[Ronin]

I’ve lived in Tokyo for the last 34 years, and from my point of view, everything you wrote there is either wrong or misleading.

Tokyo, to me, is the greatest city on earth. Clean, modern, safe, and very friendly. Oh, there are some places in this huge city that would match what you wrote, but by no means all, and where I live in the west part of the city outside the central loop, it’s amazingly quiet.

I can leave my bicycle and door unlocked, kids can take the trains to school unaccompanied and unafraid, from where I am sitting right now, there are five convenience stores, three supermarkets, two hospitals, two train stations, three churches, three health clubs, and a nice variety of restaurants — all within a 15 minute walk.

Historical stuff? You mean like the Imperial Palace, the Budokan, Yasukuni Shrine, more temples than I can name, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Sky Tree, etc., etc., etc.

To each his own. This is my adopted hometown. I don’t think I’ll ever leave.

Kyodo is boooooring!!! Give me the Big Mikan any day!

[AZJeep]

I guess our tastes differ. Obviously, you know this place better, I would never survived there for 34 years.
I like boring places!

[hanamizu]

“... kids can take the trains to school unaccompanied and unafraid...”

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A few years ago we were visiting my stepson’s family in Yokohama and took the train into Tokyo. In the same car were half a dozen 1st or 2nd grinders riding the train without an adult. Their school uniforms were almost painfully cute. I took pictures because it looked so odd to my eyes. They got to their station and left, I guess to walk the rest of the way to their school.

But when I was a lad in California, I was only a little older, maybe 10 or 11 and I’d ride the Pacific Electric by myself from Long Beach to Los Angeles. Not as clean as Tokyo, but pretty much as safe. But that was a very long time ago.