"Tokyo" a Tokyo Travel Page by AndreasK

This picture was taken in Tokyo during a summer festival. In Japan there are festivals (matsuri) held virtually every day of the year.

<b>Tokyo's history</b> dates back to 1457 when lord Ota Dokan built his castle near the humble fishing village called Edo ("rivergate"). In 1590 Tokugawa Ieyasu chose this castle-town for his home. Within a decade Ieyasu had conquered all rivals, taken the title of "shogun" and established the Tokugawa clan as the effective rulers of Japan for the next two and a half centuries. Tokyo has been the capital of Japan since 1868, when the imperial family moved from Kyoto to Edo, which was then renamed "Eastern Capital" (Tokyo). The earthquake of 1923 devastated half of Tokyo and killed 100 000 people. Today, the population of the entire metropolitan area is about 12 million.

I have lived in Japan for almost 12 months during the years 1986 - 1988. Most of the time I spent in Tokyo visiting Saitama and Keio Universities to study policy sciences, learning Japanese at language schools, living with Japanese people, thus learning different aspects of the Japanese live.

Though they do not belong to the city of Tokyo, I have included on this page Hakone, Mount Fuji, Kamakura, and Nikko, which can all be visited on a day-trip from Tokyo. Please check <a/href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/.108832/76/" target="_blank">my Japan page</a> for more information.