Tokyo: Megacity

This weekend I read Donald Richie and Ben Simmons' new photo book, Tokyo: Megacity. The photography is beautiful and Richie's descriptions of each neighborhood are concise, insightful blurbs as good for seasoned Nipponophiles as for newcomers. The cover photograph shows the mid-town area at dusk, leading toward a glowing Tokyo Tower.
After I read through the book, I was reminded of several things. First, Tokyo is a city I only just visited last November, but I can easily see its charms. Tokyo represents a certain kind of urban life, not built according to careful urban planning (like Kyoto), but no less interesting for its seeming haphazardness. I remembered a professor in Nagasaki making the comment that Nagasaki's road structure seemed like an overturned plate of spaghetti, rather than a stately grid. However, I find much desirable about cities like these, which feel more chaotic and quirky. Tokyo has many different faces, so seeing a few neighborhoods is never enough to get a feel for the whole city. Tokyo will always call me back because it will always have new places to explore.
Second, I remembered how much I love city life. Maybe this is because I grew up in a farming village, but for me, a cityscape - preferably lit at night - is one of the most exciting sights possible. It never fails to make me feel good on a deep level. Even a photograph of a cityscape at night is an instant mood enhancer. Although my current home city is quite small, it has a few spots downtown where I can feel just a touch of urban life, and every time I see that a new building of greater than three floors is coming in, I immediately get excited. Not that the final products always warrant that excitement. (Ahem, Hotel Red.)
Third, Japan's charms for me are really varied. I know many people who like Japan for aspects of traditional culture - samurai, Zen Buddhism, martial arts. And I know as many who like it for certain aspects of modern youth culture - anime and manga, Gothic Lolitas, J-pop. I like some of these things some of the time, but I get more pleasure from enka music, dive bars, used bookstores, fishing towns, and dinner parties with friends. Whenever I get the itch to go back to Japan and explore more, these things take up at least as much - usually more - mental room in planning my trip.