Fukutoshin Subway

Hello, everyone~!

Today, 7.2 magnitude earthquake has hit in northern Japan at about 8:43 am. (Iwate prefecture and Miyagi prefecture, specifically.) I heard from the news that a tremor hit Tokyo as well in the morning, and the elevator in Roppongi (One of the popular places in Tokyo) stopped for a while. At the time, I was sleeping and I didn't feel anything at all.

Meanwhile, the Fukutoshin Subway, which said to be the last subway built in Tokyo area debuted Today! The line connects through Saitama prefecture to the subcenter of Tokyo.(Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Shinjuku) The word "fuku" means sub, and "toshin" means center. So, as you can imagine, "fukutoshin" means sub center. I don't know who defined it, but Tokyo can be divided into "toshin" and "fukutoshin." And the places that belong to "toshin" group are Otemachi and Tokyo, Chuo Ward, Minato Ward and Chiyoda Ward. And "fukutoshin" districts are Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Ikebukuro. (But these play a very important role in terms of the current Japanese young culture, definitely!) The fact that the name of the line is "fukutoshin" implies Tokyo's subways have been concentrated in "toshin" districts. And the subway company expect it to be the trigger for the new movement of the people in Tokyo. The places that once are considered far away is going to be much closer because of the stations of Fukutoshin Subway. (By the way, the picture on the right side is rail toys.)

In fact, there's a station of Fukutoshin Subway in Shibuya! So, I'll go there and take some pictures very soon. I'm looking forward to visiting there because the design of the station was done by, one of the Japanese famous designers, Tadao Ando. And he created the station just like a space ship. It's called "地宙船"　in Japanese, and it means a space ship in underground. Sounds fascinating, isn't it?

Alright, that's all for today!