Old Tokyo Station

Old Tokyo Station is still used as a part of present Tokyo Station, with preserved exterior and renovated interior. It was constructed in front of the Imperial Palace and completed in 1914. The start of its construction was delayed due to Sino-Japan War and Russo- Japan War, and shifted into high gear from 1908 after the end of those wars. The station, inevitably, has been a witness of many historic events and showing various expressions over the years.

In above photos, (1) is of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. There are so many bills that were stuck for searching individuals who were missing. (2) is of destroyed station after the US airstrikes in the WWII. (3) is of the crowd going into chaos at december 20, 2014, which was led to by the launching of 100th anniversary prepaid card for establishing Tokyo Station. (3) is clearly expressing that Japan is in the state of peace enduring long. If people from other countries had seen it, they would have thought it was something like bank's bankruptcy. 

Here is the prepaid card causing that uproar. the people gathering around the station included those who wanted the card for the purpose of resale as well as rail funs - both of them had a motive to become enthusiastic. While Japanese people recently have been applauded for their composed and calm manner in tough situations such as earthquakes, the fact that just mere prepaid cards have caused uproar can only be said as funny. That circumstance was covered in the news throughout Japan. 

Leaving that aside, Tokyo Station has two different faces on its east side and west side. The east side is called 'Yaesu' and the west side is called 'Marunouchi'. And they also can be said as the new and old faces of the station. While old Tokyo Station constructed with red bricks stands on the west side, namely, Marunouchi side, new Tokyo Station faces to the east side, Yaesu side. And the Japanese Imperial Palace faces to the west side. On the other hand, Yaesu side faces to downtown. 

The photo below is the external appearance of Yaesu side and it is on the other side of old Tokyo Station, that is, Marunouchi side. As you can see, there are some buses in front of it, for motor coach station is located there. Since motor coaches charge reasonable fare compared with that of Sinkansen, super express train, there are a lot of people around the motor coach station. For your information, motor coach fare is usually under half of Sinkansen fare.

As a means of transferring, motor coach is a cheap but interesting option, especially for transferring between Tokyo and Osaka. Since its inside is designed in accordance with Japanese's size, foreign tourists, especially white and black people, may feel it tight a little bit. So it is very important to choose three-column seat type. There also are four-column seat type buses, and if you choose one of them, you will experience stressful tour in those buses. 

As for operating hours, the buses operating between Osaka and Tokyo typically take about 8 hours, having two or three break times at rest areas on the highway which takes about 15minutes. The most significant issue about the operating time, however, is that there are overnight bus and daytime bus. For foreign travelers, I would like to recommend the daytime bus because it offers you various sceneries including Mount Fuji. Of course you need to reserve a window seat to enjoy those sceneries and frequently chatting with your folks is against manners. 


Leaving that aside, Old Tokyo Station was planed by Tatsuno Kingo, the Japanese architect who was called the father of modern architecture in Japan at that time. However, there had been another architect from germany, Franz Baltzer. He is not so much an architect but a railway engineer who had been employed by government for Japan's modernization. He, in fact, originally had been committing to planning railway network centering on Tokyo.

Baltzer later had come to be committed to planning Tokyo Station. Since being interested in Japanese architecture, he attempted to employ Japanese-style design into the appearance of Tokyo Station. Specifically, the designs of shrines, temples, and castles were mixed and introduced to its design. He also wanted to say through the design that Japanese should be proud of their own cultures instead of submissively copying European or Western cultures.  

Franz Baltzer's Plan of Tokyo Station

However, a Japanese architect Tatsuno Kingo, who actually was to plan the Tokyo Station, criticized his plan, saying it looks like as if an European woman dresses her hair in Japanese style and puts on Japanese sandals just out of curiosity: his remark means that Baltzer's plan doesn't reflect genuine Japanese design precisely and therefore, it's a superficial imitation of it. After that, Tatsuno had charge of the planning Tokyo station, and he made a plan that employed the Renaissance style.