stuffed!

What happens when you have a lot of stuff, but happen to live in Tokyo, Japan, one of the most crowded cities in the world, where rents are high and apartments are tiny? You end up with a home that looks a lot like the ones shown below. In his book Tokyo: A Certain Style, Kyoichi Tsuzuki photographed the miniscule, cluttered apartments — not tidied up for the camera — that are home to the average Tokyo-dweller: artists, students, professionals, and even families with children, all of whom must cram their lives and multitude of possessions into the most cramped of quarters. You always make room for the stuff you really want, even if it has to spill out into the hallways.

This article appeared in the May/June 2005 issue of the children’s science magazine Muse.