MODERN TOKIO IN WESTERN DRESS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3128, 31 July 1922, Page 2

MODERN TOKIO IN WESTERN DRESS.

(By Sir Porciviil Phillips.)

New Tokio is a strange,unreal blend of East and 1 West enveloped in an atmosphere of almost aggressive prosperity. The visitor who returns, as i have, after an absence of 17 years, is stunned and rather saddened by the change. It is as though the heart ol a hallbuilt. bustling Western American “boom” town had been plucked bodily from its foundations—streets, tramears, banks, and business houses, everything in fact but the paving—and set down amid paper-walled cottages and jinrickshas. The Tokio J knew has been swallowed up in a vortex of concrete and steel girders. Its dominant note is the incessant scream of the steam riveter. A central railway station more imposing that Victoria ushers you into this tangle of East and A\ est. On every hand are grim, unadorned office buildings eight, and nine storeys high, some covering an entire block. A bank like a gigantic Greek temple betrays the influence of its American architect. Steel skeletons that await their skin ol yellow hriek or stone break the skyline; hordes of nimble little workmen toil from dawn to dusk in this wmderness as though trying to complete the new Tokio by a given date. Streets have been straightened mid lengthened and lit with glaring electric la nips. A net work of tramlines has spread over all the suburbs, and heavy ears of American design, crowded to the steep central steps, thunder through the traffic. Taxicabs and louring ears for lure have lelt thepnr.eUsha coolies far behind in the march ol progress. , , The building craze has spread cion to the outer suburbs. There are modern office buildings in the Shepherds Bush and Wandsworth quarters of the capital. A new hotel, .said to he the last work in scientific comfort, will he completed this summer. Its predecessor, the Imperial, known for a generation to all foreigners who have visited .Japan, was horned recently w<itb a swiftness that seemed quite in keeping with the speed of Tokio’s development. ] The disaster merely “speeded up the construction of the new hotel. . j A glorified five-storey Selfridges fill-.., ed with every conceivable kind ol mer- • chaudise is hiring the Tokio housewife from her old-fashioned ideas ol shop- u ping. You must enter by one side only, j and leave by the other. He I ore yon | can set foot over the threshold afl coolie kneeling at the step has slipped I soft slippers over your muddy boots.ll Thus shod you shuffle noiselessly over! matting into the crowd of eager bny-H ers and funny little cash-girls inffl kimonos. H It is just like Heltridge’s staged withH a Japanese sotting. Ihere is a moving! staircase between the basement and! the first floor. No shopper would think! of leaving without first walking down-! stairs in order to ride up. 11 you! would appreciate the new .spirit- ol Ja-! pan. pause at the top exist, and watch! tlie never-ending stream ol women and! men ascending with a kind ol solemn! joy. ... 8 On the surface, Tokio is aggresively ,■ feverishly prosperous. Prices are ruin-! onsly high, yet money, is spent freely.! People of the working classes still! clamber into exepnsive imitor-ears at! tin' railway station, and go joy-riding! with reckless delight. The Imperial! Theatre is crowded at every perform-! mice; stalls at 18s and Ids are as! eagerly sought as the cheaper seals. || Yet all is not well. . || Bankers and business men shake! their heads and talk ominously of aft crash. Tin* had times are already here,if and the worst is yet to come. It isttj the old story. “Paper” fortunes and! war-time prosperity have lelt theirJJ? mark on everyday life. I util prices ecine down, and foreign markets are within reasonable reach, health.' conditions will not be restored. j