HATOYAMA, SAITAMA PREF. ¨C Sitting atop a lushly forested hill in the rural outskirts of Tokyo is a picturesque community that didn¡¯t exist half a century ago.
Row upon row of nondescript two-story houses line the quiet, well-maintained streets, connected by a careful web of narrow lanes interspersed with parks and greenery.
There¡¯s a labyrinthine quality to the seemingly identical alleys crisscrossing the town. It¡¯s almost like wandering into a miniature version of American suburbia, minus the spacious lawns and garages. It¡¯s definitely not your typical Japanese town or village, which usually feature a ramshackle mix of traditional wooden homes and prefab housing with little or no aesthetic unity.
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