There are a lot of wires strung across the sky in Japan. A lot of wires.

Here's a picture of the utility pole closest to our place:

Utility Pole Closest to Our Place (West Side)

As you might imagine, it's quite pleasant to see every day. (NOT!)

Looking straight up from where I took the first shot, you can see in the photo below the utility pole closest to the other side of the entrance. All the wires strung between the two go right across the face of the building.

Utility Pole Closest to Our Place (East Side)

Double yuck.

Frankly, since these poles and masses of wires are pretty much ubiquitous, you quickly and naturally learn to “tune them out” in everyday life. However, they are a huge eyesore when they show up in photographs. Here's a picture I took on the day we took position of our place, from the balcony:

I think it looks quite nice, but unfortunately, it's not quite reality. Rather, it's the “after” of some Photoshop “tuning out” -- put your mouse over here to see the original superimposed above. You'll see a lot of wires. )-:

When I first put that picture up on my photo site last summer, I commented that I wished I could remove the utility wires in real life, as I did in the photo with Photoshop.

I'm getting my wish!

We just found out that our street (Nioomon-dori) will undergo nine months of horrendous construction, the aim of which is to bury all the wires and remove all the poles. Our section of the street will be under construction from the beginning of April until the end of October.

It will certainly make for a traffic nightmare. But I can't wait for the result; it will be so beautiful.

UPDATE: Sadly, it turns out that they didn't remove the utility poles or wires. They widened the sidewalk and made it very nice, and paved the street, but they said that the wires and poles will remain for a few more years )-: