“Eyes mark the shape of the city.”- Haruki Marukami

If I had to state only one word about Tokyo it would be contradiction. In reality, there is no way to capture the essence of this seemingly never ending global city.

Having visited New York, Paris, London, Rome I thought I knew all there was to know about cities. How wrong was I!

Cram 47 prefectures together and you have a land area the size of  25 Manhattans. Add the best dressed and most polite people you’ve met; or is it utter sadness? Add a highly efficient metro system that runs on time 100% of the time. Then factor in the strangest counterculture fashions your eyes have witnessed, the crowds of people in Electricity Town’s manga shops. To this equation add 13 million of mostly ethnically Japanese people and zero graffiti or trash. As you begin to think you understand, you stumble upon a small enclave near the busy Roppongi neighborhood where no traffic noise is present and birds are chirping.

After five days you leave Tokyo confused yet amazed that it all coexists in one place. It’s one giant organism that will always be.

Now I’ve truly seen it all.