Cycling to "the island" of Kita Senju...

On Sunday we cycled through what is arguably the largest island of Tokyo Bay, through Kita-ku, Arakaka-Ku,  and Adachi ku to Kita Senju. The Arakawa River is on the North Side, the Sumida on the South.
For otaku detail of the rivers see
http://rurousha.blogspot.jp/2013/06/the-bridges-across-sumida-river-part-1.html and related posts.
The map above is in Japanese but we went from the western edge to about the large road that runs east of and parallel to route 4 (the Nikko Kaido)





This is a very neglected part of Tokyo.  Much of it is quite new, reclaimed land that resulted from flood mitigation. Historically it's marginal; swamp land that was prone to flooding. The NE wards of Tokyo are still somewhat stigmatised by the history of Arakawa flooding.  At the narrowest point the distance between the rivers is almost spitting distance.  There are a lot of recycling facilities, and low cost housing.  The absence of  small local shrines in the area indicates relatively recent habitation in the area.
There seemed to be quite a lot of abandoned buildings, but some signs of gentrification, especially near the Teikyo Science University.

An abandoned danchi

An abandoned danchi

the north side of the Sumida

The same danchi - abunai - don't enter... though I can't imagine what the danger is.

I hate seeing good fruit wasted..... Biwa by the Sumida

Biwa

The entrance to the street below.

An old market street just off the Nikko Kaido

An abandoned house, despite the greenery

Very run down.

 

 

This was called "green street" the greenest thing was the paint on the building.
It's hard to overestimate greenery for making a place look pleasant.
This would be baking hot in summer.

 

Run down meets genetrification

A glimpse of gentrification - it looked very out of place in the area.

 

This looked abandoned, but the curtains suggest maybe not.

I thought this was abandoned when I took it, but it's not.

Recycling by the river

Recycling by the river