What holds us together

A being from outer space coming down to take a closer look at this great rambling civilization called Tokyo might well conclude that the city is held together by a confusion of telephone lines and power cables. 

Tokyo's profusion of lines strung across the sky is why when Tokyoites go abroad to Amsterdam, to Vienna, or to Los Angeles and look up to see a simple, innocent blue sky uncrossed by cables of any kind they wonder how the city they are in defines itself. They think: aren't power lines a necessary element of a dynamic urban civilization? Can these cities be alive?

- Natasha Nakamura