We read cities for a living
Tom Fletcher
Cartographer from Austin, Texas. Former mapping quality analyst at Google Maps, where he specialized in Japanese address geocoding accuracy. Has spent the last five years walking every ku in Tokyo, documenting address anomalies, mapping michi-shirube stones, and collecting hand-drawn traveler maps from four continents. Obsessed with why Tokyo addresses work the way they do.
Hana Mori
Urbanist from Machida, Tokyo. Studied Edo-period city planning at Waseda University, with a thesis on cartographic accuracy in central Tokyo maps from 1603 to 1868. Volunteers at Kyoto temple preservation workshops and has mapped every transfer shortcut in the Tokyo Metro system. Believes tourists use Google Maps and miss the logic. She shows the logic.
Edo period map of central Tokyo, c. 1860. Collection of Zen Map Japan.
Why we do this
Tourists use Google Maps and miss the logic. We show the logic. Every street in Japan encodes centuries of urban planning decisions \u2014 some intentional, some accidental, all readable if you know the system. Our walks are not about sightseeing. They are about learning to read the spatial text of Japanese cities the way a local reads it: intuitively, logically, with curiosity rather than confusion.
Navigation walks
Michi-shirube documented
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