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Tokyo
Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is the home of the Japanese Imperial Family and Imperial Palace as well as the base of the Japanese government. It's population exceeds 12 million, with Greater Tokyo Area sprawling to over 35 million.
Tokyo was originally known as Edo, meaning estuary. Its name was changed to Tokyo, 'to' + 'kyo' (east + capital), when it became the imperial capital in 1868. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called "Tokei", an alternative pronunciation for the same Chinese characters representing "Tokyo". Some surviving official English documents use the spelling "Tokei".
Edo, originally a small fishing village changed forever in 1590 when Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base and when he became shogun in 1603, the town became the center of his nationwide military government. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping one million by the 18th century. It became the de facto capital of Japan even while the emperor lived in Kyoto, the imperial capital.
After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of restoring imperial rule. In 1869, the 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. Tokyo was already the nation's political and cultural center, and the emperor's residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace. The city of Tokyo was established and continued to be the capital until it was abolished as a municipality in 1943.
Tokyo's is famous for its massive rail network which became one of the busiest in the world during the economic boom of the 1980s, as more and more people moved to the area. In the 1980s, real estate prices skyrocketed during a real estate and debt bubble. The bubble burst in the early 1990s and many companies, banks, and individuals were caught with mortgage backed debts while real estate was shrinking in value. A major recession followed, making the 1990s Japan's "lost decade" from which it is slowly recovering.
There is a vast array of sights, but the first items on the agenda of most visitors are the gardens of the Imperial Palace, the Meiji Shrine and the temples of Asakusa on the Sumida River. Annually on the last Saturday of July, an enormous fireworks display over the Sumida River attracts over a million viewers.
Tokyo has many theaters for the performing arts including traditional forms of Japanese drama like noh and kabuki. The city is also dotted with museums, large and small, which center on every possible interest from sumo to antique clocks to traditional and modern arts. Many of the largest museums are clustered around Ueno, including the Tokyo National Museum, the country's largest museum and specializing in traditional Japanese art. Of course the main attraction here, is in spring, when hundreds of sakura trees bloom (cherry blossom).
With many commercial centres for shopping, and eating, simply wandering around can be the best way of experiencing the modern Japanese urban phenomenon. Each of these areas have unique characteristics, such as dazzling Shinjuku, youthful Shibuya and upmarket Ginza. These areas are bustling throughout the day, but they really come into life in the evenings. The cost of living in Tokyo is not as astronomical as it once was, its possible to budget a similar amount of money for a stay in Tokyo as you would for any other great city in Europe or North America.
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