Tokyo

Tokyo the shogun's city at the 21st century Forbidden to outsiders for 250 years, destroyed by earthquake in 1923, carpet bombed in 1945, Tokyo is a city which never looks back and absolutely will not be stopped. Not just the capital of a country but increasingly of the world. The future of cities everywhere is already written, in thousands of neon lights, by a city which defies all attempts at control and planning. Tokyo captures the pounding, chattering rhythms of daily life among the towering high rises and clandestine knots of alleys and squares in the world's premier urban laboratory. It guides the reader through the maze of neighboring districts revealing an urban reality seldom seen, the underside of Tokyo - a place of secluded temples, bathhouses, gardens, and slums. The author explores a myriad of urban fragments, from a giant, naked Marilyn Monroe squared off for combat against a hulking Japanese sumo wrestler to the splendour of the Imperial Palace, to reveal the alien nature of the city which remains a wonder of eastern invention and dynamism. Tokyo is written as the city rebuilds. However, this time it is not catastrophe which is the impetus for construction, it is the desire to keep Tokyo at the cutting edge, the fastest and richest city in the world. World Cities series is edited by R. J. Johnston and P. L. Knox Urban Studies / Planning / Social Science