The megalopolis of Tokyo, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Saitama and Chiba is the largest concentration of people the world has ever seen. With a current population of over 30 million people, you can ride a train across the entire Kanto plain without seeing so much as a single break in houses, buildings, stores, traffic and people. Its crushing population is beyond the scope of human imagination really, but to give you an idea, there are about the same number of people living in greater Tokyo than there are in all of Canada. That's 31 million or so people, all living in an area about the same size as Delaware. The second biggest city in the world, metro Jakarta, doesn't even come close, it only has 24 million people.
To get a better look at this gargantuan beast of a city that I've been living in for 10 years, I headed to the top of Tokyo's 5th tallest building, the Mori Tower, which is the only one of the top 5 where you're permitted to actually go right outside onto the roof, called the 'Sky Deck'. However even at 238 meters up, Tokyo still fades into the horizon at every point except the ocean...
In the centre and far in the distance, Shinjuku's skyscrapers rise up, with Yoyogi Park, Shinjuku Gyoen, and Aoyama Cemetary providing some greenery to break up the monotony. Shibuya lies to the left and Ikebukuro is in the distance on the right. Western Tokyo, Saitama and Mt. Fuji lie somewhere in the distance, hidden beyond the haze.
Click on the photo for a larger view.
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