100 replies to this topic

[dpbaker]

Inspector Jihad, on Feb 5 2006, 03:24 PM, said:

Is Shinjuku Station with 3.22 million passengers really the largest station in the world?

By capacity, yes. It is the busiest station in the world. I don't know if it is the "largest". I think a station in China boasted the single highest daily count recently for the Chinese New Year, but that was for one day.

[JB04]

tokyo blows away nyc

[orulz]

From an infrastructure standpoint, Tokyo is unsurpasssed worldwide. No city in the world does such a good job at moving so many people around to so many different destinations so effectively.

On the other hand, nearly all architecture in tokyo, for large and small buildings alike, is at least uninteresting, and much of it is just downright ugly. There is also a lack of truly public, usable, park space. Most open spaces are attached to a temple or a palace or a shrine and can't in all honesty be called a "park."

Much of Tokyo city is clean and safe at just about any hour of the day (not all of it by any stretch, however...) but it is expensive, crowded, and overwhelming, even some people who have lived there their whole lives.

[Snowguy716]

When I was in Tokyo we stayed at Camp Zama army base, and that was by far the greenest, most lusciuos part of the "city" that we were in.

A bunch of people in our group decided to head out and see Shebuya one evening and got horribly lost in Shinjuku station. We couldn't figure out that you needed to buy not only a "normal" ticket but if you wanted to go express (on the nicer, sit down like an ICE type), you had to buy an extra ticket. We understood that you only needed the express... so what happened, we bought a normal ticket to connect to an express station and then bought an express and got on the train. Then when we tried to exit the station, we couldn't.. so rather than figuring it out, we just wedged our way out.

That was hell trying to figure it out on our way back since we were dead tired with only 3 hours of sleep the night before. Then, on the train, a man has a seizure and whacks his head on the ground.. and all hte people were just sitting there not knowing waht to do, and this Japanese lady is yelling at us in Japanese and pointing at the E-brake lever.. so we pulled it and the train stops and my friend has to make sure the guy is away from anything he could hurt himself on. (he's a trained EMT).. anyway, it was a nightmare. I was so happy when we got Burger King on the base and went straight to bed in an American style hotel.

Other than that, Tokyo was a great city. I loved Japan despite eating some questionable things. Our first time in a Japanese restaurant, the waitresses almost didn't know what to do and they were incredibly friendly, but neither of us could understand each other so we just pointed. The food was great.. but they always seem to find room for some type of ocean animal that you just can't find yourself eating. At least not for someone from the mid-western U.S that grew up on Walleye and Omaha steak.

[southernyank]

Tokyo is tremendous!!! I've definately gotta visit someday

[mdadolfo]

Tokyo is the place to be. The people are cordial and gracious. The city is immense and these folks are organized! I have flown the world...Kuwait, Dubai, Frankfurt, Brussels, Rome, Lisbon, Australia, Thailand, and etc and there is nothing like Tokyo and Japan. The outskirts are breath taking like Iwakuni. The trip is worth it! If I had the opportunity to live and work there, I wouldn't think twice.

[orulz]

mdadolfo, on Apr 20 2006, 10:44 PM, said:

The outskirts are breath taking like Iwakuni.

Iwakuni is in Yamaguchi Prefecture - just west of Hiroshima... Japan is very densely populated but I wouldn't go so far as to say Iwakuni is in the outskirts of Tokyo

It is, however, definitely breathtaking.

[pikezoe]

Lancer, on Dec 12 2005, 11:25 PM, said:

BTW, this is the reason why Manhattan trains are on the whole not quite as crowded as those in Shinjuku or Shibuya:

http://www.nycsubway...perl/show?40315

Now tell me WHERE in CENTRAL Tokyo would you have not 1, 2, 3, 4, but THIRTEEN subway transit lines in ONE station? In fact this number of lines exceeds the number of lines in the entire Tokyo subway system (Toei + Tokyo metro subways combined only have 12). Get the picture?

Are you seriously counting the 1/9 and the A/C as four separate lines? Sounds pretty desperate to me. The S? Girl, please.

Shinjuku station is served by 11 lines (soon to be 12) and handles 3.22 million passengers a DAY. To put that into perspective, the entire NYC subway system sees about 4 million riders a day.

[tony speller]

rbhriuthbu1234, on Mar 1 2005, 10:39 PM, said:

True, But NYC has the most subway stations in the world. Tokyo is more advanced with there bullet train.

are you kidding me?!? "SUBWAY" (as in underground train systems) maybe. But NYC's Subway doesn;t just consist of underground trains. A lot of them in Brooklyn and Queens, et are above ground or at ground-level. Now, compare New York's commuter rail transit system to Tokyo's with these pictures.

NYC rail transit system (excluding the few hardrail lines to NJ/PA, Long Island, and north).



Tokyo's comuter rail system (thank's monsoon)
-condensed... you have to strain a little to see the stations whose names aren't shown.



And.... haha. Tokyo deffinatly DOES NOT use bullet trains for commuters. Think of traveling on the Shinkansen (bullet train) as taking an airline, that's how it's viewed (and priced) here.

Edited by tony speller, 13 May 2006 - 08:10 AM.

[tony speller]

Newnan, on Jan 5 2006, 05:44 AM, said:

I heard Tokyo's not on a street grid. That must make getting around the city frustrating

terrible. I live on the outskirts, and it takes me 40 min in no traffic to drive to my girlfriend's house only 19km (of road) away. The speed limit doesn't help either. on a 4-lane city road or national highway, the speed limit is either 50 or 60 km/h (roughly 35 mph). on the Expressways, the speed limit is 80 (55-ish).

Also, Tokyo has the worst drivers I have ever driven with... and I even lived in Seoul for a while. ha. Driving around here deffinatly frustrates me more than anything else. I'm glad that most people use the trains.

Edited by tony speller, 13 May 2006 - 06:35 AM.

[tony speller]

monsoon, on May 13 2006, 09:38 PM, said:

Why are you trying to drive in Tokyo?

first of all, for work. I travel from the Hachioji area to Narita Airport and back every day for work... about 70 miles each way I believe. Second of all, it's cheaper and faster to drive to my girlfriend's house than it would be to take the train.

[monsoon]

Ahh ok. Must be quite interesting.

[tony speller]

to say the least

[tony speller]

monsoon, on Dec 13 2005, 07:21 AM, said:

Tokyo City = Approximately 8M+
Tokyo Prefecture = ~12M+
Tokyo Metro = ~32M+ (this is an arbitrary definition of about 50km from Tokyo center)
Kanto Region/Kanagawa/Tokyo Bay = ~52-54M (this is the complete Tokyo urban area)

just to clear up the confusion in this forum, there is no such thing as "Tokyo City". It was done-away with in the 40s and replaced with a unique prefectoral government. All of the 23 city wards then became, pretty much, individual cities. Sooo... since then, there has been no official City of Tokyo. "Tokyo" now just refers to Tokyo-to (Tokyo Prefecture).

further information can be found here and here.

While "Tokyo" is the capitol of Japan, the government buildings are spread all throughout the different wards. So technically, the prefecture is the capitol instead of just one city.

Confused? Thank General MacArthur

Edited by tony speller, 13 May 2006 - 07:15 AM.

[monsoon]

We were attempting to put it into terms that are commonly used on UrbanPlanet. It was the 23 wards that we were calling Tokyo city. We recognize the term "city" really has no consistant definition. This is true even within the USA.

[tony speller]

monsoon, on May 13 2006, 10:17 PM, said:

We were attempting to put it into terms that are commonly used on UrbanPlanet. It was the 23 wards that we were calling Tokyo city. We recognize the term "city" really has no consistant definition. This is true even within the USA.

well... i think i am trying to say that there is litterally no "city of tokyo". no mayor or city boundary or anything. Each city and ward has their own "mayor" figure, as well as one all powerful Governor of the "Tokyo Met" (Tokyo-to). All of the (normally city-run) government-run things like police and the fire department, etc are run by the Tokyo Prefectoral Government. So, when considering population if does get sort of confusing. You can only really consider the Tokyo population as the whole prefecture. That is why when you look up the population of Tokyo most of the time, it lists it around 12,000,000.

Anyway. Maybe it's not all as important as I am making it out to be.

Edited by tony speller, 13 May 2006 - 08:16 AM.

[tamias6]

tony speller, on May 13 2006, 07:30 AM, said:

well... i think i am trying to say that there is litterally no "city of tokyo". no mayor or city boundary or anything. Each city and ward has their own "mayor" figure, as well as one all powerful Governor of the "Tokyo Met" (Tokyo-to). All of the (normally city-run) government-run things like police and the fire department, etc are run by the Tokyo Prefectoral Government. So, when considering population if does get sort of confusing. You can only really consider the Tokyo population as the whole prefecture. That is why when you look up the population of Tokyo most of the time, it lists it around 12,000,000.

Anyway. Maybe it's not all as important as I am making it out to be.

In short, the complete picture that is "Tokyo" can be seen as a city-state or some kind of veriation on that theme. Right?

[tSlater]

I don't think city-states had governments under them though. I'm guessing more along the lines of a county, or maybe a small state which is completely urbanised.

[tony speller]

tamias6, on Sep 18 2006, 11:34 AM, said:

In short, the complete picture that is "Tokyo" can be seen as a city-state or some kind of veriation on that theme. Right?

more like a state that just happens to be a large metro area. The largest municipal population within Tokyo prefecture is still under a million (Setagaya-ku: 810,897). the 23-wards USED to be part of what was the "city of tokyo", but since 1945 all of the wards have become independant cities.

So yeah, it's basicly a state that is completely urbanized. Or county

Edited by tony speller, 18 September 2006 - 03:37 AM.

[arkansas_buff]

Tokyo is very impressive, I must admit. But to say that it makes NYC look like a village is nonsense. Emporis Buildings (www.emporis.com) ranks NYC #2 in terms of its skyline (behink Hong Kong) vs. Tokyo, which ranked #9.