Creating a Shopping Arcade (Shotengai)

[bill937ca]

Many Japanese cities have covered shopping streets, "Shotengai" in Japanese or arcades as they are known in the West.  This is how one Japanese modeler has created a covered shopping street. His model is relatively wide.  I have seen Shotengai no wider than a alley in places like Osaka. These can be bustling or semi-deserted and almost derelict in less affluent small centers.  

 

http://primmodel.web.fc2.com/layout131.htm

 

http://primmodel.web.fc2.com/layout131_2.htm

 

http://primmodel.web.fc2.com/layout131_3.htm

 

 

More background information:

 

Deserted Shotengai (scroll down):

 

http://mikkagashi.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/01/post-9e6c.html

 

 

 

[keiman]

Those pictures on the blog could be really useful, when I get back to doing my B Train layout.

[Kamiyacho]

Good suggestion.  That would be a nice detail.

[Nick_Burman]

Many Japanese cities have covered shopping streets, "Shotengai" in Japanese or arcades as they are known in the West.  This is how one Japanese modeler has created a covered shopping street. His model is relatively wide.  I have seen Shotengai no wider than a alley in places like Osaka. These can be bustling or semi-deserted and almost derelict in less affluent small centers. 

 

http://primmodel.web.fc2.com/layout131.htm

 

http://primmodel.web.fc2.com/layout131_2.htm

 

http://primmodel.web.fc2.com/layout131_3.htm

 

 

More background information:

 

Deserted Shotengai (scroll down):

 

http://mikkagashi.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/01/post-9e6c.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

The deserted arcade is in Amagi in northern Kyushu...a particularly depressed area if I understand correctly, especially after the end of coal mining activities in the region.

 

 

Cheers NB

[cteno4]

I have wanted to model one of these going through a block on ttrak. problem is that most of it gets covered up by the roof! figured to just model the end of it opening up onto the street and you would only see in a few inches with crowds of people in there.

 

the tomytec sidewalk/street arcades are nice as you can see in them more from the sides as well.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bigford]

is it a street with a glass roof going for one side to the other??

very cool

[cteno4]

yes sort of like small street with shops on either side and they put a glass roof over it. all pedestrian. usually find them in the middle of the block in many cities and towns in japan. some small, some quite big and multiple blocks long.

 

its funny as at times you are walking down a not too busy street/sidewalk and then you hit the opening to one of these and its like an ant hill inside! i would always wonder how so much activity did not mean more traffic boiling out onto the street constantly.

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

is it a street with a glass roof going for one side to the other??

very cool

Yes, they cover the entire area from one side to the other, and then the alleys in between as well. Having walked through quite a few of them on the last few trips to Japan, I can say they sure are nice during the rainy days. Not much help on cold days though, and the wind can really rip through them.

[westfalen]

yes sort of like small street with shops on either side and they put a glass roof over it. all pedestrian. usually find them in the middle of the block in many cities and towns in japan. some small, some quite big and multiple blocks long.

 

its funny as at times you are walking down a not too busy street/sidewalk and then you hit the opening to one of these and its like an ant hill inside! i would always wonder how so much activity did not mean more traffic boiling out onto the street constantly.

 

jeff

Not many ants in this one in Uwajima at 1pm on a Tuesday afternoon, there were plenty of bikes parked inside though.

[disturbman]

I always wanted to reproduce a Shotengai and have always wonder why no manufacturer have one in their catalog. It's so typical. I actually lived in a house giving on a Shotengai (and up the Shotengai's roof) for 10 days or so this year. It was very interesting to see the in and outs of such a common place.

[bill937ca]

Lyle Saxon blogs various locations around Tokyo, and February 19, 2010 he blogged Oyama Happy Road on the Tobu Tojo line the third station out from Ikebukuro. This is right in the heart of Tokyo.

 

 

 

Only locals stop at Oyama Station.

 

 

 

 

Blog:

 

http://lylehsaxon.blogspot.com/2010/02/oyama-happy-road-yuza-road-oyama.html

[bill937ca]

This web site has good photos of Japanese shopping streets.  First from the 23 Wards of Tokyo and then from the rest of Japan.  Lots of detail to take in.

 

http://tamagazou.machinami.net/index.shtml