As with previous trips, I will try to give a bit of an overview of each area, complete with photos. I’ll save my final summation until the end…but it’s not too early to say that this trip exceeded any and all of my expectations, both conscious and subconscious. So, without further ado, let’s begin…
Urban Tokyo - the largest metropolitan area on Earth, pushing 30 million people. Yet the students on this trip felt safer in the crowds of this super-city than they did back home in Southern Ontario!
Tokyo is a city of the vertical - everything goes UP: the apartments, the condos, the office towers, the temples, the shrines…even the highways. Nothing seems to be on the ground…everything is suspended in mid-air.
Tokyo is a city where there is NO unused space. The streets are full to bursting with people, shops, and offices. The back alleys are similarly full…as are the underground areas. There is simply not one corner of the city that is wasted…and all of these areas, with their crowds, their traffic, and their consumerama overload…are meticulously maintained. Spic-and-span clean, with virtually no trash, virtually no graffiti, and perhaps one or two homeless tramps.
Tokyo is a city where even night itself is banished. On a Monday evening, at 11pm, the city was alive with workers having dinner at thousands of outdoor tables, outside of thousands of izikayas, restaurants, and bars. The lights are so powerful, you can cast shadows on the street at midnight, and take virtually clear pictures with a camera, unaided by a flash! I’m beginning to think the city can command the sun itself to rise on command.
Tokyo is vibrant: a city that lives, breathes and behaves like a living creature, with different personalities scattered across different districts: Shinjuku, Ueno, Ginza, Harajuku, Asakusa, Akihabara…as complex as any organism, and the microcosm of human civilization…all done efficiently, with warmth, grateful service, and unbelievable TLC.
Ladies & gentlemen, below you will find your glimpse of urban Tokyo.
SHINJUKU
The neighbourhood of our Tokyo hotel. It’s colourful, sassy, and full of life. It’s a microcosm of everything I enjoyed about the city.
UENO
The surprising shopping mecca. Everyone raves about the Ginza, but the real bargains and deals are to be found here…especially in the magnificently packed back alley marketplace of Ameyayokocho, which fits snugly not only between buildings, but between the railways tracks!
HARAJUKU
Tokyo’s answer to Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive…swanky, with many people wanting to be seen shopping. But like Ueno, it’s the back alleys that hold all the surprise deals, as well as the true flavour of Tokyo’s younger, hipper crowd.
TOKYO TOWER
Tokyo’s taller, redder answer to Paris’ Eiffel Tower, offering spectacular views of the city skyline.
TOKYO METRO
We conquered the subway…and it turned out to be as clean, efficient, and regimented as the city itself. It also turned out to be far easier to use than I expected…
COMING SOON: Tokyo Shrines
