Fabric of Japanese City Life

Rough compilation of observation notes and talking to relatives about changes over their life times. (I probably should put this in a context map, but in the interest of time for now)

Urban Transportation
Light Rail, Trolleybus -> Buses -> Subway
Many cities in Japan once had Light Rail but were replaced by buses when cars became affordable to the masses (60s, 70s) and Light Rail were viewed as causing traffic jams and thing of the past.

Personal Transportation Information
Personal Time Table -> Internet time table
It used to be that most household had time tables of the local bus or subway station (which were distributed by local banks with ads). Now the information is online, and accessible from people's cellphones.

Temporary Storage
Coin Lockers
Every major train station has a coin locker section and it's very popularly used. I don't know when this was rolled out.

Transportation Control
Paper Tickets -> Magnetic Tickets -> IC Cards/Cellphones
IC Cards and IC card enabled cellphones are now very popular ways of using the public transportation system as the rider no longer needs to look up the fare when boarding. While it started off as an alternative to tickets, the JR Suica card can now be used in some stores, vending machines, and coin lockers.

Everyday stores
Shotengai -> Super Markets -> Konbini
Shotengai, literally "Store Town," is the Japanese term for commercial districts with butchers and everyday supply stores. While they still exist, the rise of the one stop shopping, Super Markets, have caused the demise of the Shotengai. Konbini, short for convenience store, is the one stop shop for most daily items (prepared food, magazines, drinks, cosmetics, snacks, etc.) and services (bill paying, postal services, copying, ATMs).

Parking
Mega structures -> 100 yen parking
100 yen parking lots are unmanned small parking lots of 3-12 spots where parked cars are restrained by some kind of barrier which lowers when the driver pays at the vending machine. They are called 100 yen parking since you can pay with 100 yen coins (and all other coins/bills) and the price is some multiple of 100 yen. These sprung up everywhere in the last ten years as the depressed economy led to a lot of shop owners closing shop and utilizing their land by converting them to these small scare parking lots.

Temporary Lodging
Capsule Hotels, Manga Cafe
You may have heard of Capsule Hotels (SNL? Dilbert?), a cheap sleep only facility where you literally sleep in a Capsule. Manga Cafe's, an all you can read comic book cafe became popular in the recent years but because of their cheap cost (typically $2-3/hr), have become a refuge for young men and women who missed the last train.

I have some more, but I'll start off with these to see if it sparks any discussion or further insights.