Remote Salon/Light within a 100 meters from Home 2020.05.19　Noriko Higashi While we are forced to postpone our explorations around town due to the coronavirus, we held a salon online. 25 participants reported on the lighting within a 100 meters of their homes. The Shomei Tanteidan’s very first ZOOM Salon. We had lively discussion for 2 hours with 25 participants. Due to the spread of the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19, a state of emergency has been declared and our Shomei Tanteidan Members restricted to their homes. Our team had to cancel our stroll about town planned for mid-May. While we cannot leave our homes, online events for people with other hobbies have started popping up, leaving us the challenge to organize an event in a completely different situation than before.While there were voices that were raised of concerns regarding an online event being slightly contradictory to the Shomei Tanteidan’s usual fieldwork style. However, considering the unknown of how long this situation will last, after discussion with our Stroll about Town Planning members (SQUAD), we decided to organize an online salon. Trespassing by LIGHT! The theme was ‘Light within a 100 meters of your home’ which was hopefully one that allowed individuals to remain in their houses or venture outside only slightly while exploring. Honestly, we were worried about how much conversation and discussion we would be able to find, but to our surprise, all 25 participating members had their own topics. Some…

City Night Walk in Kyoto 2019.09.26　Mutsuro Honma+Yumi Komatsu + Taiichiro Ishida+ Amane Kotani Our first investigation in Kansai in 4 years occurred in Kyoto. We investigated whether Kyoto, where there are many tourists all year round, is retaining its ‘Kyoto-ness’. The scene at our gathering after the stroll. Many first time participants in the strolls also participated here. Endless conversation filled the space. Main Objectives of Stroll about Town Kyoto Orientation It has been a year since I started living in Kyoto, but I still encounter charms of the place that I have not before. Its attractions are unique and various, and discovering them seems as if I’m drawing out even more of the beauty of the more I explore. Our investigation of Kyoto has been long awaited. ‘Kyoto is a city that is dear to all of us’ as Leader Mende-san’s introduced at the start of our event. I was very interested in how everyone would feel about Kyoto and excited to see what new attractions in Kyoto everyone would find. We explored Kyoto in 4 groups, each responsible for a Tourist attraction. Let us dive right into what we found! Group 1: Kiyamachi→Ponto-chou→Kamogawa The lights on the floor that ‘Lights the dark’ continues all the way to Minamiza Kiyamachi Street that runs along Takasu River that is supposed to be expressive The calm and soothing lighting in Pontochou Group 1 was in charge of Kiyamachi, Ponto-chou, and Kamogawa….

2019.09.21　　Erina Hosono Group photo with the finished lanterns Our lantern festival ‘Let’s make vegetable themed lanterns!’ was held as a kid’s workshop on September 21st in Nerima Sakujiikoen Furusato Museum. This event had 52 children as participants, centered on those who are in their first and second year of elementary school, becoming our largest event to date. Including the staff and the parents/guardians of the children, it was a huge gathering of over a 100 people. The participants made vegetable themed lanterns and listened to the “Fire and Light lecture”. Did you know that Nerima’s urban agriculture is flourishing and has representative agricultural products such as daikon radish and green onions? The museum staff wanted to teach the kids about Nerima’s agricultural success through our lantern crafting session. Therefore, we prepared daikon radish, green onion, spikenard, corn, tomato, persimmon, and cabbage (all of which are Nermia specialties) themed crafting paper. Day of, the children pick a vegetable of their choice after signing up and spend around an hour crafting the lantern. At the orientation, we demonstrated the different styles of lanterns by turning off the lights and lighting the candle within the lanterns. The children all exclaimed ‘wow!’, ‘Kawaii!’, when they saw the lanterns they would be making, expressing their excitement but also warming the hearts of all the adults at the event at the same time with their cuteness. The kids facial expressions turned serious and focused once they…

City Night Walk Vol.064：Skybus Tour 2019.07.26　Anri Sato+ Mutsuro Honma For our 64th Stroll about town, we explored the Tokyo Nightscape using a 2 story open roof bus: Skybus. It was a great drive around town, using Skybus’ Odaiba Nightscape course. While we started the event with some concerns about bad weather, but luckily we were able to enjoy a beautiful summer night drive. A group photo at Odaiba with the rainbow bridge behind us Skybus The Significance of the Skybus tour We started before it got dark Chief Mende-san explaining the point of the bus tour The sunset setting upon the emperor’s residence Under the theme of ‘Rediscovering the nightscape of Tokyo on the Skybus!’, our members all explored the nightscape of Tokyo from a height of 3.8m off the ground. Our route was Tokyo Station → Oukyo (Emperor’s residence) → Tokyo Tower → Shuto Highway → Rainbow Bridge → Odaiba → Shuto Highway → Rainbow Bridge → Tsukiji Market → Ginza → Hibiya → Marunouchi → Tokyo Station The lighting detectives also held the same event in 2013, but as the 2020 Olympics/Paralympics are under a year away, there are heavy development projects occurring all around Tokyo and therefore would perhaps change the nightscape of the city. We were curious to explore how the nightscape of Tokyo has changed especially after the Tsukiji market has moved completely to the Toyosu Market. The highlight of this trip is the nightscape…

Small-Group Night Walk Review2021.12.02　　Noriko HIgashi This salon was held online as a review of the small-group night walk surveys conducted in November, with 22 participants attending. The session ended up running 30 minutes over time, filled with rich and engaging content. This was the 7th time we hosted a salon online. While the convenience of joining from anywhere is a clear benefit, there’s still something missing in terms of the sense of unity that comes from gathering in person for discussions. That said, the idea of conducting simultaneous night walk surveys in different locations and coming together afterward for an online review—something we never would have considered before COVI —has proven to be a highly effective approach.This time, the reviewed areas included five locations in Tokyo, as well as Kyoto, Nagoya, and Suzhou in China, totaling eight locations. Unlike our previous format where a single area would be divided into three or four sections for review, this time each report focused on completely different areas. As a result, the volume of information needed to explain not just the lighting but also the local context was vastly greater. We initially planned for a 90-minute salon, but it quickly became clear that wasn’t enough time—we ended up going 30 minutes over. The content shared during the salon followed the night walk survey reports from the previous page, and once again, each team prepared impressively thorough materials for their presentation. Every time, I’m…

Small-group Night Walk Live Review2021.Nov.　　Naoko Oguchi + Narumi Mizuno + Shiho Ishizaki + Shinichi Sakaguchi + Sachiko Tsuji + Yuka Suzuki + Mutsuro Honma + Qin Tianyi Waiting for the state of emergency to lift, we carried out the night walk surveys. Although in small groups, we were able to conduct them across many areas. We paid careful attention to COVID-19 infection control measures and held review sessions. Each team’s review was deep and thorough, reflecting the advantages of having a small number of participants. ■ShibuyaThe Shibuya team investigated the third phase of the Shibuya Ward’s “THE TOKYO TOILET” project and Shibuya SKY. The public restroom at Yoyogi Hachiman, designed by Toyo Ito, uses indirect lighting that bounces softly off the ceiling, creating a gentle, warm light environment both inside and outside. Combined with its form, it created a cozy atmosphere and was thus considered a hero. Each restroom in the project has its own unique character, but considering ease of use for people, soft lighting seemed important.Shibuya SKY is a facility 229 meters above Shibuya, offering a 360-degree panoramic view of Tokyo’s nightscape. It eliminates glass barriers and minimizes unnecessary light from the facility itself, allowing visitors to enjoy the view without stress. The hammock area, where lighting is minimized to fully reveal the sky, was also praised as a hero. While carefully placed accent lights maintain brightness and create cool gradations of illumination, some areas like staircases felt…

2021.10.27　Shunichi Ikeda + Erina Hosono + Namiko Watanabe About three weeks after the state of emergency in Tokyo was lifted, we conducted our first urban night walk survey since the COVID-19 outbreak, heading to Akasaka. The area between Akasaka and Akasaka-mitsuke features both traditional establishments such as atmospheric ryotei (Japanesestyle restaurants) and neon-lit entertainment districts reminiscent of Kabukicho. At the same time, Akasaka has gained recognition as a tourist destination due to redevelopment centered around Akasaka Sacas. We surveyed the nighttime environment of this area where tradition, business, and nightlife coexist. ■Aerial Nightscape of AkasakaThe central area of Akasaka lies roughly in the middle of the cluster of high-rise buildings. At first glance, the nightscape viewed from above gives a rather subdued impression, due to the lack of prominent building illuminations or large advertising towers. However, upon closer inspection, one can see clusters of commercial lights peeking through the gaps between buildings. While the limited presence of dramatic lighting or decorative illuminations may make it less visually striking, the overall effect is a calm and environmentally friendly nightscape. ■Akasaka Sacas AreaAkasaka Sacas, a multi-use complex directly connected to Akasaka Station, is usually frequented by businesspeople and shoppers. However, likely due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of passersby during our survey was surprisingly low, which was unfortunate. The nighttime lighting around the base of the 179-meter-tall Akasaka Biz Tower is uniformly set to a relatively low…

Discover Tanjong Pagar, Singapore 2021.10.22-2021.10.23 Lighting Detectives: Reiko Kasai, Sun Young Hwang, Sherri Goh, Quratuaini Jamil, Shirmine Tan, Xiao QingTeam Asagao: Hana Kasai, Victoria Wee, Marielle Ang, Elias Bay Our first activity since 2020!  Initiated by students in joint collaboration with Lighting Detectives.An evening out by the park, surrounded with twinkling lanterns. Members of the public enjoying the ambience An evening out by the park, surrounded with twinkling lanterns. We collaborated with student team Project Asagao in October for an installation to raise awareness and funds for Beyond Social Services.The student team comprise of 4 students from St Joseph Instituition International. The installation was part of their campaign for Citi-YFC, an initiative to enable youths to champion a charity of their choosing.     Kids playing around the lanterns   People enjoying the picnic Students crafting in the office Drawings from the youths under the charity were featured on the lanterns laid out on the lawn in the pattern of hearts.The lantern installation was initially planned to include a lantern-making workshop as well. However as Singapore was still in a lockdown, public participation was not encouraged.Despite the situation, the installation was very well received by the public with high turn-out for both days!It is our first physical Lighting Detectives activity in Singapore since the pandemic hit and took support from t h e Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA) for us to leap through hoops and expedite the approval of…

2021.05.22-2021.11.21　Reiko Kasai, Mayumi Banno, Sun Young Hwang, Sherri Goh, Shosaku Takahashi 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　      　　©gardestudio                                Pre-opening set-up In late November 2019, we were invited by the National University of Singapore (NUS ) Department of Architecture curatorial team to submit a proposal for the Singapore Pavilion under the theme To-Gather: The Architecture of Relationships. Our pitch was shortlisted amongst 16 other participating architects and designers. We began work at the start of January 2020 to design and fabricate the installation scheduled to exhibit in Venice from 23rd May to 29th November 2020. The brief was to question how our work responds to the dialogue of: how will we live together? Our Response In Singapore, terms such as “light pollution” and “loud lights” are now used to describe the lit environment in Singapore. There is a pressing need to re-evaluate and balance the current situation with our needs and wants. Do we need to examine if such an increase in light actually provides us with more pleasant nights? Designing the installation The format conceptualized by the curators was of the iconic Singapore hawker center. Hawker centers are integral to the Singaporean way of life pertaining to everyday dining. All participants are assigned a table with stools arranged around it, mimicking a typical layout in hawker centres. We updated the lengthy lighting chronology exhibited at Lighting Planners Associates…

World Lighting Journey Chief Interview 2020.04.23　　Yuichi Anzai ―During the year 2020, we posted lightscapes from various places around the world. Among these posts, the most viewed images were the facade lighting of the Museu do Amanhã in Rio De Janeiro, street lighting along London’s Regent Street, and light on the horizon of Morocco`s the Sahara Desert. Mr. Mende, what do you think about these results? the Museu do Amanhã in Rio De Janeiro London’s Regent Street the Sahara Desert Mende：Last year, I requested posts of not just pretty lightscapes, but also problematic lightscapes. Maybe it’s not everyone`s forte to take pictures like this. However, all around us, there are incidences of light happening. Posts of these villains might not attract much attention, but they are necessary to better understand the incidences of light that are happening near us, not just picturesque scenes. These images of people enjoying different colored luminous floor panels didn’t get many responses, but I find it intriguing. ―These images are of a light show in Shenzhen, China, taken during the 2019 Transnational Lighting Detective Forum. Mende：It is interesting to see the people experiencing light waving between joy and despair. There are many images that didn’t register many reactions but are still very interesting. Some closeups that show facial expressions would better reveal the interaction between people and light more so than wide-angle images. Not only macro lightscapes, or nightscapes take at a wide-angle, but also micro…

“Rethinking Future City Night Walk” 2020.08.28　東悟子 The Lighting Detectives’ main activities revolve around fieldwork. During this salon, we split into groups to discuss what kinds of night walk surveys are possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what we should be observing now.Our third salon held online Each team discussed potential areas for the night walk survey. The Nagoya team proposed a streetlight investigation Since the end of March, we’ve been working with the night walk survey planning committee, SQUAD, to explore what kind of activities the Detectives can pursue even under pandemic restrictions.Various ideas were proposed, such as solo night walks, video streams of night walks by Chief Mende, virtual night walks, and even group YouTube watch sessions. In May, we conducted an experiment where each member investigated lighting within a 100-meter radius of their home and shared their findings online. This project turned out to be meaningful, as it revealed both positive aspects and problem areas in each of our residential neighborhoods. However, since the Lighting Detectives have long focused on gathering for fieldwork as a core activity, we wanted to explore new possibilities. With that in mind, we invited members to submit ideas under the theme “Reimagining Future Night Walk Surveys.” Specifically, we asked what kind of night walk surveys they’d like to try. Based on similarities in proposed themes and locations, members were grouped into three teams: Each group was given 40 minutes to discuss and develop…

Small Group Night Walk Review 2020.11.28　　東悟子 An online review session was held to reflect on the “Small Group” night walk surveys conducted across seven locations in October and November. As members shared their observations and experiences, each report sparked curiosity and inspiration—many found themselves wanting to explore the places others had visited next. Participants joined from a variety of locations — their homes, workplaces, izakaya(Japanese style pubs), and even schools Each group leader gave a report on their night walk survey findings We held our fourth online salon of the year, focusing on a review of the night walk surveys conducted in small groups during October and November. Each area leader reported on their respective night walk survey. Typically, we divide into three to four groups to explore the same area and then present our findings. However, this time, the night walk surveys were conducted in completely different locations—including Nagoya, the Midosuji Illumination in Osaka, the Shibuya public restroom tour & Miyashita Park, Toyosu, Yanaka, Azabu-Juban, and Somei Cemetery & Sugamo. As a result, the reports were rich in variety, and the 90 minutes flew by. In the report from Nagoya, which focused on streetlights, large and flamboyantly designed streetlights were introduced and praised as “heroes” for contributing to the vibrant, energetic atmosphere characteristic of the city. On the other hand, LED illuminations that cast an overwhelmingly blue hue over the surroundings were labeled as “villains.” The team in charge…

Let’s explore the city in teams of up to five! 2020.Oct.- Nov.　Tomoya Furukawa + Naoko Oguchi + Shinichi Sakaguchi + Shinichi Sakaguchi + Takashi Amemiya + Yuka Suzuki + Amane Kotani To prevent the spread of COVID-19, we held a “Small Group” night walk survey in seven locations —including Kansai—limiting each group to a maximum of five participants. It was our first walk in a year. With the pandemic, had the vibrancy of the city at night changed? Patio Juban – The warm glow of the bollard lighting harmonizing with the gradually turning leaves of the zelkova trees created a pleasantly inviting atmosphere Based on the results of the “Future Detective Night Walk Planning Salon” held at the end of August, we organized seven small-group night walk surveys from late October to mid-November, each with up to five participants. We selected seven areas—five in Tokyo, plus Nagoya and Osaka—and participants chose their preferred locations. It was our first night walk in a year, and we were reminded of the joy of seeing things firsthand and exchanging opinions on-site with fellow members. Each area had its own theme, allowing us to explore the unique characteristics of each neighborhood. ■Azabu-Juban – Motoazabu – Nishi-Azabu Azabu-Juban Odori – The warm orange lighting beautifully reflected off the stone pavement, creating a cozy and inviting ambiance Low-rise luxury residences – The illuminated grounds exuded an air of sophistication and elegance Azabu-Juban, a district blending tradition…

World Lighting Journey 2019  Annual Report, A chief interview 2020.02.26　　Erina Hosono We interviewed Shomei Tanteidan Leader Mr. Mende this year again as an annual round up to our weekly World Lighting Journey postings in 2019 to the Shomei Tanteidan Facebook. Our Leader Mr. Mende looking back at the posts of the year. The most reacted image: Stockholm Subway Mende：So, our conclusion from last year’s World Lighting Journey (WLJ) was “Let’s upload more natural light”, how did everyone react to that? ―It doesn’t seem that posts that featured only natural lighting was that much more popular. Mende：So then, which photos where more popular? (Looks through the data of our 2019 Facebook postings) I see, it seem that images that show scenes that are rare or haven’t been seen by Japanese seemed to incite a bigger response. ―Mr. Lin’s photo of the subway station in Stockholm and Mr. Hattori’s photos of Italy and the Vatican had the most reactions Mende：The photo of the subway itself is very impactful, that’s probably why it is capable of garnering such attention. I always enjoy Mr. Hattori’s photos as they always capture how people and lighting interact. Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Vatican City, The interplay between dynamic light and shadow ―Mr. Itakura’s photo taken in the air that looks like Anthony Mccall’s artwork also gathered some attention Mende：It must have left an impression, because you rarely see places with such strong natural light in Japan. Have…

Night Watching Tour：Oouchijuku Let’s go look at lights on the snow-scape! 2020.02.08- 2020.02.09　Namiko Watanabe + Noriko Higashi In search for a festival of lights in Japan, we headed to the Winter festival at Oouchijuku. Our 19 members headed north from Tokyo towards a fantastical view of snow and the lights of the old villages houses. Looking down on Oouchijuku, we were lucky it started snowing the day before, barely creating a beautiful snowscape Oouchijuku cuisine – Green Onion buckwheat noodles- where we use green onions as our chopsticks Located in South Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture, Oouchijuku prospered as a passing town on route from Nikkou to Wakamatsu in Aizu. It is a beautiful town, designated as an architectural cultural heritage, where cottages with thatched rooves still stand. Our Night-watching tour planning committee, after lots of investigation decided upon this Winter Festival in Oouchijuku. Let us find out if we were able to glimpse the view we were promised! ■Tour Cancelled⁉ The theme of this tour is “Let’s go look at lights on the snow-scape!”. Our goal for this tour was to go see the glimpse of warm light spilling out from cottages buried in the snow or as we like to think “THE Japanese Snow-scape and Cottage lighting”, but sadly this winter was an abnormally warm winter. It had not snowed even a week before the planned date for the tour. A lot of the festivals were cancelled or shrunk…

Tokyo Survey: Tsukuda / Tsukishima 2019.11.18　　Kyoko Takubo+Yuichi Anzai+Namiko Watanabe An overview of Tsukishima. In contrast to the bright large city buildings, the small alleys and storefronts don’t leak much light Tsukuda is an fisherman island made in Edo-period. Tsukishima was landfilled in Meiji era and now there are still many row houses and small alleys. While the port area of Tokyo is going through mass redevelopment, we investigated the lighting environment of this area filled with intermingling old town houses and large city buildings. Tsukuda Tsukuda 1Chome Mainstreet. Children playing outside the old candy store Tsukuda 1 Chome Mainstreet is mainly lit with mercury lamps Tsukuda Machikado Museum. Its lit with LED3000K with about 134lx. Our investigation started by taking an overview photo from a tall building from the other side of the river. With the hustle and bustle bright lights from the Central area’s cityscape, there was one part that was dark- that is our target of this investigation, Tsukuda・Tsukishima. The dark patch from this area is even more pronounced as it is surrounded by the bright city lights all around.   As we get back on the ground, we headed towards Tsukuda 1 chome (Old Tsukuda Island) Mainstreet. On our way we saw the mercury lamp streetlights (4500K) emitting some green tinted white light. The average brightness was around 11lx. In the day you could still see a nostalgic scene with children playing outside the old candy store…

Sydney Lighting Survey: How Sydney CBD glows at night 2019.09.19 – 2019.09.21　 Momoko Muraoka + Sunyoung Hwang Sydney, a capital city of New South Wales is famous for its beautiful beaches and iconic Opera House. It makes it to the most populous city of Australia with more than 5.2million population. The climate of Sydney is subtropical with no extreme seasonal differences. Highly saturated clear blue sky, lush greeneries, beautiful waterscape, and iconic Opera House – Sydney is the city that has it all. It is quite a lovely place to be and usually makes it to the top rankings for the most liveable cities in the world. This time, Lighting Detectives flew to Sydney to find out how it lights up at night as a famous tourist destination. The survey focuses on the Sydney CBD (Central Business District) area. When looked down from the Sydney Observatory, the city did not have much of the façade lighting. Many of the buildings were glowing with their interior lights. There were not much of RGB lights nor media facade light except few areas of Darling Harbour and Pitt Street, the shopping district. The shot taken from North Sydney to have an overall view of Sydney CBD with iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge shows this more clearly. Sydney seemed rather classic with a warm tone of lighting on these iconic features and minimum architectural lights. Interview with the city of Sydney Interview with…

English Remote Talk Event　Lighting At Home / Neighbourhood 2020.07.19　Sherri Goh Connecting with members from all over the world without leaving our seats. We review daily lockdown scenes of our homes. Participants in the online event The first ever english virtual meeting for Lighting Detectives was held amidst the worldwide pandemic of the Coronavirus 19 that saw many countries in lockdown and members working from home. This was open to our current members only and we had an attendance of 21 people from China, Chile, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the USA. The time difference had people call in from work, bed, car, home and various social situations. As the theme was “Lighting at Home/Neighbourhood”, we called on our community to share pictures of their situations faced in quarantine or working from home. Submissions were received even from core members who were not able to attend the event itself. With minimal technical glitches at the beginning, we kickstarted the event with a welcome note from Kaoru Mende that contained more pictures of his daily commute in Tokyo followed by self-introductions from everyone. Fires in the Santa Catalina Mountains from Charles Stone The picture presentation began with a submission from Ignacio Valero of a pair of surgical masks, titled “Lockdown Kisses” captioned with “the idea that love will always find a way to express itself no matter what”. We had night views of Budapest, Hungary and Eskiltuna, Sweden at…

The 62nd Lighting Detectives Salon 2019.11.29　Noriko Higashi We facilitated a review of our exploration of Ikebukuro. We presented our findings as the 4 groups that explored Ikebukuro. It was a great discussion with 20 participants. Explanations using photos taken on the day Review of Ikebukuro Nightwalk Each group gathered their conclusion and presented them 20 participants sitting around a round table exchanging opinions We facilitated a review meeting for the Ikebukuro nightwalk that happened on November 15th. As we split into 4 different groups in Ikebukuro and explored completely different areas, it was a fun time with many unique details in each presentation. The Hero identified by group 1, who mainly explored the newly opened HAREZA and Sunshine 60, was the elegant white façade of PARCO, the HAREZA’s exterior, and the calm space of light in Naka-Ikebukuro Park. On the other hand, the villains they identified were the large home electronics retailers and the other streets that were too bright. The worse offense, however, was committed by the dark and gloomy East Ikebukuro Central Park. Group two explored starting at the East gate, then the Toshima area government office, and South Ikebukuro Park. Their villain that they identified was the overwhelming variety of bollard lights and streetlights. They perceived the glare from these lights to be quite strong and was just too bright. Group 2’s hero is the lighting on the Toshima area government office stairs and its railing and…

Vol.65 Night Walk: Ikebukuro-Investigating the nightscape of Ikebukuro–a city that escaped the clutches of disappearance 2019.11.15　 Tomoya Furukawa+Shinichi Sakaguchi+Wen Yan Zhang+Noriko Higashi Toshima-ku is aiming to be a city known worldwide as a center for art and culture. At their plan’s center lies within the redevelopment of Ikebukuro. We focused our investigation on the light of the parks within their redevelopment and compared it with Shibuya and Shinjuku. A 360 degree photo of Sunshine Street bursting with white light Group 1: JR Ikebukuro→Nakaikebukuro Park→Sunshine60→West Ikebukuro Central Park Nakaikebukuro Park and HAREZA creating a good mood. The red staircase stands out The white façade on PARCO leaves a good impression Group 1’s main objectives for their investigation was the newly opened HAREZA and the renewed Nakaikebukuro Park. We started out nicely with the well-coordinated white façade of the PARCO and Maker’s logo, and the well-rounded Bic Camera’s façade, but soon we were disappointed by the excessive amounts of light that spilled from the stores. The pink Christmas decorations on the streetlights on Sunshine Street also got bad reviews from us. Some places showed an intention to create an exquisite or posh mood but it’s a mixed batch. Our main objective this time: Nakaikebukuro Park was lit very evenly at a perfect brightness, allowing it to be a space suited for many purposes, deserving of many Hero calls. HAREZA’s red staircase that leads to the theater is highlighted and stands out even…