At last I could buy gasoline the last weekend after waiting in line only for thirty minutes.
I didn’t think that it was so difficult to buy gasoline.
It’s been only two weeks, but it feels a lot longer.
It is easy to say that you shouldn’t use your cars or you had better use less energy.
In particularly our lifestyle hasn’t changed much yet.
For example, when it rains, we feel it is so tough to take our two young daughters to school or the nearby store by bicycle or foot.
Our destinations are so far to walk to.
If we will be able to buy gasoline as easily as before, we will never change our way of living.
To change the way of living needs a big change in city planning.
“Compact city” is an old fashioned word among the city planners because motorization and the information society have progressed extremely.
However, we should rethink the new “Compact city”.
Living gathered around the center of the city is good for not only saving energy but also developing the local community.
At one time, we lived close together downtown (shitamachi).
For example, Tsukishima and Asakusa city in Tokyo have their own characters and human touches even now.
☆All links are google image search.
Life in Kawagoe 
できるだけ早く、遠くに、大量にをめざした便利な生活が、ここにきて私たちを苦しめているような気がしますね。 Compact city は私も理想郷です。
そうですね。都市のありかたは、生活スタイルがストレートに反映されていると思います。
I’ve often wished I lived in a compact city too. My city is so spread out, there are very few places within reasonable walking distance. The nearest grocery store to my house is 4 mi (6.4 km) away, my school is 10 mi (16 km) away, and my church is 11 mi (17.7 km) away. Even biking is difficult because we have lots of hills and mountains.
Oh, your nearest grocery store is so far.
My nearest grocery store is 0.5km and the road is flat.
You need a car than I. 🙂
I’m with you. Living in a compact city would mean that a lot of things are accessible and need not require us to travel far (and burn fuel) to get them.
I guess this is where proper city planning should take place instead of haphazard development.
One of the factors that haphazard development is capitalism.
I want to write about this topics someday.
Thank you for your comment and agreement. 🙂
Tsukishima
I heard much about it. You took this pic at there?
(^^)! I also live in city. Going to university, going to market…Oh!!! So far, i had to buy much gasoline. I thinked I should go out by bicycle or foot. Cost Savings!!! Not embrace environmental!!! But will so far so far if go by bicycle or foot.
Yes, I took this pic.
I saw very many bikes in Viet Nam.
Certainly some places are so far. 😥
compact city – congratulations, seems to be a good concept, like the medieval castle concept
What a great place Montaigne is. thank you for sharing.
the ELTZ castle, my dear engineer:
I’ve made now an article for my daily blog at
flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/eltz-castle/
there’s a floor plan, I hope you like it …
your frizz, Germany!
I enjoyed.Central courtyard is impossible for castle.
thank you, COCOMINO, for inspiring:
quotation and discussion of your COMPACT CITY concept …
Japan is really a beautiful country! I like the food, culture, people, song, wisdom, attitude and many many things. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks a lot. I particularly like the “food”.
I like the idea of a compact city but I bet it would become like a fishbowl after awhile. It’s a good thing you can now buy gas… Are things improving in your area?
Thanks for the updates. 🙂
Eliz
Thanks.
Of course there are some problem about downtown.
For example, disaster prevention, aging of society and shopping streets.
We need to promote the town.