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TABLE OF
CONTENTS
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"Comparative Global Cities Project"
Tokyo
Ho Chi Minh City
Myanmar
Cairo
Istanbul
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Project 1 -- Tokyo
By Paul
Padegimas
Tokyo, or “The Toke,” as my friends
and I referred to it, is certainly a fine example of a global
city. Staying at a hotel in the
Ginza district, the Mitsui Garden Hotel, I believe that I experienced a
part of Tokyo with  a truly international
feel. Everything from the contemporary architecture to the food,
the shopping, the businesses, clubs, and even the people exemplified Tokyo’s global city status.
The hotel that we stayed at offered the international Herald Tribune in
a number of languages every morning. The receptionists all spoke
English, writing was in English, and the computers operated in
English.
Going out on our first night in Tokyo, on our way to find food we
passed Burberry, Armani, Versace, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton, among many
other truly international stores. Citibank was the main bank on
the particular avenue that we were walking along. Finally, we
found food at an incredible Italian restaurant with an international
wine collection. After dinner, looking for a good bar to hang out
in, we stumbled across a music bar. Inside was a group of what
looked like Japanese businessmen, all listening to American classic
rock picked out of the bar’s music catalog. All in all, Tokyo displayed quite the
transnational appeal, which really made the night quite
interesting.
Little did we know that we would find a stark
contrast in the type of urbanism in the area the next day. Upon
waking up in the morning, my friends and I decided to head out to
the Tokyo fish market. The Tsukiji Fish Market was a prime example of
vernacular urbanism. This market was absolutely incredible, with
fresh fish everywhere, some small restaurants interspersed and trinket
dealers all around. There were so many people in this market,
looking like mostly locals, that it was difficult to move at times
through the streets and narrow alleyways. Everything was written
in Japanese characters, with very few people speaking any English at
all. Because we took a cab to get to the market, we really had no
frame of reference as far as how far from the hotel we had to go, but
it seemed like miles, even if not just from the feel of the
market. It turned out, however, that after walking around for a
little bit that we found that we were only about five blocks from our
hotel.
The Tsukiji Market with its very
local, yet urban feel, was so close to the Ginza district with its very international
feel, and blended back into the
rest of the city so smoothly. This aspect of Tokyo really impressed me, the
transition between the vernacular and the transnational. Not many
cities in the world, I would imagine, could fit both of these aspects
together quite so well as Tokyo has. Not many
cities in the world can take the place of “The Toke.”
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