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240dl

Re:Tokyo's Underground Discharge Channel on Wednesday May 01, 2019 @09:51AM (#19796962)
Here are some pics from when I took this tour last year:

http://www.lucashayas.com/journal/2018/11/18/maoudc

Re:An underground cathedral protecting Tokyo from floods on Friday November 30, 2018 @08:45PM (#18574464)
He offered to walk or take a taxi, but when I said I was fine with walking he just kept repeating the same the question with increasing emphasis until I agreed to the taxi.
Re:An underground cathedral protecting Tokyo from floods on Friday November 30, 2018 @07:03PM (#18573963)
In addition to the main chamber there are several pits that also store lots of water. Here's a photo I took on the tour that might show it better: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5265796de4b0bacb22141...

Unfortunately I don't remember the tour specifics well enough to confirm the exact use case of the system.

Re:An underground cathedral protecting Tokyo from floods on Friday November 30, 2018 @07:01PM (#18573952)
Thanks! Didn't see any scary hornets sadly. The whole structure is totally sci-fi, even inspiring a level in Mirror's Edge.

You might also enjoy some of my other drain exploration shots from stateside:

http://www.lucashayas.com/journal/2015/3/31/minolta-af-s

http://www.lucashayas.com/journal/2014/1/19/understructure

Re:An underground cathedral protecting Tokyo from floods on Friday November 30, 2018 @06:53PM (#18573899)
The tour is free, but yeah, I had to pay transportation for myself and the guide (who I arranged online after some googling). The actual site is fairly far from central Tokyo, so it's about a 20-30 dollar train fare.

The guide himself was free, a nice older gentleman who used to be some sort of government liason. He insisted on taking a taxi for the 2 miles from the train station to the tour though, which was pricey. But I didn't have much of a choice (despite a whole face-saving false choice he offered of walking vs taxi that was deeply emblematic of a certain strain of Japanese cultural weirdness).

Re:An underground cathedral protecting Tokyo from floods on Friday November 30, 2018 @05:01PM (#18573108)
I took a trip to this place when I was in Tokyo last spring; here are my pictures for the curious:

http://www.lucashayas.com/journal/2018/11/18/maoudc

It cost about 80 bucks all told and was a bit of an ordeal to organize (you need a fluent Japanese speaker), but was definitely an experience. It was a little disappointing in how limited our tour was. I get the sense that they've narrowed down the area you can wander since opening. Still, I've explored storm drains in the US quite a bit and this was a whole different level.