I pressed the brake to slow the car to a crawl. The enclave of old wooden houses was located on a narrow street lined on both sides with power poles, stone and bamboo fences, cars, and delivery trucks, making it difficult to drive while I searched for the particular address. I turned off the air conditioner as if the roar of the fan hindered my ability to distinguish street names and building numbers.

      Ahead, not more than twenty meters, an elderly man walked along the side of the street toward a small grocery store. On the store’s veranda were stacks of newspapers, boxes of vegetables, and cartons of empty beer bottles. A row of potted plants with yellow leaves indicating they needed a good watering, or perhaps less, marked a boundary between the veranda and three vending machines offering beer and cold sake, cigarettes, and single serving packages of instant noodle soup. A spigot provided hot water for reconstituting the soup. The owner of the machines clearly knew what sells in the neighborhood.

      In the contemporary scheme of society, the neighborhood lacked outward significance other than the ground on which it was built. Real estate speculators could easily buy all the houses and commercial buildings, forcing reluctant owners into selling by hiring criminal gangs to overrun the neighborhood. When the properties were purchased, a demolition company would raze the buildings and seemingly overnight they would be replaced with office towers, retail spaces, and condominiums. In terms of functionality, the modernization would exploit the area to a much higher potential. The neighborhood consisted of too much underutilized space, especially too many single-family homes occupying the precious land. Modern space planners design on the principle of a box of one hundred and sixty cubic meters, which is the optimum living space for two people. More volume is not necessary, less can lead to tension and discomfort.

      And what of the displaced residents and businesses? The owner of the grocery store would be given the golden opportunity to rent a sleek modern retail space at half the size and four times the cost of the old building. But think of the fluorescent light gleaming