The difference 14 years have made are more detail than dramatic, but still a lot of things
have changed. Two examples of that in this batch of photos from April 2000 are the water fountain in Shinbashi Plaza (now gone) and the fully openable windows on the Joban Line.
Over the past few years, I've asked several people about the water fountain that used to be in front of Shinbashi Station, and generally the response is "Oh yeah! I remember that! When *did* that disappear anyway?". One guy poked around on the Internet for about 30 minutes and came up with a rough answer, but I've forgotten what it was. In any case, it was still there in 2000....
With the old type of trains with their straight sides, and platforms without walls, when the trains were stopped at stations, the trains themselves used to seem like walls to me.
The sky - infinitely variable, and yet never changing...
The decline of department stores has been fairly dramatic. There are still old-style classy department stores, but many of them have become discount stores. People are trying hard not to spend money and the expensive department stores disappear one by one....
A small detail - the long white socks on the schoolgirls. You don't see that now, but it was really common at the time.
柏駅 / Kashiwa Station
I used to love to take an afternoon (almost empty) 15-car inbound Joban Line train from Kashiwa to Ueno. My favorite spot to sit was the right-side rear corner of the second car from the end - where I would completely open the window and hang my head out from time to time to get a blast of wind and look up the long train. Trains are so much more enjoyable when you can open the windows and look directly outside - without having to look through glass.
常磐線 / Joban Line
常磐線 / Joban Line
立ち読み - Reading books at bookstores... you still see this, but less than before, since people tend to be glued to their cell phones for everything now.
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The old steam locomotive in Shinbashi Plaza (新橋SL広場) - looking over the water fountain that vanished at some point not too long after I took this.
新橋 / Shinbashi
新橋 / Shinbashi
新橋 / Shinbashi
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I thought this London double-decker bus pub was a great idea. Apparently it was a legally roadworthy vehicle and was driven on the streets from time to time and just parked here (not on blocks or anything). It disappeared (from this spot in any case) not so long after these two pictures were taken. I went in for a drink a few times in 1996, but by the time I found time to try again (I was just passing by when I took these pictures in 2000), it was gone....
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Looking down one of the old three-door Seibu Line trains. By 2000, cell phones were definitely here, but not computer-phones ("smart-phones"), so people used their cell phones to [gasp!] talk!
Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/
http://youtube.com/lylehsaxon
http://lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/
http://lookback1997.blogspot.jp/
http://tokyoht.blogspot.jp/
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