Towns changing for the better (with no electric lines!)

[muikabochi 208]

I was quite surprised yesterday as I drove through central Shiozawa. Or should I say the Shiozawa town area of Mimaniuonuma city, between Yuzawa and Muikamachi.

 

I hadn't been down that main road for quite a while. It used to be the usual ugly non-descript Japanese small town but it has been totally changed. All of the buildings have been given a similar look, there's no out of place signage etc, and there are no electric lines at all - they've gone underground. (So much for that 'not being possible due to earthquakes' excuse!)

 

It actually looked quite attractive, certainly a huge improvement. I don't know the story, but... good on them!

 

[Go Native 70]

Usually just takes a mayor with a bit of vision and the ability to get the locals on board with that vision. Amazing how easy it can be to turn what on the whole must be admitted are normally very ugly rural towns into something that looks great. Niseko Town did something similar some years back along it's main street. Uniformity with all building design and powerlines underground with spacious, paved footpaths. One of the best looking towns in this region. Unfortunately Kutchan has yet to have a mayor with any vision like that and is the usual really ugly town.

[SnowJapan#Andrew 6]

That's actually just up the road from where I live. They have been working on that for a few years now muikabochi and they have done a good job, it certainly is far more attractive than it used to be.

 

It's called 牧之通り (bokushi-dori) and part of the Mikuni-kaido route. They have tried to come up with a traditional look to fit the historic theme, and that's one of the reasons that all the electric lines have gone underground - looks so much better. They had a festival last week and seem to be trying to make it a tourist spot.

[muikabochi 208]

Interesting. Yuzawa would certainly benefit from a similar kind of makeover I would think.

[muikabochi 208]

Well, almost every ugly town would!

[Go Native 70]

They are planning a similar thing on the main street leading up to the lifts in Hirafu. They should start this summer I believe with paved walkways and putting powerlines underground.

[grungy-gonads 54]

Yes you showed us the report a while back. That was interesting. A more modern look though wasn't it?

[Go Native 70]

Certainly not a traditional look like above but remember Hokkaido doesn't have a long (Japanese) history like on Honshu. Just getting rid of the powerlines alone will make a huge difference and the paved walkways will be heated in winter which will be fantastic. More people injure themselves slipping on that road in winter than up on the ski hill I'd reckon. Uniformity of the facades of buildings and signage and such will hopefully come down the track.

[muikabochi 208]

Quote:

Just getting rid of the powerlines alone will make a huge difference

Definitely. That was the first thing I noticed. It was like a 'there's something wrong (right!) with this picture' double-take before I realised!

[bobby12 0]

Nice one. If only the fatcats would use this as their vehicle for scamming taxpayers money instead of building all the concrete dams etc.

[charlotte 0]

Great to see that.

Amazing that more Japanese towns can't seem to see it!

[rach 1]

Originally Posted By: muikabochi

(So much for that 'not being possible due to earthquakes' excuse!)

Whats that about muikabochi? Is that one of the reasons that they use for the mess of lines and poles here?

[Mantas 3]

I would love to see them put power lines underground here (particularly the on that impedes my view of the ocean) but it doesn't happen very often. It's a fair undertaking given the number of all the water, sewer, telephone and gas lines already down there that they have to avoid.

[NoFakie 45]

That looks much much better than typical Japanese towns. As others have said, proof it can be done. Well played Shiozawa! Looking after your town is ten thousand times better than just expecting tourists to come to a dump to eat you incredibly wonderful soba/udon/apples/cherries/chestnuts/grapes/blueberries/pickles/....

No trees, but the shop eaves will provide shade.

 

On the map, it looks like its parallel to and a couple of hundred meters from a much bigger road called Route 17. Couldn't they have pedestrianized it? That's what makes places like Tsumago. Obuse has a main road going through it and its a big minus.

[muikabochi 208]

Yes it does run parallel to Route 17.

Tourism was mentioned but I don't think the centre of Shiozawa town has a big tourism thing going on. I didn't spend time looking and I don't know how much that has changed but that road did have a lot of normal town shops going on - post office, bank, book shop, hair dresser, photo shop, ramen shop, convenience store etc as well as some houses. I somehow doubt they considered pedestrianizing it, it isn't that kind of place. Though I suppose it might possibly have been made into that kind of place.

 

Thanks for reminding me about Tsumago - it's on my list!

[bobby12 0]

I can only dream of towns with decent (planned and well thought out) pedestrianisation. I really hate how the car dominates our environment - it really is not necessary by any means and could be avoided with decent town planning, public transport etc.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Originally Posted By: rach

Originally Posted By: muikabochi

(So much for that 'not being possible due to earthquakes' excuse!)

Whats that about muikabochi? Is that one of the reasons that they use for the mess of lines and poles here?

yeah thats one of the favoured excuses for the hotch-potch of power lines. They say that it would be too difficult to find breakages etc after an earthquake if they were all underground

[bobby12 0]

then one wonders why gas etc can be put underground but not denki. i think it is just non-awareness of the issue (that it is ugly).

[grungy-gonads 54]

If some places can do it - places indeed that have experienced strong earthquaes themselves like Shiozawa - it's surely just an excuse.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

how are electricity lines in California? San Francisco gets shaken a lot, as does LA, any yanks able to tell us if the lines are underground?

 

When you think about the Gas pipes being under, it does indeed seem a very weak excuse

[Mantas 3]

I would've thought with todays technology it would be easy to find where the cable has broken.

[happyhappy 0]

But more difficult to have to dig up to fix than something overhead.

Just for the sake of argument...

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Originally Posted By: Mantas

I would've thought with todays technology it would be easy to find where the cable has broken.

true....but thats not always been the case and we all know that if thats the way it was in Japan then we aren't gonna change it now!