Tokyo Old Photos

I absolutely love old photos too. In fact, I love looking at old things period.. Kind of gives me this weird feeling like Im looking into the past... -thinks-

It's truly wonderful to see all those changes from the past. That makes me wonder what would happen in the future? The people in the future will think this time as 'old' later.

Wow... so different. Still trying to decide whether the changes between the old days and the present are for the better or for the worse. I guess a bit of both... but mostly for the better in my opinion! I can't wait to see what more the future holds ^^

and I love how you can see that girl smiling at you in the background of the trooper photo!

I LOVE old photos too. Looks like they're working on some tunnel in one of the pics (maybe the Ginza line, but the Ginza line is quite old, but very much near the surface. Could be something else.

I would love to get books too, if you find any good books with lots of pictures of old Modern Tokyo, let us know! :)

There are 2 good books I posted a while ago for Shibuya old photos and an exhibition on at the moment by the Shibuya Ward Office.

http://shibuya246.com/2009/07/18/old-shibuya-photos/

The photo you said you can't remember where it is on the map, you can see the Ginza Line running above. The tram is on Meiji Dori. The building on the top right of the photo is where they are no constructing the new Tokyu bldg. The old one which you see there had a cinema and planetarium in it.

Another way to rediscover Tokyo in it's past

Next up, Harajuku(1964-present), and Akihabara(1950-present)

I want to see these two districts from the 1980's and 1990's. In comparasion with that drawing involving you and Nishida Hikaru, taken back on 19th September 1995, when the season goes underway in Estoril, when Michael Schumacher leades off Damon Hill fighting for the championship

I love old pictures as well. Got several books with old pictures of Geneva, my hometown. Be sure to let us know if you find a good book of old Tokyo pictures, Danny.

So much change, so much difference between photo's... Personally i think it's better in the old photo's... Reminds me of some i saw of Perth (My hometown) it looked so peaceful and nice compared to these current days :( Wouldn't mind seeing some old Kyoto photo's. Sure there's some out there.

love the old photos too. i didn't know tokyo used to have trams.

Lovely old photos. It's unbelievable how much can a place change in half a century. It only shows that humans are capable of almost anything, when they try hard.

I love shots that superimpose the old next to new in like the same frame
But heck, just the comparative contrast alone is awesome

love the old photos. it's interesting to see the differences.

Love looking at old photos too. Though, if you've gone to some small country towns in the states you can find areas that still look like there in the 1930's. Icecream Parlors, mom and pop stores for everything from furniture to shoes. Before name brands and Wal-Mart. Sometimes they even have car shows in these towns so you get to see cars from the 50s and 60s cruising through there. Sometimes I wouldn't mind going back to that simpler time.

It's just stunning how far Japan has developed.

Danny, this reminds me of the opening scene of the anime GateKeepers wherein they show images of japan as it was still in that state as seen in you images.

Things really change so fast , eh? Its good when you look at the photos and see the changes , all in your memory.

That is absolutely amazing how so much has changed in time not just society and the people but the structure of cities and how completely modern and busier it feels compared to the 60's photos.

the cameras of old were surprisingly good at capturing the details, albeit sans colour.
lol @ boy band ad at present day bus terminal shibuya. You don't get things like that in the past now do ya?

Haaa.. *sigh* it makes me remmember when i looked up photos frin the center of the city (Caracas) Venezuela was a lovely country 50 years ago the old cars in the recently new build highways looking at old photos is the best! ^^ I see Tokyo has changed a loooooot since 50 years ago.

its good we look back what the country look like in the past and compare to the the present day.

Wow cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

Tokyo still manages to look modern in the 60s.

It's changed a lot in such a short time. I bet if I saw pictures of my (Australian) hometown from the 60s, it wouldn't look much different... hahaha...

I saw some interesting old photos of Tokyo, Yokohama and Kamakura at the photography museum in Ebisu. I think that display has finished, but they were from the late 1800s - obviously, everything was completely unrecognisable.

I know old chicago photos and I know old from Hamburg (Duh I live there). Now my mind is richter again. Thanks for that.

It's always incredible what can change in just 100 years...!!

Memories to last a life time, back when things were much simpler and slower compared to the "Gotta Have It Now" culture. I've seen old photos of my home town (Green Bay,Wi) of a company that used to go out on the bay and cut large chunks of ice to be processed for people that had "ice boxes"=refrigerators. Old photos give us a sense of our history and culture.

I love seeing old time photoes of where Ive been and comparing them to present day. It gives you the feeling of nostalgia and a certain connection to the past that we dont usually have. It lets us see what has changed but better yet, it lets us see what hasnt

There's a big differences between the old and new Japan

Fascinating photos.

wow.
old pictures are so cool.

Wow such a big change. So much more spacious in the 1960s shot.
Not as many people, but still quite as bustling, not much has changed about that.

Awesome Post!! ^^ I love that you can see tokyo as it was and you have the present day pics following after. Great way to show how much everything has changed. Thanks Danny.

In the olden days in Tokyo it seems the road are much wider....now it has so many buildings cramped together :P

I am always amazed...how much things can change so fast...in this society...a nostalgic feeling always pops up i guess...

Damn so different, look you can park your car on the street in central Tokyo.

I love looking at old pictures of cities and comparing them to the present. It looks like things have change pretty quickly for all those areas in the pictures.

Tokyo evolved a lot XD =3 the old photos are cool ^_^ =3

In 40 years the city i live will look like Tokyo? DAMN

excellent stuffs!!! thks danny for the share:)

it looked so clean then - small buildings and wide open spaces and huge roads.
now it looks like a concrete jungle made up of skyscrapers and roads and overpasses entangled here and there.
just like in some cartoons which show the future cities full of huge buildings and roads suspended in space leading to somewhere.

Wow, Tokyo has changed!

These look amazing, love the comparison photos, how it all changed so profoundly over the course of the decades... unbelievable almost when you see those old photos.

Once saw some old photos of my home town even from WWII era, incredible how things were so different back then.

昔、東急線の車内で流れている映像で沿線の町並みの変化を流していた事がありました。
また、たまプラーザの東急SCで同様の写真展を開催していたこともありましたので、
東急には写真が多く残っているかもしれませんね。

I love looking at old photos like these.
Looking back, Tokyo has changed a lot!
Incredible!

Awesome photos and find. Love these kinds of comparisons. Lets you see how a city has grown and changed. My dad has some photos at his office of early 1900s photos and how the city looks now paired together in frames. I should take some pictures of them ^^

All we need to do now is wait for NeoTokyo.

sooo much has changed, some of the old photos still remind me of the meiji era dunno why tho ^^

That's quite something. Makes me wonder what's the life span of a building on a plot of land before it's redeveloped.

hm... so in another few years, will the buildings rise out of the grounds like they did in Evangelion? xD
change is good^^.

Looking at old photos always amazes me at how things makes such a big change.

I don't think anyone from back then would have guessed Tokyo would be what it is today.

It's nice to see how so much have changed as years go by...

These old photographs are very nice. I notice that the transportation has changed, trams have now turned into buses, and commercial vehicles have been upgraded a long way.
There is alot less developement and the roads are significantly wider. It seemed pretty easy going in the 60's, now it's all about rushing around getting to work and places.

I love comparing old photos with present day to see the lack of resemblance. Things really do change a lot.

Danny you are way awesome for finding that website. Just recently I was wondering what Tokyo looked back then. I will definitely have to check that website out. :D

wow it is surprising to see how much a city has changed sooo much in 49 years

in after blast from the past;
totally awesome!

Oooh that's really interesting. There's some parts in a few photos that seem to be very similar, and yet others that are completely different. I guess this accounts for most settled areas.

40 years of changes & innovations~~~

You should see the city I live in now and before. Shenzhen.

Just 20 years ago it was just a lot of small villages an now it is a buzzing metropolis with 7 million people.

The old photos tell a good story of the history of Tokyo.

Progress & modernization does change our surroundings. Simply put change is constant~

These are great, although there aren't many points of reference between the old photos and the new - maybe in most cases nothing is left!

I LOVE this sort of stuff!!!!!

Can look at it for hours.... well... almost

Please more!!!!

Thats so interesting!!!

Crazy, hard to believe so much could change in just a few years, these days things are advancing way to quickly. We'll be fine... until the cyborgs rise up!

I remembered mainichi had some scandal last year and had to close down the website for a few months or something. Remembered it was about some news they posted on the web in their 'scandalous news' column and apparently it was kind of insulting or something. Now the new site doesn't have the 'scandalous news' column anymore

It changes a lot! I just love how they did to they're country..

Wow, what a change..
Mostly all the old photos are in daylight, and your photos are at night. lol. ^^

It's always fascinating to see how much has changed - it's part of the reason I take photos everywhere. I'm sure the day will come when I'm surly and old and I can point and tell my grandchildren "This was Toronto, when I grew up..."

That is, of course, assuming I live to grow old, and that I marry at some point.

Ah looks awesome how everything changed. So fascinating, also thinking back... only 60 years ago World War II... Germany was a whole battlefield and everything was destroyed and today? It looks all like nothing ever happened. Well I think it's a really awesome and unbelievable thing, that everything changed that much.
Thanks for those old photos :)

whoa! impressive! what great growth.

I ever liked this "after-before" photos! It shows how a city is going! Awesome!

An excellent comparison between the past and present. Always nice to see some history!

Makes me wonder what Tokyo will look like in another 40 years...

I wonder what happened to the people in the pictures. Maybe a future celebrity or politician is in one of them somewhere...

omg, some of them I was like " no way that's the same place!"

lol, (^_^)

I do enjoy the glimpse of the past which the photos give us, but they would mean even less if the present day pictures were not posted too.

It is sad to see that there are buildings under construction back in the 60's, which have been pulled down to make way for the latest building projects. It seems that an architect will have to design a buildings in the space where the last one was a few times during their career.

it is nice to see how places look in the past. I've seen a book about my hometown and it's fun to see which buildings are still here.

trippy.

wow~

these old photos are REALLY nice and stuff. If you want Danny, i can see if my girlfriend has some old photos of Osaka and I can send them to you.

When I look at photos that are old, sometimes I just think that they were quite happy compared to now. xD Don't know why, but it just seems the past of those people were much livier? :S

Analogue photos will always be more sophisticated and livelier for me, they somehow have that inner flair, if you know what I mean...