Tokyo - Introduction

Tokyo - it's Japan's capital and most populated area.

Population: 13.35 million (May 1, 2014)

From Wiki:

Tokyo (東京 Tōkyō, "Eastern Capital"), officially Tokyo Metropolis (東京都 Tōkyō-to),is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the most populous metropolitan area in the world. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family. Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture (東京府 Tōkyō-fu?) and the city of Tokyo (東京市 Tōkyō-shi).

Since it's near to my hometown Yokohama, I'm visiting Tokyo every time I go back to Japan.

Probably Tokyo would be the first destination for most of the first timers from overseas (even for those from other prefecture in Japan!).

When arriving from overseas, there are 2 international airports in Tokyo area; Narita & Haneda.
Heneda became an international airport only recently so most of the planes still arrive in Narita.

Sometimes I hear foreigner saying in the plane "Is it really Tokyo? It looks country side..!".
It's because Narita is NOT in Tokyo..!
It's in Chiba prefecture, next to Tokyo.

It takes 1 hour by train to reach Tokyo from Narita airport.

On the other hand, Haneda is in Tokyo, so it's more convenient to use Haneda airport, although, it's rather small airport.

Here's the train map from Narita to Tokyo.


Here's the train map from Haneda to Tokyo.
Well.., it still takes about an hour, but this is to Tokyo Station.
If your destination is to other part of Tokyo, definitely this is better.

As you know, transportation in Japan is VERY EXPENSIVE!

BTW, there is a lot of useful sites and apps to check out the transportation routs, time and most importantly... COST!

This is one of those:
Jordan

Personally I use this site (well, in Japanese).

When you key in the places, it'll show you the options - easier way, faster way, cheaper way.. :)
It's quite convenient.

Well, that's all about the introduction of Tokyo.

In this blog, I'll divide into "ku (ward)" within Tokyo because each place has a different colour!