Tokyo Wow!

Tokyo is huge!  Essentially a merged group of cities, it is the largest metropolitan area of the world, with over 8 million people in Tokyo proper and 13 million in the metropolitan area.  It has extensive, overlapping train and subway systems that are well-signed and efficient, making it easy to get around.  For example, at Shinjuku station, as many as 10 train and subway lines stop, disgorging people from all over the metropolitan area to the agglomeration of office and commercial buildings nearby.

The city feels alive, with people constantly in motion, things happening, the young people in all kinds of dress -- the variety of shoes I’ve seen is amazing!  It’s quieter and more orderly than New York – people queue to get on a subway train and walk at a moderate pace rather than jostle and race – but it still has an energy and a vitality all its own.

Tokyo Now.  One of the first things that struck me is Tokyo’s diversity.  Not in its people, for Japan is relatively homogenous ethnically, but I noticed sharply contrasting buildings and neighborhoods seemingly on top of each other, yet coexisting quite nicely.  One reason for the diversity is Japan’s lack of zoning regulations.  In Shinagawa, near me, there is a gigantic modern planned community complex of office and residential buildings (think Tysons Corner in the Washington area writ large).  On one of the rivers running through the complex, there are old houseboats that people have lived in for decades.  On the other side of the river, there’s a recently modernized narrow shopping and residential street of 3-4 story buildings.  And you can find the last cluster of four or five old, wooden two-story traditional Japanese houses.

Shinjuku is another good example of the incredible diversity of activities, buildings, and neighborhoods, densely packed in a small space.  You can literally turn a corner and switch from huge modern skyscrapers on a broad avenue to a narrow street crowded with parked bicycles and lined with tiny shops, signs, and salesmen hawking their wares.

I took these pictures in Shinjuku, using a favorite building of mine, Paul Tange’s Cocoon Tower, as the center point, partly because it’s the only curved building in a sea of cubes.  It’s a few blocks from the Shinjuku station and is visible from the two 45-story metropolitan government buildings and several commercial offices in a recently developed area.  Turn a corner back towards the station and you are in the midst of large department stores.  Turn another corner and you’ll find yourself in narrow alleys with small shops and eateries.  Walk another few blocks, turn around, and you can see the buildings cheek by jowl next to each other.  And if you get farther away and it’s a clear day, you can see all of this and Mt. Fuji!

Tokyo Then.  Despite Tokyo's modernity – with the 1923 earthquake and firebombing of World War II, much of it has been and continues to be rebuilt – Tokyo  is quite old.  Tokyo was the de facto capital of Japan since the early 1600’s under the Tokugawa shogunate, and became the imperial capital in 1868 after the Meiji Restoration.  I really got a sense of how much Tokyo – and Japan – has changed in the last 150 years when I went to see the Meiji Shrine, built to honor the Emperor Meiji, the 122^nd emperor of Japan.  To commemorate the 100 years since the emperor’s death, there was a row of panels explaining his legacy and reminding me of Japan’s very long history.

It’s hard now to realize that Japan was only opened to the west in the 1860’s and then only very reluctantly.  But with pressure from the west to open its doors wider for trade, a weakening feudal Tokugawa shogunate, and the opportunity presented by a newly installed, 14-year-old emperor, the younger generation of leaders were able to topple the old government and restore the emperor to power (before then the shogun only allowed the emperor to study the arts and write poetry). 

During the 44 years of Emperor Meiji ’s reign, Japan shifted from being an isolated, feudal state to being a more modern, powerful nation.  To signal real change, the imperial capital was moved from Kyoto, which had been the emperor’s home for over 1,000 years, to Tokyo.  The emperor visited all parts of the country, something former emperors never did.  A constitutional form of government and a prefectural administrative system replaced the old feudal governmental structure.  Scores of people were sent all over the world to renegotiate Japan’s treaties and learn from the west so the country could industrialize. The education system was reformed to provide greater access and produce future leaders. That’s a lot of change in less than half a century, and some would say the next 100 years brought even greater change.

The shrine itself, though, is built like others have been centuries before it.  It is quite simple, built of cedar using no nails, with simple carvings and little paint.  It sits in a large park in a wooded area, thanks to 100,000 trees that were donated from all over Japan when the shrine was built.  Much of the garden’s trees and undergrowth have been left to grow naturally, unusual to me given the manicured gardens I’ve seen, but still lovely, with a long, large winding swath of iris about to bloom.   Like virtually every shrine I have seen, it is a place of quiet contemplation and beauty, reminding me of Japan’s long past, values, and enduring spirit.

But this is modern Tokyo, and as I walked down the path to leave the shrine, I saw a photograph, reproduced here, of the shrine as it is today, not that far from the Cocoon Tower I had seen earlier.  Tokyo then and now, living happily together.