Two weeks ago, Matt Tiessen wrote this thoughtful post about spatial concerns in the city of Lyon, France. Wandering around in Japan, I tried to adopt the same perspective to briefly describe some intriguing phenomenon related to space and culture in Japan.

my first impression was the tremendous importance of bridges, viaduct, raised highways. Since Japan is an archipelago, there was a need to connect island, which is reflected by this importance of such structures.
another strikening feature is that fact that places and things are smaller: especially bathrooms, tables/chairs, ceilings, hotel rooms, appartments.
this morning I also notices an intriguing phenomenon: there are intersitial spaces between buildings as seen on the picture below. This might be due to earthquake prevention (to avoid waves propagation?).