[mav1178]

Originally Posted by Corbic

A few observations and questions -

One, whats up with all the corrugated steal buildings? While cool, and I'd love to have one, they look very Soviet-Era / 3rd World.

Two, Japan looks very run down (outside the glitz areas). Is this a correct assessment? I get this feeling that there was tons of growth and expansion with all these "modern" buildings in the 80's and early 90's and then the economy collapsed and much of the country never recovered, renovated or continued to expand like it had 30 years ago.

late reply, but...

Why not? Concrete and steel buildings are the best for the type of climate there (rainy/humid + needing to be earthquake and typhoon-proof). Plenty of those types of buildings in the midwest/south US

as for run-down, maybe by your standards. lots of Japan also were never built up, so if you limited your travels to only major metropolitan areas then you'd only see what is built up.

it's like going to (insert major US city here) and only experienced what you saw in the airport and the downtown/popular areas.

plenty of places in the US are run down and 3rd-world like outside of urban areas.. expansion does not mean you tear down old stuff and build over it.

lastly: keep in mind the major cities outside of Kyoto were practically leveled by Allied forces in WWII. rebuilding them from scratch was a necessity, not out of progress.