Tokyo: Loud. Electronic. Ferocious.

How to describe the world’s largest city in one word?

Overwhelming. Tokyo is absolutely overwhelming (and over the top) in every way.

The amount of people. The size. The pace. The traffic. The public transport. The flashing shit.

I’m not exactly from bumblefuck Indiana, mind you, and even for me, Tokyo struck me as a city out of control.

Depending on how you handle such things, upon seeing the insanity you may withdraw and stay in the safe hotel, or you will be pumped full of adrenaline, feeling like you’re high on coke trying to absorb everything around you.

I was thankfully(?) part of the latter category. However, I will say this, being in Tokyo for more than a week or two would have to exhausting. I love it, but I would never want to live there.

Along the same lines, Tokyo is not a pretty city by any definition or stretch of the imagination. It really has no skyline and no real central area; it is more of a giant sprawl with multiple central areas.

Tokyo is a city full of unbelievable energy, and it has something for everyone. If you’re looking for peaceful, inexplicably silent shrines in the heart of the city, Tokyo has it. If you want non-stop sounds and flashing lights, Tokyo has it. If you want any subculture under the sun, Tokyo has it. But as a cohesive whole, Tokyo doesn’t seem to work; it’s just too big.

A person could be in Tokyo for 10 days and not even see all of Shinjuku station, so imagine the spec of Tokyo a tourist has time to see. I’m guessing that a person could live their entire life in Tokyo and not see all of the city.

Anyway, on the nonstop sounds and flashing lights angle, here is a video montage of some video I shot around Shibuya, set to, what else, “Loud. Electronic. Ferocious.”




(I have no idea why the video cuts off like that, but until I get it fixed just pretend there's a legitimate ending.)

That’s how I choose to remember Tokyo: Loud. Electronic. Ferocious.

(I will be posting other videos to that youtube account, so check back often!)