Tokyo (東京) is the capital of Japan and, counting its wider metropolitan area, the largest city on earth. It holds around 14 million people inside the city limits and roughly 37 million across the region. What surprises most first-time visitors is not the scale but the quiet: a city this size that runs on time and rarely raises its voice.
From Edo to Tokyo
For most of its history the city was called Edo, a fishing village that Tokugawa Ieyasu turned into his seat of power in 1603. While the emperor stayed in Kyoto, real authority sat in Edo, and by the 1700s it was probably the largest city in the world. In 1868 the emperor moved there and the city was renamed Tokyo, "eastern capital." Then it was destroyed twice within thirty years: by the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923, and by firebombing in 1945. Both times it was rebuilt quickly and with little nostalgia, which is why so much of it looks new.
A city of many centres
Tokyo has no single downtown. It grew as a chain of districts strung along the Yamanote loop line, and each one still has its own character. Shibuya belongs to the young, Akihabara to fans of anime and electronics, Ginza to luxury, Shinjuku to offices and nightlife, Asakusa to the old town and its temple. Locals still divide the city into shitamachi, the low-lying old quarters near the river, and yamanote, the higher ground where the wealthy settled. Between the towers sit wooden houses, tiny shrines, and alleys wide enough for one person.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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江戸 (Edo): the city's old name, still alive in words like Edo-mae ("in front of Edo"), used for the local style of sushi.
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下町 (shitamachi): the "low town," the older working districts by the water, known for a plainer, friendlier manner than the western hills.