JAPAN: First Impressions of Tokyo

Tokyo is the capital city of Japan and one of the most populous cities in the world. 

The city’s population in 2023 was over 14 million residents! 

In ONE city! Some entire countries don’t even have that many people.

I always like to be a keen observer when I arrive because once I’ve been somewhere for a while I stop noticing what makes it unique to me.

My first impression flying in and then driving into the city was how big the footprint of the city is. 

It is HUGE with TONS of really TALL buildings and there are clusters of sky scrappers throughout the city.

When we got closer into the city my next impression was how many people were on the streets. At stop lights the corners were packed with people waiting for the lights to change. 

I was also so impressed with how neat, clean and tidy the city is. No garbage anywhere. And, an interesting feature, there were no garbage cans throughout the city. The theory is you bring your garbage home and sort it accordingly.

The biggest thing that astounded me for a couple of days was how QUIET the city is. With all those people and all those cars it was quiet!

The toilets were amazing. Coming from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos I always made sure I carried my own Kleenex and I always searched for regular toilets with bowls so I didn’t have to use the squat toilets. But here in Japan, the toilets were a sight to behold. Heated seats, the gentle sound of water flowing when you walked into the cubicle and an automatic flush on many of the toilets. 

And for those more adventurous, built-in cleaning nozzles spurt out water at various pressures, angles and temperatures. These are also in the public toilets. One could spend a lot of time in the bathrooms in Japan. 

With such a large city there are many different areas. Harajuku is an interesting youth-oriented area. It's loud, packed and full of interesting shops.

They have cafes for cats, dogs, guinea pigs and miniature pigs where you can sit with them and also have your photos taken with them.

Harajuku showcases the kawaii culture and so-called Harajuku girls. It is a very interesting look. A lot of girls wandered around wearing these outfits that seem to portray a look of “kinky innocence”.

Shibuya is a super busy shopping and entertainment district and is home to the famous Shibuya Crossing, one of the busiest intersections in the world.

These photos don’t even show ¼ of the magnitude of this intersection and all the people crossing.

It’s a bit intimidating crossing it, so our guide had us cross it twice. Just for fun.  

The huge city of Tokyo also has another side, a peaceful side. We were in Japan in April, at the tail end of the cherry blossoms. Everything was so green and lush. Hama Rikyu Garden is a large, landscape garden in central Tokyo and contrasts with the surrounding skyscrapers.

Apparently the garden has been landscaped so that no matter the season there are always beautiful flowers and foliage, even in the winter.

Within the centre of the city we also went to the Meiji Jungo Shrine built to commemorate Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken in 1920. There are a total of 170,000 trees donated from all over Japan. 

There was a wedding ceremony at the shrine while we were there. 

This headdress is called “wataboshi”. Originally it was worn outdoors to keep away dust and keep the women warm, but now the wataboshi is worn like a bridal veil.

      Along the shrine path there are also more than 200 traditional sake barrels that were donated by sake breweries across the country “as a sacred offering to the Emperor Meiji.”

I think it could be argued they are also great advertising when people post photos of them on their social media or blogs.