Tokyo: Big City or Small Town(s) | Tokyo

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1. Been Tokyo about 6 months
2. I have visited Tokyo, and we make it a point of visiting smaller towns or different wards, when possible. To me, there is a charming side to the lesser known areas in Tokyo. Great to explore and feel like a local. Such as when visiting the shopping streets or seeking out a point of interest. I also enjoy the hustle and bustle of the busier areas in Tokyo, too. It is like having the best of both worlds, to me, all within a short walk or subway ride away.
3. I love your videos!! I'm half Japanese and used to live in Japan for four years. We had a community organisation called kodomokai (子供会) where the parents of kids who lived in the area would come together on a regular basis to organise activities for the kids. Sometimes these would be competitive dodgeball games, or collecting rubbish for garbage collection. I think this really kept the community close, and like you said, we knew most people walking/biking down the street:) It's strange (in a positive way) because many things in Japan are 20-odd years ahead of other countries, but when it comes to communities and relationships it is actually very old-school and quaint.
4. Here in my country there is barely any room to go outside freely and play. It's mostly streets everywhere and everyone just watches out for themselves, it's really easy for your kid to get lost or someone shady might come along and take them instead.. so it's not a very good situation. Just roads and cars and roads and cars. Not that many parks or greenery..
5. I had no idea Canada was that small population wise lol
6. The small town feel is from the way the neighborhoods are designed and planned. In Tokyo, the neighborhoods were designed for people, versus in the US, the suburbs are really designed for cars, which has been happening and getting worse in the last 50 years or so since the end of World War II. I don't feel part of my "neighborhood" at all in the suburb here. Neighbors don't know each other at all. It's depressing.
7. great video Greg , it is nice to know that even Tokyo is not that crowded n smothering ... i love how she just wanted to explain that people were just saying good morning hhh :D
   and i am from Algeria it's in north Africa and i'll just say its a very deferent life style and daily problemes to face than both Japan and Canada :(
8. Although not even close to what Tokyo is like, the city I live in has a misleading perceptio common for the area. The city itself only has 200,000 people in it, but when any one thinks of or talks about the city they include the 10 or so surrounding towns (or villages). This brings the metro area up to a little over 1 million. So in a way, for us, there is both the metro feel and the town feel. I won't say "big city" since that would not be an accurate description.
9. Gosh, he's so handsome. It's distracting.
10. In Sweden there's alot of small towns, and I do mean really small towns. 30 000 ppl live in my town and and we even have alot of smaller towns than that. I talked to a person from USA that claimed that he came from a small town, but if it's over 100 000 ppl living in a town, then it's not small :P
    
    But like Tokyo the city is split into 4 parts with 3 junior high schools and the 4th part is the downtown area with the lake nearby. And it only takes 45 min with a bus to get to one of the 10 biggest cities in the country (although still small with a population of 150 000).
    
    Yet I sometimes feel that my town is too big :P
11. This may seem odd. But, I felt less crowded walking in Japan than in Australia... There are more people in the Tokyo metropolitan area than people in Australia (~22 million). Though Tokyo is more densely packed it seemed people worked together to get from A to B (excluding the subway in rush hour). In contrast, people in Australia tend to meander without a care and this has forced me to walk around them or stop to avoid a collision.
    
    The US was mentioned.. People in CA did seem friendly if you were already interacting. But, for safety etc, I cannot say much. I was visiting safe areas in SF and Berkeley.
12. It's exactly how I felt going to Tokyo for the first time. And where I'm from (Italy) it's exactly how you describe your infancy in Canada.
    Now that I live in US, I lost all of that feeling of being in a small town.
13. Aiko was listening! hehe ❤
14. I just subbed. I could not help but love both channels and view and view the life of others in another country. I was thinking of doing the same when take a trip to my mothers home country Cambodia and doing the type of videos you did for Japan.
15. I was lucky to live and work in the same area, Harajuku, and it felt like a town, in spite of the crowds. Friendly people, small town feel....
16. This makes me very happy, and lifts a weight about raising my family in Japan. ^.^ On this note, maybe you could do a video about bullying in schools?
17. how is the average weather in Japan? and also how is the traffic + any bike routes? lastly how does there school system work?
18. I'm from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, city of two million. Here kids go out alone and play with other kids in the neighborhood way before elementary school, they just have to stay in certain areas around the building/house, or stay with some of the older kids. That is because life is organized in smaller areas, just like what you explained that Tokyo is like, so neighbors know each other and so everyone feels safer, even though the neighborhoods are usually compromised of big buildings and busy streets. Also, I think it's because of socialist way of building, here you have small parks in between every building, so that strengthens, and maybe even creates, the sense of community.
    Thank you for your videos, I really appreciate them!
19. Gregg, I'm a bit confused about why many people in Tokyo still wear the face masks while walking around if the air quality is actually good now. Are the air quality measurements not publicized?
20. your daughter is precious! cracked me up how she butt in to correct you in the middle of your commentary, just like real life :) all the best to you and your family