Shinagawa Grows Up

As I was going through some of my older pictures from Japan, I came across some simple shots that I took around Shinagawa Station, some of them from my hotel room.  In each was a reminder that not too long ago, the area around the Shinagawa train station had a completely different look.  In the between the years 2000 and 2005, there have been a number of huge skyscrapers that have gone up.  The areas look has changed.  I remember how dismayed I was to see this construction, which blocked the views of Tokyo Bay from my hotel room (if I was lucky enough to get one facing east).

These pictures were all taken from December of 2001.  Initially, most of the established high rise buildings at the time were the hotels on the inland side of the station.  Then a building explosion happened quite suddenly on the eastern side of the tracks.

I guess this should be considered progress, as I am sure it added a lot of jobs to the area, which in turn helped a lot of the local merchants.  Here is a shot of the NTT Docomo building getting close to completion.

There has been a huge increase in the number of new restaurants in the area around Shinagawa Station as a result of all of this construction.  However it has also brought an increase in traffic and people.  Note in this photo the new Shinkansen Station (along with all of it's accompanying cool shops) is just starting to be built.

Now fast forward to 2005, and you can see the finished buildings in these photos.  Notice the finished new Shinkansen Station at the bottom right side of this photo as well as the completed DoCoMo building..

Here are some of the completed skyscrapers in 2005 a little bit to the south of the station.

I do miss the "old Shinagawa".