced.
iKjeld.com
Dive deeper into Japan with Japan correspondent Kjeld Duits
Japan Links
A Japan Correspondent's personal bookmarks; the net's best sites about Japan and Japanese culture
Japan Photo Stock
License vintage and current photos of Japan and the Japanese
JapaneseStreets
Magazine on Japanese street fashion and street culture
JapaneseStreets Friends
Asia's largest friend-finder. Make friends, penpals, or find your ideal match.
Postcards of Japan
A resource for the collector of vintage Japanese postcards
A steam locomotive pulls passenger cars on elevated railway tracks in Kobe. When the railroad connection between Kobe and Osaka was opened in 1870 (Meiji 3), Kobe was still a small town and the tracks didn’t appear to be in the way. But as the town grew, the tracks ended up being right in the middle of the city center, cutting the town in half. As traffic increased, this division turned into a major drawback. So in October 1931, the tracks were elevated. In neighborhoods that attracted many people, shops and even some homes were built under the tracks, people didn’t seem to mind the thundering trains above their heads… During WWII the area below the tracks serviced as a welcome shelter for countless people who lost their homes to fire bomb raids.
The mountain on the far left is Takatoriyama, which has a Shinto shrine that offers an amazing view of Kobe, its harbor and Osaka Bay. From here you can see as far as Kansai Airport and Wakayama Prefecture. On New Year’s Day the place is crowded with people who want to catch the first rays of the first sunrise of the year.
For more information about the railway in Kobe, read Kobe 1900s • View from Aioibashi and Osaka 1930s • Osaka Station.
The Google map shows Daimura near current Motomachi Station, this photo was shot in this general vicinity.
Japanese Furniture
Asian-inspired furniture and kitchen cabinets from greentea design
A steam locomotive pulls passenger cars on elevated railway tracks in Kobe. When the railroad connection between Kobe and Osaka was opened in 1870 (Meiji 3), Kobe was still a small town and the tracks didn’t appear to be in the way. But as the town grew, the tracks ended up being right in the middle of the city center, cutting the town in half. As traffic increased, this division turned into a major drawback. So in October 1931, the tracks were elevated. In neighborhoods that attracted many people, shops and even some homes were built under the tracks, people didn’t seem to mind the thundering trains above their heads…During WWII the area below the tracks serviced as a welcome shelter for countless people who lost their homes to fire bomb raids.

I thought it was interesting seeing the elevated tracks in Tokyo with the shops and yakitori stands underneath them. In the US, elevated tracks are not too popular because people feel they are ugly and noisy.
# Tornadoes28 · 2008-10-10
They are right. They are very ugly and noisy. Unfortunately, about the majority of the tracks in Japan’s big cities are now elevated…
# Kjeld Duits · 2008-10-10
They are right. They are very ugly and noisy. Unfortunately, about the majority of the …
I thought it was interesting seeing the elevated tracks in Tokyo with the shops and …