Tokyo Precincts

It’s clear to see why Tokyo is a source of fascination for travellers. Streets of towering neon that never sleep hide warren-like alleys filled with lanterns, vending machines and tiny bars where businessmen drink the latest seasonal beers. Tokyo is a collection of precincts, each with its own personality. Go shopping mad in Shinjuku, tap into Tokyo’s youth culture in Harajuku and Shibuya, go vintage shopping in Koenji, check out the latest gadgets in Akihabara or step back in time in old-world Asakusa. The book is divided into 19 precincts, with a chapter covering each, featuring the very best of Tokyo’s shopping, eating and drinking experiences. Interviews with creative Tokyoites also highlight favourite haunts, and additional information at the front and back offers expert travel tips. Precinct maps make this a handy guidebook, while the hardback cover creates a beautiful keepsake.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

"Building Resilience highlights the critical role of social capital in the ability of a community to withstand disaster and rebuild both the infrastructure and the ties that are at the foundation of any community. Aldrich examines the post-disaster responses of four distinct communities - Tokyo following the 1923 earthquake, Kobe after the 1995 earthquake, Tamil Nadu after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and New Orleans post-Katrina - and finds that those with robust social networks were better able to coordinate recovery. In addition to quickly disseminating information and financial and physical assistance, communities with an abundance of social capital were able to minimize the migration of people and valuable resources out of the area.

A severed hand is found in a van in the outskirts of Tokyo at the same time as contractor Kenichi Takaoka goes missing, leaving his garage covered in blood. Lieutenant Reiko Himekawa is on the case, and when the hand is identified as Takaoka's, she's investigating a murder. Reiko is plunged into a world of past sins, forced suicides, and the shadowy control of the yakuza. The rest of Takaoka's body is nowhere to be found. But when his childhood friend sees a photo of the missing man, he swears it is not Takaoka at all...

ANCIENT POWER As the only female detective in Tokyo’s most elite police unit, Mariko Oshiro has to fight for every ounce of respect, especially from her new boss. But when he gives her the least promising case possible—the attempted theft of an old samurai sword—it proves more dangerous than anyone on the force could have imagined. The owner of the sword, Professor Yasuo Yamada, says it was crafted by the legendary Master Inazuma, a sword smith whose blades are rumored to have magical qualities. The man trying to steal it already owns another Inazuma—one whose deadly power eventually comes to control all who wield it. Mariko’s investigation has put her on a collision course with a curse centuries old and as bloodthirsty as ever. She is only the latest in a long line of warriors and soldiers to confront this power, and even the sword she learns to wield could turn against her.

This collection interrogates relationships between court architecture and social justice, from consultation and design to the impact of material (and immaterial) forms on court users, through the lenses of architecture, law, socio-legal studies, criminology, anthropology, and a former senior federal judge. International multidisciplinary collaborations and single-author contributions traverse a range of methodological approaches to present new insights into the relationship between architecture, design, and justice. These include praxis, photography, reflections on process and decolonising practice, postcolonial, feminist, and poststructural analysis, and theory from critical legal scholarship, political science, criminology, literature, sociology, and architecture. While the opening contributions reflect on establishing design principles and architectural methodologies for ethical consultation and collaboration with communities historically marginalised and exploited by law, the central chapters explore the textures and affects of built forms and the spaces between; examining the disjuncture between design intention and use; and investigating the impact of architecture and the design of space. The collection finishes with contemplations of the very real significance of material presence or absence in courtroom spaces and what this might mean for justice. Courthouse Architecture, Design and Social Justice provides tools for those engaged in creating, and reflecting on, ethical design and building use, and deepens the dialogue across disciplinary boundaries towards further collaborative work in the field. It also exists as a new resource for research and teaching, facilitating undergraduate critical thought about the ways in which design enhances and restricts access to justice.