First days in Musashi Sakai

So I've just recently arrived in my new home town, Musashi Sakai. Musashi Sakai is a suburb of Tokyo, about a half hour's train ride from the center of town.

I'll document the place a bit with photos and explainations where appropriate.


First a look at the main road between the train station (which is the main hub of the town), and my apartment. It's about a 15 minute walk between the two.
The first thing I noticed is the bike parking lot just outside the station. There are a lot of freaking bikes in here.

The roads are very narrow here. This is one of the main roads through town and it is shared by cars, bikes and pedestrians. Fortunately the cars are very narrow too, but it still feels a bit pinched at times.

Sidewalks are somewhat hit or miss, although I'm beginning to find routes to the train station that have them.

Most of the buildings here contain stores and a couple restaurants. Prices are high here compared to closer to Tokyo since there's less competition. Emission laws are very strict in Japan. Cars seldom make it ten years and remain usable. This is good because in these narrow spaces heavy exhaust would be unbearable. As it is, there is no smell at all. If the 20 year old coal burning trucks that everyone hates to get stuck behind in US exist here I haven't seen them.