Backstreets in Tokyo, or Japan in general, is a nice topic to talk about this country in my opinion.
Tokyo is apparently a highly industrialized city and it's scenery has been changing so much since decades ago.
But the backstreets are one of few places where you can observe the city's old scenery and cultures. It is where time is barely passing.
In the above pictures, you can see some buildings that appear to be more than 40~50 years old, like the the blue one on above right and the middle in the bottom picture.
They create some sort of old atmosphere and sometimes people above 50 (including my father) seem to be very sensitive wit this kind of scenery. The more the city becomes modernized, the more the atmosphere stands out.
It is probably because of such characteristics, there are people who are attracted with Tokyo's backstreets. They often take photos and those are you can find in the Internet quite a lot.
Some of the albums are even in the bookstores.
Backstreets can be a good subject of anthropology actually.
They are often filled with decoration of whom they live in the buildings. Also those decorations are often made to be cohesive with the neighboring houses and decorations.
In a way, that shows the part of Japanese culture, which emphasizes the cohesiveness with what is surrounding your space.