Feb 13, 2021
Next month, 10 years will have passed since the meltdown of three Fukushima nuclear reactors. Since that time, Japan has relied mainly on its aging thermal generators for its power needs, with solar power and other forms of renewable energy only supplying a small fraction of demand.
Peak power demand typically occurs during the summer months, when air conditioners are cranked up to maximum settings. One thing no one has counted on, however, is high demand during winter. The winter of 2020-21 has been an unusually cold one, with temperatures around the country plunging to levels seen perhaps only once in a decade, and this has sent chills down the spines of utility firms.
Under the looming Tokyo Skytree is the dense
shitamachi (downtown) district of northern Koto Ward. This part of the capital is criss-crossed by waterways, haunted by old industry and strewn with residential sprawl. Slotted among it all are eminently discoverable areas, enterprises once etched out of necessity, which grew into livable spaces.
One of these is the Yokojikken River, a working waterway turned warren of waterside parks and pathways forming an enormous outdoor space much loved by local residents. Close by, with its fortunes made on feeding factory workers, is Sunamachi Ginza. Both are rooted in a regenerating city of the past and both endure, important as ever; something that can be difficult to see among the jumbled crowds of inner Tokyo.
人気コラボ「至福のチョコ食パン」を限定販売【高級食パン専門店 真打ち登場】 (2021年1月18日) excite.co.jp - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from excite.co.jp Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.