TOKYO — It has often been observed that megalopolis Tokyo has had two chances to re-organize itself—after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and after the WWII fire bombings—and it squandered both. Yet anyone who has spent any extended time in Tokyo, or visited more than once, knows that the city is constantly changing itself. Buildings are often destroyed to make way for something newer and more modern. So much so that many fine examples of Tokyo’s older architecture that somehow managed to survive the earlier catastrophes fall to the wrecking ball.

Fortunately, the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum has rescued a number of wonderful examples of 19th and 20th century houses and commercial structures and arranged them on spacious, leafy grounds so that visitors can stroll the grounds and enter the buildings themselves for an up-close-and-personal look.

The museum is situated in a wooded corner of Koganei Park, the second largest park in metropolitan Tokyo. The park was created in 1940 to commemorate the 2,600th anniversary of the Chrysanthemum Throne; the Kokaden Palace that was also built for those celebrations now serves as the visitor center for the museum.

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