Reviews for Tokyo now & then

The average rating for Tokyo now & then based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-02 00:00:00 Navinchandra Mehta Tokyo is always changing, and yet this account of the city, by a great-nephew of Arthur Waley, remains enlightening thirty years after it was first published. The author wears his learning lightly and writes in an easy, elegant style that never seems to strive for effect. The section on the Yoshiwara licensed prostitution quarter (now Senzoku 4-chōme) is a good example of his ability to combine history with sharp observation: he describes the successors to the old Yoshiwara brothels as "supreme examples of modern international bordello kitsch" (p. 207), and he does not shy away from describing the outcast communities who lived--and still live--nearby. The section on Tokyo's last metropolitan tram, the Arakawa line (pp. 339-48) is also beautifully executed. Paul Waley should be credited, too, with inventing the term "virtual sightseeing" that so perfectly encapsulates the experience of visiting--or attempting to visit--an historical site in Tokyo.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-08-03 00:00:00 Dan Durant Surprisingly entertaining reading. So evocative of Tokyo in the 1980s that it's more like a snapshot than a guidebook. It made me want to do a guidebook for the MBTA green line of Boston in the 1970s.