My second reentry to Tokyo was via Okurayama. which I called home for four years (2009～2013). While formally outside Tokyo-shi, this neighborhood confirms the homogeneity of the Tokyo-Yokohama conurbation. I lived there, again observing, exploring, and analyzing an environment markedly different from that of Nezu, yet equally, recognizably, Tokyo. This town was established during the combined urbanization and expansion of the railway network and a dire demand for residential alternatives in the wake of the devastating Great Kanto Earthquake (1923). Okurayama is named for the controversial businessman Okura Kunihiko, who had a strong influence on the planning and expansion of the town. Not far from the railway station, he established Okura Institute for the Study of Spiritual Culture and the Greek shrine-style European-style building Okurayama Memorial, which has an architectural eclecticism that continues to influence local authorities to this day. The requirement that all facades in the main street have to be white and refer to Okura's preferred "style" remains unique in the laissez-faire planning system of Japan.
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