Tokyo Introduction - vs900com @ ウィキ

Introduction

Tokyois a modern megalopolis and the capital city of Japan. The city can be described as exciting, stimulating, wealthy and fascinating etc. Surprisingly Tokyo also offers traditional customary in some points, that high-tech vision of the future side by side with glimpses of old Japan.

Tokyo is really a huge and vast place. The sheer size and frenetic pace of the city can intimidate the first-time visitor. Much of the city is a jungle of concrete and wires, with a mass of neon and blaring loudspeakers. At rush hour, crowds jostle in packed trains and masses of humanity sweep through enormous and bewilderingly complex stations.

Tokyo is best thought of not as a single city, but a constellation of city districts that have grown together. All of these districts seem fast paced, energetic and busy that the city rarely seems to rest. From the hyperactive youth culture Mecca of Shibuya and Harajuku, to the pottery shops and temple markets of Asakusa, from the electronic galore of Akihabara to the jungle of skyscrapers beside the world's busiest railway station at Shinjuku etc.

But for most visitors, don’t plan condensed itinerary. The biggest part of the Tokyo experience for you is just wondering around randomly and absorbing the vibe, poking your head into shops selling weird and wonderful things, sampling restaurants where you can't recognise a single thing on the menu, and finding unexpected oases of calm in the tranquil grounds of a neighbourhood Shinto shrine.

A bit of history

Tokyo has no more than 400 years of history, when the city was only a small fishing village of Edo. The former seat of the Tokugawa Ieyasu built a castle and made Edo as the centre of Tokugawa administration. Under the Meiji restoration in 1868, Edo changed its name to Tokyo = Eastern Capital, the imperial family had moved from Kyoto (Ancient Capital at that time). Since then, the city became the hub of business, education, modern culture and government of Japan.

Today, Tokyo has the population of more than 12 million people in the city area alone, makes Tokyo is officially the most urbanised areas in the world.
(Whole of Greater Tokyo makes the population of 35 million.)

Key-facts of Tokyo

• The name of Tokyo means “Eastern Capital”
• The world’s most urbanised city
• The largest metropolitan economy in the world
• The city has 23 direct administrative wards(districts), as well as surbarban districts, towns and villages as far as mountain regions
• Ogasawara Islands is also administrated under Tokyo government, which are located approx 1,000km away in the middle of pacific ocean
• Railway is the primary mode of transportation in Tokyo, which has the most extensive urban railway network in the world
• Many of Japan's most prestigious universities are in Tokyo
• Cuisine in Tokyo is internationally acclaimed, officially by Michelin guide in 2007, gathering 191 stars in total

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