People often argue about how to quantify a city's population.
This is my current perspective:
If you only count within the city limits St. Louis has 350,000 people. Tiny
If you include St. Louis county we've got about 1.5 million.
The whole metro area has almost 3 million people.
Judgeing a city by its metro area, Seoul has the world's second largest population with a absurd 20 to 24 million people, depending on how you calculate it.
The biggest is Tokyo with 32-35 million.
Take the entire population of California and throw them in Connecticut and you have the dimensions of Greater Tokyo.
Point: It has a hell of a lot of people.
The biggest cluster of people the world has ever seen.
But I was coming from Seoul--history's second largest human mishmash.
Fashion there is interesting. Stores sell and even rent uniforms from various 20th century subcultures. Pay 200 bucks and look like Sid Vicious for the weekend.
To some extent you can say this about the youth of any first world country but it really seemed like bizarre simulacra in Tokyo.
Great people watching.
Unfortunately the 80's hairband/pretty boy uniform is one of the popular fashions.There is a whole army of these guys walking around the nightclub area.
Some pictures from Shibuya, the area centered around the world's most famous crosswalk. Besides Abby Road?
Tokyo's version of the Eiffel tower. 30 feet taller. They have a brilliant set up of touch screen maps on the observation deck. You can see the satellite image of the area that you're looking at and then look at maps of the same area 100 and 300 years earlier.
Shinjuku Station. I was supposed to meet some friends outside of this station.
We couldn't find each other.
Later I read that this is the world's biggest subway station with the turnstiles clocking 3/4 a million people per day. I've never used the term "mind-boggling" before but it seems fitting to go with that number.
A Japanese pop-punk band preforming in the street. 
Old Things and Things That Look Old
A great deal of the monuments and historical building in Korea were removed by the Japanese occupation or destroyed by the bombs that fell during the Korean War. The really important ones have been rebuilt.
Similar story in Japan. World War II bombing obliterated most of historical Tokyo.
Meiji Shrine.
What I think is a traditional wedding ceremony.
Samurai Sword. (I recently re-watched Seven Samurai. Best action movie ever made.)
A Shinto Temple I stumbled upon. Like Seoul, it's great walking around and seeing these relics of the past (or at least rebuilt ones) in the middle of a huge and modern city. The US, in it's relative youth, doesn't have this, besides some old churches and historic whatnot in New England.
Garden on the imperial palace grounds
Koi!
Really?
Sapporo beer museum. They have this holographic animation with a fairy and a guy who looks like he is suppose to be a European king. The king's drinking beer out of a glass that is big enough for him to bathe in. I guess you gotta have something to keep the kids entertained.
The maybe the fairy was saying "HARD AND CLEAR"
The promo-poster from a great photography exhibit. 
Ueno
A long time ago, another life ago, Joel S., Aaron E. and myself were all considering working in Tokyo for the English company on the yellow sign. We ended up in Mexico, Seoul and LA.
For the best, I hear they're real bastards at Berlitz.
A band playing Afrobeat music using a Shamisen, which is the Japanese cousin of the banjo. About the coolest thing that a ethnomusicology dork like me could walk into.
A massive marching protest (10,000 people?) Because of its postwar situation, Japan doesn't have any nukes. They could easily make them. The ruling party just lost power, the Japanese are really unhappy with their North Korean neighbors, and there has been some nuke talk. Some people have a memory that lasts longer than 60 years and they are understandably opposed to it.
Observations About the City and the Japanese
I found myself comparing everything in the city to Seoul and New York. It makes sense to do so: they are three of the world's biggest cities. Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai are East Asia's major cities in that they're commercial hubs with huge populations . Because of it's colonized past and current relationship to China, Hong Kong doesn't have the sprawl or national significance of a huge urban center, so it doesn't count. Shanghai is in it's own weird and ugly beast.
So I say it's Seoul and Tokyo.
Tokyo and NYC are the world's cultural hubs, at least that has been very thoroughly cemented in my mind. If you have money and work with music, fashion design, art, etc you probably want to be in one of those cities at some point in your life.
I found myself comparing everything in the city to Seoul and New York. It makes sense to do so: they are three of the world's biggest cities. Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai are East Asia's major cities in that they're commercial hubs with huge populations . Because of it's colonized past and current relationship to China, Hong Kong doesn't have the sprawl or national significance of a huge urban center, so it doesn't count. Shanghai is in it's own weird and ugly beast.
So I say it's Seoul and Tokyo.
Tokyo and NYC are the world's cultural hubs, at least that has been very thoroughly cemented in my mind. If you have money and work with music, fashion design, art, etc you probably want to be in one of those cities at some point in your life.
Many people say that Tokyo has the best subway system in the world. Maybe Japan has the best national hi-speed train system, but the subway in Seoul is much better than Tokyo. Like Seoul, the system is privatized and run by several different companies with some government subsidies. In Seoul you can seamlessly transfer between trains run by different companies without paying extra. Not in Tokyo. Granted, I was only on it for 6 days, but compared to Seoul the Tokyo subway is expensive and confusing.
Tokyo Subway stats: 14 lines, 282 stations, 8 million riders everyday.
Seoul Subway stats: 14 lines, 436 stations, 8 million riders daily.
Big ups to Korea
By far the cleanest major city I've seen. Much cleaner than Seoul, NYC (or STL).Lots of things you can't do.
You can't do a damn thing here.
Besides Singapore, Tokyo has the most stringent smoking restrictions I've seen in a city. Smoking while walking is never allowed (which makes sense when there are hundreds of people walking down one sidewalk) and people can only smoke in designated areas.
This is no doubt part of the reason why Tokyo is so clean. 
Drink vending machines live in almost every alley.
Neighbored with vending machines that sell cigarettes and ones that sell beer.
Drink vending machines live in almost every alley.Neighbored with vending machines that sell cigarettes and ones that sell beer.These machines require an ID that is read electronically. But it can't be very hard for a 10 year old to steal aunt Yumi's ID for enough time to buy some beer/smokes.
The Japanese are on top of recycling. 
Some older gentelmen separating plastic bottles in front of an apartment building.
Like Koreans, the Japanese have a passionate hate for rain. If it is sprinkling, the whole city is a sea of umbrellas.
Biking is very common. The city seems to be organized around people walking and biking to and from the subway. Fast spandex wearing bikers or hipster kids with fixed gears are rare. However it was very common to see a mother with one or two kids third world style. This surprised me. 
Loads of electric bikes.
Combine a hate/fear of rain with short distance bike trips and you get umbrella bikes.
Biking is very common. The city seems to be organized around people walking and biking to and from the subway. Fast spandex wearing bikers or hipster kids with fixed gears are rare. However it was very common to see a mother with one or two kids third world style. This surprised me. Loads of electric bikes. Most sidewalks have designated bike lanes, and most people don't ride in the street. This system is OK if your biking casually and not to make long commutes. Also, unlike Seoul, the sidewalks are clear of street vendors. 
Combine a hate/fear of rain with short distance bike trips and you get umbrella bikes.
This dude seems like a funny anomaly. A businessman, in his suit and tie, biking down the street while holding an umbrella, but he's the norm. I saw hundreds of these guys. I rented a bike and rode around like this on a rainy day. It was fun. After a while I got tired of dogging people on the sidewalk and decided to street it. Unlike Korea and the US, the Japanese drive UK style--on the wrong side of the road. I made a couple of right turns that almost cost me the big one.
The "white man of privilege", as my friend calls the crossing man, has a hat in Japan.The apartment buildings are much more attractive than Seoul's, where the exteriors look like giant shoeboxes. Every building seems unique. The urban architecture in Tokyo is impressive but they've had funds a little longer than other East Asian countries.
Korea has it's share of electronic bidets but they are everywhere in Japan.
Japans PC rooms. You actually get a small cubical to yourself. For $8 I slept here my first night in Japan (long story). I think they are mainly for videogame playing kids and businessmen who miss the last train 'round midnight.
Like Korea, until very recently, having tattoos meant that you were a gangster.
Regardless, like any major city, some of the big corporate buildings are hideous.
What the hell is this. Let's put a giant golden sperm on top.
Korea has it's share of electronic bidets but they are everywhere in Japan.
To quote a smart man "once you've used one anything else seems nasty and uncivilised."
I'm convinced that they are more sanitary and better for the environment than using toilet paper. One day the Hoosier Mansion will have one.
Japans PC rooms. You actually get a small cubical to yourself. For $8 I slept here my first night in Japan (long story). I think they are mainly for videogame playing kids and businessmen who miss the last train 'round midnight.Like Korea, until very recently, having tattoos meant that you were a gangster.
No tattooed people welcomed in this sauna.
Look at that gangster with his flowers.
Look at that gangster with his flowers.
Many American celebrities, like Bill Murry's character in Lost in Translation, go to Japan to do commercials. They get lots of money without hurting their rep stateside.
Beyonce is all over the city's water bottles and billboards .
For some strange reason I found his somber face comforting.
verdict: I would love to live in Tokyo, if I had a lot of money.
All things considered I'm happy I ended up in Seoul.
