World Tour of Japan 2007: Tokyo
After 14 days of fun, we are now back in the land of the chimp - with a crash. My notes from the field tapered off after a while - mainly because I was on holiday, and finally got used to being off duty. We spent the last few days holed up in our 45th floor hotel room, looking out over the megalopolis. According to official figures, the city proper of Tokyo clocks in at 8.4 million, ranking it 12th in the world (Mumbai takes gold, with 13m).... however, the Metropolitan Area of Tokyo is listed as 31.7 million, 10 million clear of it's nearest rival - Seoul. London ranks 15th and 17th respectively.
It feels absolutely massive, and from the view out the window there is nothing in site but city and urban buildings. Where London has maybe two or three areas you could mistake for the centre (West End, City, maybe Docklands) Tokyo has a good dozen. While it's not as looming as New York - the majority of buildings are 10+ floors even in the outer areas - the fact that it is so consistent makes it easy to overlook anything under 10 floors.
It's all high-tech, all neon and totally great - so bump it up your list of destinations and make it your next holiday. The slow running trains and general grubbiness of London have been a major come down.
Back in chimp-mode however I watched a multitude of films back-to-back on the plane:
Children of Men (3 stars)
The Astronaut Farmer (3 stars)
Pan's Labyrinth (3.5 stars)
Breach (3 stars)
The Pursuit of Happyness (2.5 stars)
Once In A Lifetime (3 stars)
...and took notes on a couple more:
The Holiday (2.5 stars)
9th Jun 2007 - Tumblr