There is a dichotomy to Tokyo, it bursts at its seams and yet remains steadfastly organised at all times. You might look out of the window of a crushingly overloaded train and sometimes not see a person in sight. The city bursts and withdraws in cycles that seem almost unreal.
It can seem taciturn and yet boisterously polite. A taxi driver who drives maniacally will stand outside and bow to you until you have disappeared from sight.
It is self-absorbed yet kind. People will not give a seat to an older person in the priority seating areas of the train, yet they will give away an umbrella to a stranger caught without one in a downpour.
It is insular and inclusive at the same time. You can be made to feel an outsider and yet be a part a group. All one needs to belong is a steadfast sense of belonging, something that cannot be taken away.
The best way to define this city is not to define it and limit it to artificial boundaries. It is all but it is also nothing.
I started living in Tokyo in 2007 after moving from Nagoya. A few years earlier when I first landed in Japan, it was in Tokyo, at the Narita Airport on a cold winter evening.
My first impressions were constrained, I had to help a colleague carry heavy suitcases across subway lines, the winter cold, the strain of carrying heavy luggage , limited the observations powers.
Later that night, as I walked to a nearby convenience store, a light snow started falling and I had my first experience of a snowfall!
This site is less a blog and more a journal, writing about all that makes Tokyo, places, eateries and anything else that catches my attention. I have a separate blog https://partha.jp which is not limited to a particular city, region or even a topic. But this blog is exclusively devoted to Tokyo, the lanes and by-lanes that make the city what is.