Spectacular Tokyo

The capital of Japan, Tokyo is a spectacular, exciting and seductive city. Reflecting a cacophony of contrasts, Japan's megalopolis is by turns thrilling, fascinating and exhausting. Frenzied and noisy or patient and peaceful, the city offers visitors a dozen different characters to choose from. Gleaming skyscrapers or tiny, hidden back street memorials and historic temples, the city is full of surprises. Having experienced its worst economic depression since the end of World War II, Tokyo and Japan in the broader sense have managed to recover as one of the strongest economies in the world.

Like most metropolitans, Tokyo is polluted and can look rather dull and gray during the day, but as the sun sets, it becomes a giant jewel box of constantly changing display of neon and fluorescent lights. When you are overcome by the bewildering array of signs in English as well as Japanese and the bustling rush-hour crowd, you can withdraw to quiet cobbled lanes and sculpted gardens for the harmony, scale and sense of stillness that the Japanese have treasured for centuries. Between the hysterical atmosphere of the pachinko gaming parlors, the dense traffic and Shinto and Buddhist Shrines anchoring the city, Tokyo hurtles towards the future without forgetting its past.

Tokyo offers a barrage of sights and sensations such as the Imperial Palace, Hie Shrine, Meiji Shrine, Asakusa Shrine, Tsukiji Fish Market, Kabuki-cho Theater, Akihabara Electric Town, the bright lights, bars and karaoke boxes of Roppongi, the shopping streets of Omotesando and Aoyama, the hipster kids of Harajuku, the funky design stores of Shibuya and at least 100,000 authentic restaurants.

As Tokyo was built within a spiral that leads to the Imperial Palace in order to confuse enemies, it is not a logical city to find your way around in. Almost all hotels and businesses give out cards with maps to help customers find their way back. Hotel cards are good to carry in one's pocket, as taxi drivers consider it rude to admit that they do not know where an address is. The locals are polite and always willing to help.

Tokyo has been subject to constant rebuilding and expansion in the wake of disasters like war and earthquakes. This has helped make it one of the most modern cities on the globe. Today, it is also one of the most crowded and expensive cities on the planet.