City Characteristics
History |
The first and original megacity was created in Japan. That city's name was Tokyo. Tokyo didn’t just become a megacity overnight. When Tokyo was first settled its name was Edo, which was about 400 years ago. During World War 2 Tokyo was heavily bombed, even if it wasn’t an atomic bomb the damage was very heavy and it took a long time to clean it up. After the war the population decreased by a substantial amount due to these bombings.
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Culture |
Tokyo has been Japan’s most important city for almost 500 years. Tokyo is full of amazing qualities, it is extremely modern, yet it is full of traditions. Calligraphy, music, dance, martial arts and tea ceremonies are just some examples of Tokyo’s broad-ranging culture. Tokyo’s culture originated from the ethnic Jomon culture, meaning the typical Japanese cultural period around the fifth or fourth millennium. The culture was then influenced from the Chinese and Korean cultures, then also Indian and Greek. Finally, influences came from America and Europe. This gives Japan its very unique culture that we see today.
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Landscape & Geography |
In Tokyo, the city is divided into 23 areas or wards, these wards make up what is known as the Tokyo metropolis. This system is unique to Japan and was created in 1943 under the Local Autonomy Law. Tokyo’s total land area is 2187.42 km2
Over the years the Tokyo’s landscape has changed immensely. Before the city Tokyo was a quite open and natural area full of trees, hills and open areas. At first the cities that were being built started quite small and without very tall building. After some time Tokyo started to build large and quite tall buildings such as the tokyo skytree. The Tokyo skytree is the tallest structure in Tokyo, it stands at 634 metres. Another few examples of tall buildings in Tokyo are: the Tokyo tower standing at 333 meters and the Abeno Harukas standing at 300 meters tall. |