I will never cease to be amazed by this gigantic metropolis

December 18, 2025 — 5:00am

• You have to get a window seat when you fly into Tokyo – particularly if it’s your first time. That’s the only way to comprehend the enormity of this place, this city with almost twice the population of Australia, this megalopolis that stretches on forever, its boundaries almost endless, its possibilities the same.

Tokyo is like no other place on Earth. It’s just so huge, so ripe with opportunity, so exciting to hit ground level and throw yourself into everything it’s got.

I have visited the Japanese capital at least once a year for two decades now, and not for a second have I entertained the idea that I have done everything there is to do. You could never do everything there is to do. It would be like painting the Golden Gate Bridge – by the time you finish, a whole new set of experiences will have appeared.

Tokyo is a city in constant flux, an exciting, vibrant place that never stands still, that is never the same as you remember it. Neighbourhoods morph overnight. Trends come and go. Shops and restaurants appear and vanish. The only thing predictable is change.

How could you not fall in love with it?

But don’t get the wrong idea about Tokyo. People tend to assume this city is all huge skyscrapers and neon-lit streets, that everywhere will be like Shibuya or Shinjuku, an almost dystopian future of bright lights and bustle.

The truth about the Japanese capital is that that craziness is just a small slice of an infinitely larger whole. Tokyo, for the most part, is actually low-rise and peaceful, a series of distinct neighbourhoods that each offer incredible quiet for such a huge place, with mostly car-free streets and comfortable, low-key bars and restaurants.

And that’s the true joy, because each of these neighbourhoods is a destination, a place you as a visitor could dedicate several days to exploring, to shopping and dining and digging into what makes it tick. Gakugei-Daigaku, Koenji, Jimbocho, Kagurazaka, Hiro-o, Kichijoji … each of these would warrant the journey from Australia alone.

And each, of course, boasts facets of Tokyo’s key attraction: its food. This city has to be the greatest dining destination on the planet. The sheer breadth and diversity of cuisine on offer in Tokyo is almost impossible to overstate.

There are 180 restaurants in Tokyo with one or more Michelin stars – Paris, by comparison, has 133; London has 81. The Japanese capital has an estimated 10,000 restaurants that serve just  ramen.

This is a city that loves to eat: every street you walk down in Tokyo will be packed with restaurants and bars at eye level, but then also in the basements and high above in tall buildings. These establishments could be incredibly cheap or mind-bogglingly expensive; they could be serving noodles or sushi, kaiseki meals or izakaya eats; they might be hushed, intimate spaces or rowdy standing-room-only drinking joints.

And we haven’t even touched on the convenience stores, with their shelves bulging with affordable, tasty food, and the depachika, or department store food halls, which are sprawling displays of the finest fresh produce and prepared cuisine. Every day is a culinary adventure.

I will never cease to be amazed by Tokyo. I will never fail to be excited by the possibilities this city offers, the ever-present opportunity to dive in with no fears or regrets, to allow the megalopolis to sweep you up and carry you in its maelstrom.

In a city this size you can do anything – any whim or desire will be catered to. Whatever you feel like today, whatever you want to experience, whatever cultural niche you want to explore or experiential pleasure you wish to enjoy, you can do it. Someone out there will be able to help.

Everything here is so accessible too, despite being so foreign and sometimes strange. Grab a transport card and you can go anywhere in the city on what is surely the world’s most efficient mass transit system. Walk down any alley or step into any bar and you can be reasonably sure – with just a few exceptions – that you will be safe.

That takes a while to sink in: you’re in a city bigger than Delhi, than Cairo, than Manila, and yet everything here is somehow spotlessly clean and neat, it’s quiet, it’s safe, it’s comfortable. How is that even possible?

For such a large city, there’s still so much beauty here in the details. The Shinto shrines; the small, perfectly manicured gardens; the manhole covers with their colourful designs; the traditional teahouses with their tatami floors and paper screen walls.

Some cities sap your energy, it feels like you have to give so much of yourself just to survive in them. Tokyo, for me, isn’t like that. It thrills me, it revitalises me, it always leaves me wanting more. Its appeal, like its sprawl, is endless.

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