Today, the Japanese capital Tokyo is one of the most modern cities in the world. It is clean, safe, calm, but a foreigner unaccustomed to the Japanese flavor can be shocked by strange vending machines, flashing neon signs everywhere, futuristic household appliances and much more. And it is worth noting that the Japanese are very conservative, so some of them look down on foreigners. However, this does not happen very often, and in any case, Tokyo is worth it to visit this city. Just save some money – it’s not cheap here.
Interesting facts about Tokyo
- In major Japanese cities, many homeowners prohibit keeping pets, so there are “cat cafes” in Tokyo — for a low fee, visitors can choose a cat and pet it while drinking lemonade or tea.
- The Tokyo subway is the world’s largest in terms of passenger traffic — it is used by 3.2 billion people a year. An interesting fact is that there is even a special position here – oshiya, or pushers, whose duties include pushing passengers into overcrowded cars.
- Tokyo became the capital of Japan only in 1868. Before that, Kyoto was the capital for 1075 years (interesting facts about Kyoto).
- Some establishments here do not allow foreigners. There may be a sign right on the door, which means “foreigners not served.”
- Due to the high price of real estate in Tokyo, capsule micro-apartments have become widespread.
- It was at Shibuya Tokyo Station that the dog Hachiko came to meet and see off his master for many years.
- Public transport in Tokyo is the most reliable, affordable and fast way to move. But it’s still not cheap.
- The asteroid Tokyo, discovered in this city in 1900, was named after the city. This is an irregularly shaped celestial body with a diameter of approximately 81 kilometers (interesting facts about asteroids).
- Despite the relative popularity of tattoos among Japanese youth, a person with tattoos on exposed areas of the body is most likely not allowed into any decent restaurant. In Japan, tattoos are strongly associated with the yakuza and the underworld.
- Ueno Tokyo Zoo — the oldest zoo in Japan, it contains more than 2600 pets. Once a year, the zoo is closed for 2 months to give the animals a break from the visitors.
- There are so many people living in Tokyo that the temperature in the city is always 5-8 degrees higher than in the suburbs.
- In order to get rid of traffic jams in Tokyo, a huge number of high-speed highways were built, but the passage on them is always paid.
- Tokyo is home to the famous restaurant “Aragava”, which occupies one of the first places in the list of the most expensive establishments in the world from year to year.
- If you say even a couple of phrases to the Japanese in Tokyo, they will be very happy, because they think that foreigners simply cannot learn Japanese because of its phenomenal complexity.
- Up to 150 earthquakes are recorded in Tokyo every year, but mostly they are not too powerful (interesting facts about earthquakes).
- The population density in Tokyo is one of the highest among cities in the world, and there are only 4 square meters per person. In total, more than 35,000,000 people live in the Tokyo agglomeration.
- Tokyo Zoo is closed for two months every year so that its inhabitants can take a break from visitors.
- The GDP of Tokyo alone is higher, than the GDP of all of Australia.
- There are a lot of single people in Tokyo who have never been in any kind of relationship with the opposite sex. Because of this, the number of suicides is extremely high.
- Tokyo occupies only 0.6% of the area of Japan, but this city provides her with a third of all GDP (interesting facts about Japan).
- If Tokyo were a separate country, it would be in 15th place in the world in terms of GDP.
- The vending machines ubiquitous in Tokyo sell everything in the world, from chocolates and hamburgers to used women’s underwear.
- Fruits and vegetables are much more expensive here than in any city of Russia. The average price of one apple is about 100 rubles. However, the prices here are high for basically everything.
- Walk down any street in Tokyo and you will almost certainly find a haunted house. At least that’s what the locals believe.
- Tokyo — the safest metropolis in the world. It’s so safe in Tokyo that little kids use public transportation on their own.
- Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ni-Cheme area has the highest concentration of gay bars in the world.
- Dress in dressing up your favorite manga or anime character and organizing a performance in Tokyo is a completely normal pastime.