I’ve been in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan, for the past week and a half and blessedly free from North American political news. My first exposure to Asia, the trip was a fantastic opportunity to explore an alternate culture and geography. Tokyo, with a population as large as Canada squeezed into a coastal plain, was a mind-blowing demonstration of how efficient and effective a city can be while seeming to remain completely liveable. The racial and cultural homogeneity no doubt contribute to how well almost 13 million people manage to live and work together and set Tokyo apart from other large cities I have visited (it surpasses London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles on all counts, IMHO). The Shinto religion’s focus on nature and the Japanese emphasis on detail and design contribute to minimizing the inevitable stresses of life in such a huge population concentration.
The cities we visited offered major contrasts. Tokyo has a relatively new civic structure, having been severely damaged by earthquake in 1923 and by American bombing in WWII. Only since 1963 have high-rise buildings been permitted – the result of earthquake-resistant construction techniques. So the city, like most of Japan is one of 2-story single-family homes extending, it seems, forever. Yet despite the density and tight living space, large tracts of land around shrines and temples (some of which survived centuries of fires and earthquakes) and the Imperial Palace provide places of respite for the population.
In contrast to European cities, I was struck by how quiet is Tokyo. Traffic moves smoothly along broad thoroughfares and tiny lane-ways without horn-blowing or engine-reving. Even the scooters go about their business without disturbing anyone more than a few feet away. Gasoline (and increasingly CNG) engines result in air free of the diesel fumes that permeate London, Paris and Rome. and contribute to the peace and quiet.
Public transportation in Tokyo is nothing short of a marvel, integrating national, regional and local rail services in a seamless and co-ordinated system. While a visitor is challenged to find his way (maps are available in English as well as Japanese, but many in-station maps and signs are in Japanese only and only major stations are announced in English), automated fare dispensing machines and tickets/passes that allow the rider to transfer between local and regional trains make is easy once one knows where one wants to go. Shinjuku station handles over 4 million riders a day, on regional trains and subways, headed to a district dominated by business and civic offices.
More about the Tokyo experience later.
Kyoto, with a population comparable to Toronto (1.4 million) offered a stunning example of how a city can blend ancient institutions with modern infrastructure. Kyoto preceded Tokyo as the capital of Japan and is awash in ancient shrines, temples and Imperial palaces yet is a totally modern city with some of the finest architecture I have been privileged to see. If you tell someone not to miss the railway station – as a tourist site – you probably would make them laugh but you would be offering worthwhile advice. Actually it’s two stations (one for local trains and one for the regional Shinkansen (bullet train) linked by a soaring atrium large enough to hold Toronto's Eaton Centre and BCE Galleria and connected to hotels, a mega-sized department store, restaurants, etc. a well as the subway and exhibiting a thrilling and inspiring contemporary and very Japanese architecture. The Kyoto International Conference Centre, set in the foothills of the mountains north of the city, combines the Zen qualities of ancient temples and gardens with a thoroughly modern convention and hotel complex that, frankly, make the Metro Toronto Convention Centre look like so much spilled concrete. Kyoto’s main shopping thoroughfare reminded me more of Chicago’s “golden mile” than Toronto’s someone pathetic (by comparison) Bloor-Yorkville kilometre. Walking around Kyoto, I remarked that every Toronto city councillor should be forced to spend a week in Kyoto before taking office, just to see what can be done if the will is present. Consider the number of failed attempts to do anything with Toronto’s crumbling Union Station and compare to the successful revitalization of what might otherwise be a big railway crossing in downtown Kyoto and the frustration builds.
Quiet, safe, clean – all the adjectives once used to describe Toronto – are realised in Tokyo and Kyoto (and who knows how many more cities I didn’t get to visit) and not just something from the past to talk nostalgically about. I will be writing more about my Japan experience in the coming days.
The first two nights in Tokyo we stayed in a traditional riyokan (Japanese inn) where the photo was taken.
The cities we visited offered major contrasts. Tokyo has a relatively new civic structure, having been severely damaged by earthquake in 1923 and by American bombing in WWII. Only since 1963 have high-rise buildings been permitted – the result of earthquake-resistant construction techniques. So the city, like most of Japan is one of 2-story single-family homes extending, it seems, forever. Yet despite the density and tight living space, large tracts of land around shrines and temples (some of which survived centuries of fires and earthquakes) and the Imperial Palace provide places of respite for the population.
In contrast to European cities, I was struck by how quiet is Tokyo. Traffic moves smoothly along broad thoroughfares and tiny lane-ways without horn-blowing or engine-reving. Even the scooters go about their business without disturbing anyone more than a few feet away. Gasoline (and increasingly CNG) engines result in air free of the diesel fumes that permeate London, Paris and Rome. and contribute to the peace and quiet.
Public transportation in Tokyo is nothing short of a marvel, integrating national, regional and local rail services in a seamless and co-ordinated system. While a visitor is challenged to find his way (maps are available in English as well as Japanese, but many in-station maps and signs are in Japanese only and only major stations are announced in English), automated fare dispensing machines and tickets/passes that allow the rider to transfer between local and regional trains make is easy once one knows where one wants to go. Shinjuku station handles over 4 million riders a day, on regional trains and subways, headed to a district dominated by business and civic offices.
More about the Tokyo experience later.
Kyoto, with a population comparable to Toronto (1.4 million) offered a stunning example of how a city can blend ancient institutions with modern infrastructure. Kyoto preceded Tokyo as the capital of Japan and is awash in ancient shrines, temples and Imperial palaces yet is a totally modern city with some of the finest architecture I have been privileged to see. If you tell someone not to miss the railway station – as a tourist site – you probably would make them laugh but you would be offering worthwhile advice. Actually it’s two stations (one for local trains and one for the regional Shinkansen (bullet train) linked by a soaring atrium large enough to hold Toronto's Eaton Centre and BCE Galleria and connected to hotels, a mega-sized department store, restaurants, etc. a well as the subway and exhibiting a thrilling and inspiring contemporary and very Japanese architecture. The Kyoto International Conference Centre, set in the foothills of the mountains north of the city, combines the Zen qualities of ancient temples and gardens with a thoroughly modern convention and hotel complex that, frankly, make the Metro Toronto Convention Centre look like so much spilled concrete. Kyoto’s main shopping thoroughfare reminded me more of Chicago’s “golden mile” than Toronto’s someone pathetic (by comparison) Bloor-Yorkville kilometre. Walking around Kyoto, I remarked that every Toronto city councillor should be forced to spend a week in Kyoto before taking office, just to see what can be done if the will is present. Consider the number of failed attempts to do anything with Toronto’s crumbling Union Station and compare to the successful revitalization of what might otherwise be a big railway crossing in downtown Kyoto and the frustration builds.
Quiet, safe, clean – all the adjectives once used to describe Toronto – are realised in Tokyo and Kyoto (and who knows how many more cities I didn’t get to visit) and not just something from the past to talk nostalgically about. I will be writing more about my Japan experience in the coming days.
The first two nights in Tokyo we stayed in a traditional riyokan (Japanese inn) where the photo was taken.
