Osaki to Shinagawa and Back - by Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon, Images Through Glass, Tokyo

"Osaki to Shinagawa & Back" - by Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon, Images Through Glass, Tokyo

Osaki to Shinagawa - by Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon, Images Through Glass, Tokyo

Covered walkway between Osaki Station and nearby office towers - about two-stories high, it functions as the ground level for people working in the office towers. (Page note: While the photos on this page are generally in chronological order, due to grouping some of them in horizontal and vertical batches, some are slightly out of sequence.)

(Above) - Looking back towards the station from the elevated plaza (the tunnel is the same one in the first picture). (Below, left) - The walkway passes over this expressway. (Below, right) - Apartments near the station.

(Below) - The road along the canal near Osaki Station has become a nice area.

(Below) - The canal, with office towers and Osaki Station on the right and apartment buildings on the left, newer ones with locked security doors, forming vertical gated communities.

(Below) - Three aspects to the area - 1) New development; 2) Large parking lot; & 3) A trace of the past. A lot of the new development in Tokyo is nice, but when I contemplate how much space is taken up by cars, I sometimes think that Tokyo (and many other cities in the world) would be immensely improved if private cars were forbidden within city limits.

As I walked further from Osaki Station, I found myself in an area primarily composed of houses and apartment buildings, with a few businesses mixed in. Tokyo has long had a little of everything, everywhere, so you never know quite what you'll find when you set off on a long walk.

At the top of the long flight of stone steps shown in the middle picture above, is the view below. The top of the hill is an exclusive area of houses that occupies most of the top of the hill between Osaki and Shinagawa stations. It's probably quite a nice area to live in - quiet, with a lot of green, and within walking distance of Shinagawa Station. Very nice, and extremely pricey.

(Below, left and center) - Getting nearer to Shinagawa Station, there were several expensive-looking apartment buildings three or four stories high - many with the area name of "Takanawa" incorporated into the apartment building name.

(Above, right & below, left) - The Shinagawa Aquarium area, about five minutes from Shinagawa Station. (Below, middle) - A street running in front of a high-rise luxury apartment tower at the base of Exclusive Hill (my name). (Below, right) - A slightly more ordinary area on the other side of the tracks from the exclusive zone.

(Below) - Walking in and out of exclusive areas. The middle photo is looking over a pond in front of a vertical gated community (locked entrance; guard on duty in the lobby; tower reaching up into the sky 40 stories or so). (2nd from right) - The bridge over the tracks leading from the inside of the Yamanote Line to the outside.

After a long walk, I arrived back in the Osaki Station area. The outside tables are on the back side of the "Gate City Ohsaki" office towers, and the center and right pictures below (as well as the fourth and fifth pictures above) are on the front side of the towers near Osaki Station. (Below, left) - The office towers next to the canal.

(Below) - Entering the towers from the back, you suddenly find yourself in this space - which seemed striking to me after a few hours of walking around in the dark!

In the general vicinity of the above photo are several restaurants - from McDonald's and Starbuck's to regular restaurants. Come to think of it, this area is vaguely similar to typical shopping malls on the other side of the Pacific. (Below, middle) - Another walkway connecting the office towers with another entrance to Osaki Station.