roppongi

Roppongi is known as the foreigner district of Tokyo…one of the places where ex-pats and the likes settled, and gaijene run amuck. Except- I saw maybe three foreigners on my three trips out to Roppongi.

Regarding my proposal, with Roppongi I was concerned with the local reflections of international trends- and rest aassured that didn’t dissappoint. There were malls scaling city blocks full of merchandize familiar to any cosmopolitan metropolis- the same brand names that plague the world abound in Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Mid-Town (not neighborhoods as their names may suggest, but more like giant developments).

It was the in-betweeen-ness found while roaming the backstreets that really became interesting to me. Small scale shops with foreign flavors nestled in the messy blocks scattererd around the larger developments haphazardly hold treasures like the shrine above and even create community spaces where people gather to catch their breaths…