Aaron Ellis

Tokyo Travel, Japan Aaron Ellis

Tokyo Travel, Japan. The City History, Business, Tourism, Vacation Guide Information. Tokyo is a stunning, stimulating and seductive city. Boasting a cacophony of contrasts, Japan's megalopolis is by turns thrilling, intriguing and exhausting. A city of a dozen different characters, visitors can pretty much choose their Tokyo. Chaotic and noisy or patient zen-like calm. Soaring skyscrapers or tiny hidden backstreet shrines. The plastic and neon of the love hotels or the tatami mat simplicity of traditional ryokans. In between the relentless hoots and whirs of the pachinko gaming parlors, the crazy clamor of traffic and the Shinto and Buddhist Shrines calmly anchoring the city, Tokyo hurtles towards the future, with one fashionably-shod foot still firmly in the past. Tokyo offers an impossible amount to take in with its barrage of sights and sensations 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 restaurants. Having been built in a spiral that leads to the Imperial Palace, in order to confuse enemies, it's not a logical city to find your way about in. Hotels and businesses give out cards with maps so guests and customers can find their way back. Hotel cards are good to have with you, as taxi drivers consider it impolite to admit they don't know where an address is. As anyone with enough money to dig deep enough can open their own subway line, the subway system can seem an intimidating option, but you can pretty much count on a friendly, polite Tokyoite helping you find your way.