Tokyo is a huge city, the number of its inhabitants (38,305,000) is equal to the entire population of Poland. Still, I didn’t feel overwhelmed by it. I didn’t expect this, because in many European capitals I felt small and lost. Maybe because organisation is a priority here? Public transport arrives with the greatest punctuality, queues of waiting people line up neatly, and road crews direct traffic at every step. This feeling is certainly influenced by the architecture with a minimalist, light design. Each building makes good use of the space given to it. The wooden structures of historical buildings slenderly climb towards the sky, without overwhelming monumentality.
The present as if it did not exist – the technologies of the future coexist harmoniously with the past. Sometimes it is enough to open the door of the izakaya to go from a shopping street to a historic tavern where time has stopped. Or visit the imperial palace complex, dominated by skyscrapers. The contrast to the systematised city panorama are the ubiquitous shops selling comics, games, ball machines and slot machines. Their joyful chaos and abundance introduce an energising accent to the public space. For those who would like to awaken their creative energy, I recommend visiting TeamLab Planets. The interaction between artificial intelligence and humans shown is truly magical.
During my trip to Japan, I also visited other cities. Here you can see reports from Kyoto, Nara and Osaka.
Tokyo Travel Palette
Tokyo travel photography helps you get to know the city and observe its colours. The first and obvious choice is crimson. It symbolically appears on the flag – the red circle is the rising sun. However, colour is ubiquitous on the streets and especially in elements of historic architecture. For such a strong colour, we need a delicate background. Subtle porcelain politely fills the city space. Modern platinum grey refers to the futuristic character of the city. And finally, another strong colour – orange. I was a bit surprised by this choice myself, but I thought it fit perfectly with the fun side of Tokyo. Interestingly, colour also appears often in Japanese cuisine.
