TOKYO - M.E.G.A.C.I.T.Y.
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:24 pm
During the months of July and August I spent 3 weeks travelling around Japan, and destination number 1 was Tokyo, a city I had always wanted to visit but never quite got there until this year.
Lets get down to some basic facts, Tokyo is the largest city on earth (by population) containing a whopping 35 million inhabitants and stretching over 13,780 square kilometres (source :Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_C ... on_(Japan)) meaning it stretches over 100 kilometres by 100 kilometres. This I can definitely confirm from personal experience, Narita Airport (main international gateway to Japan) is about 75 kilometres from Tokyo station ( the Tokyo suburban sprawl starts about 10 km from the airport) and then the city sprawls another 80 kilometres from Tokyo station towards Mt Fuji. E-n-o-r-m-o-u-s!
So why talk about somewhere like Tokyo in this forum? Because Tokyo has relevance to every other city on the planet. There will be soon many other mega cities like Tokyo (mostly in the 3rd world though) and so Tokyo and its mechanisms to deal with a large population are important to the rest of us.
So what is Tokyo like? Does it sprawl or is it dense.....well it is both.
The 100 square kilometres of central Tokyo is all high rise buildings, ranging from 5 to 80 storeys, in fact the "average" building in the Tokyo metro area is probably a 5 storey structure (as opposed to Adelaide where the "average" building is a 3 bedroom semi-detached house) Yes there is "suburbia" (semi-detached houses) in Tokyo but that is a long,long way from the centre.
Unfortunately modern Tokyo was basically re-built after WW2 so it is full of uninspiring 50s and 60's architecture....then the richer areas got makeovers in the 80's and up to the present day.
The Shibuya pedestrian crossing, reportedly the busiest in the world.
To be continued........
Lets get down to some basic facts, Tokyo is the largest city on earth (by population) containing a whopping 35 million inhabitants and stretching over 13,780 square kilometres (source :Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_C ... on_(Japan)) meaning it stretches over 100 kilometres by 100 kilometres. This I can definitely confirm from personal experience, Narita Airport (main international gateway to Japan) is about 75 kilometres from Tokyo station ( the Tokyo suburban sprawl starts about 10 km from the airport) and then the city sprawls another 80 kilometres from Tokyo station towards Mt Fuji. E-n-o-r-m-o-u-s!
So why talk about somewhere like Tokyo in this forum? Because Tokyo has relevance to every other city on the planet. There will be soon many other mega cities like Tokyo (mostly in the 3rd world though) and so Tokyo and its mechanisms to deal with a large population are important to the rest of us.
So what is Tokyo like? Does it sprawl or is it dense.....well it is both.
The 100 square kilometres of central Tokyo is all high rise buildings, ranging from 5 to 80 storeys, in fact the "average" building in the Tokyo metro area is probably a 5 storey structure (as opposed to Adelaide where the "average" building is a 3 bedroom semi-detached house) Yes there is "suburbia" (semi-detached houses) in Tokyo but that is a long,long way from the centre.
Unfortunately modern Tokyo was basically re-built after WW2 so it is full of uninspiring 50s and 60's architecture....then the richer areas got makeovers in the 80's and up to the present day.
The Shibuya pedestrian crossing, reportedly the busiest in the world.
To be continued........