Some of Tokyo's streets

Some of Tokyo's streets and alleys have been around for a long time.

Walk past the sento near our house, and when the street curves to the left keep walking straight ahead into an alley. The alley continues for half a kilometer, gradually narrowing into a passage barely wide enough for an open umbrella. At the very end of the corridor is a bit of netting strung up to prevent unobservant bicyclists from hitting the wall a few meters beyond. Just before the netting is a small city playpark with swings and jungle gyms. Since there's no way to reach the park other than the alleyway, I imagine that only local kids play there.

This is not the sort of road that was planned. It grew as people put up houses. And I imagine that it's been around since Tokyo's early days--several hundred years ago.