Tokyo: Photographing The Largest City In The World

What does it mean to be the largest city in the world? Tokyo is not the largest city by size. It also does not have the largest population for a legally defined city. Tokyo is the most populous metropolitan area and most populous urban area in the world. Essentially, if you were to ignore technical/legal boundaries of cities, which can be very arbitrary, and just defined a city by a contiguous urban area, then Tokyo has the largest population.

Visiting Tokyo though does not feel like you’re visiting one city. It’s really made up of 23 smaller cities, many with their own central or downtown area. I’ve heard people describe New York City as a city with no center, but I’m sure many people would agree that lower Manhattan is more or less the center of New York. But Tokyo, to me, really felt like a city with no center, or with many centers.

As a bit of budget traveller I decided to stay outside of the more popular tourist areas in Tokyo and stayed at a hostel in Taito City. Taito City is a section of Tokyo that feels more like a residential area than tourist destination, although there are plenty of hotels and restaurants for tourists to visit. And Taiti City is known for one major tourist attraction, Sensō-ji. Sensō-ji is the oldest buddhist temple in Tokyo. Since I was staying so close to Sensō-ji I visited it several times, including twice for sunrise. So I have a lot of pictures of the temple. It was such a beautiful experience to arrive at the temple before sunrise, and to be there as the area slowly comes to life. However, it was during these sunrise photoshoots that I learned that Tokyo is not an early city. Trying to find somewhere to eat breakfast at six or seven in the morning, after waking up at 4:30am, was not an easy feat.

Another big attraction in Taito City is Ueno Park. As I walked from Sensō-ji towards Ueno Park I passed through the smaller backstreet of Taito City that were filled with beautiful street art. Ueno Park was a nice place to visit, but I didn’t come away with many photos from there.

I even caught some street art in the making!

Generally when I visit cities I like to walk as much as possible. Tokyo was one city where I had to the use the metro quite a lot to get around, just due to the sheer distance of all the places I wanted to visit. Another one of the areas I visited in Tokyo was Shinjuku City. Shinjuku City is the part of Tokyo that is most known for its bright lights and nightlife. It was a fun area to walk around and just experience the street life.

In search of some sunset photo locations I found my way towards Koto City. Koto City is sort of on the outskirts Tokyo, and is made up of several islands in the bay. I never found the perfect sunset shot, but I bet with a little more time I could have found some really cool compositions. But I did get a decent shot of a cool bridge! I don’t know if I’d really recommend going to Koto City unless you’re really up for exploring. I did a whole lot of walking and had to take a bunch of different trains to get there, and there wasn’t really too much to do.

If you really had to pick a “center” of Tokyo, you could make a good argument for Chiyoda City. Not only is it sort of the geographical center of the city, but it also contains the Imperial Palace, the main Tokyo train station, and is the business/financial center of Tokyo. It was a nice place to walk around for a day, but for a tourist there wasn’t too much explore.

With only five days in Tokyo I tried to see and do as much as I could, but it is truly a mega city, and I could only see and do so much. I’ve highlighted here some of the areas I was able to explore, but there are so many more place to see in Tokyo. Each of the 23 “cities” within Tokyo has its own style and vibe to offer. Tokyo is definitely a place that I would recommend doing some research on before visiting so you can figure where you want to go and plan accordingly. While the metro system is very good, and can get you just about anywhere, where you choose stay can save you significant amounts of time depending on where you want to spend your time.

Tokyo: Photographing The Largest City In The World

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Mike Levine