I didn’t spend a ton of time in Tokyo when we lived in Japan, so I didn’t know just how massive it is until now.

The Greater Tokyo Area is approximately 5,200 square miles, the world’s most populous metro area with over 37 million people. Further, Yokohama is 20 miles from Tokyo, and that city has a metro area of 3.8 million. This place is VAST.

Thursday our friend Kazue’s nephew Tatsuya (she calls him Takkun) took us around Tokyo in his taxi, a rare view by automobile. Very few cars are on the road in such a BG city. The reality is most people take transit, walk, or bike…cars are rarely needed. But it helped us see so much more than we would have by train!

We started out with Sengakuji Temple, dedicated to 47 ronin (Samurai without a lord) who committed seppuku (death by disembowling). On a snowy night on December 14, 1702, the 47 Ronin avenged their master by killing lord Kita in his mansion. Afterwards, they paraded with Kira’s head through the streets before taking the head to Sengakuji. They were later sentenced to commit seppuku.

Mike and I recently watched the newish series “Shogun,” which helped me understand this cultural mindset much better.

After all that head washing and seppuku, we headed for lunch in a family restaurant, which was completely automated! We ordered our food electronically, it came to us via robot, and we also paid electronically. Mike had unagi (eel), a delicacy here.

Next we headed to Asakusa to visit Senso-ji, Japan’s oldest temple and arguably one of the most crowded. The street to the temple is lined with food and souvenir stalls.

Senso-ji was established in 628 AD, a major spiritual center dedicated to the goddess of mercy, Kannon.

We also saw a bunch of bodyguards and hubbub for someone famous, who turned out to be the president of Colombia!

Mike and I took a risk on getting our fortunes..his was “GREAT” and mine was “good.”

It’s a gorgeous temple but far too crowded!!

Next we were off to the Tokyo Skytree, which is the tallest tower in the world (and the third tallest building). Even though the weather has been typhoon like (rainy and overcast), the view really showed the enormity of Tokyo!!

This city just goes on and on!

Next we drove through Tokyo seeing the sights at night. It was a beautiful way to see the city!

As I mentioned, I didn’t spend much time in Tokyo when we lived here before, and it feels like I know the city a lot better now.

Another thing that has changed in Japan:

-Hardly any smoking!! When I flew overseas from 1986-89, airplanes still had smoking sections (meaning the whole plane reeked). Most Japanese men smoked, and it was difficult to escape! Now we hardly ever see smoking…it’s curtailed to small smoking sections. This might be one of the largest changes!