@pauline

I spent most of the trip in Tokyo staying in part of suginami city called Ogikubo. This was really just a vacation for me; I spent most of my time shopping in Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ueno. These places are immense, dense, vibrant and crazy-wealthy. Ogikubo would pass for downtown in almost any definition of a city, but in Tokyo it is sometimes called a suburb (although still part of the 23wards). I also traveled out if Tōkyō: 1 day in the temples in Nikko, and 1 day in Fukuoka for Nakasu and Sumo. I love Ogikubo: the barely-one lane roads with multi family surrounds is both quiet and urban at the same time. All of Tokyo, not just Ogikubo is cleaner than any western city. After seeing the other side of that equation in months in Latin American cities, it was an honest surprise to see a huge city that Is far more clean than those from my home country. Some things are cheap (coffee, humble/normal food) others expensive (cabs/jr, fashion). In attire and customs, you see shades of formality and expressiveness at once that feels both more stodgy and more informal in various ways. Just different, really. Ogikubo exemplifies quiet/ luxurious living to me, and more generally perfect urban density. I do wonder if any other parts of the world I will see will tend to have such small, walkable streets and that much density in a still serene but more affordable form. My apartment was the first story of a converted house, about 125m2 - apparently worth about $1.5m... 1m too much for me, and only somewhat bigger than ideal.