Japan 2000: Tokyo - Capital of Shoguns and Ninjas....

"The meaning of life is to give life a meaning..."

Tokyo & Hiroshima

(4 -23 September 2000)

I was in Japan for the ODA Loan Seminar from 4 – 23 September. We had the opportunity to visit a few factories in Hiroshima over the weekend and joined a guided sight seeing of the city and nearby island.
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(A tour of Tokyo city)

Tokyo, symbol of the Japanese success story, is a sprawling megalopolis on the Pacific coast of Honshu, the largest island of the Japanese archipelago. In 1590, the city was founded as Edo, the capital of the shoguns, the succession of hereditary absolute rulers of Japan and commander of the Japanese army. Edo boasted its own vibrant culture, the celebrated ‘floating world’ of pleasure quarters, theatres and cherry blossoms, immortalised in the Japanese woodblock prints of the time. Following the fall of the shoguns in 1867, the city was renamed Tokyo, the Eastern Capital, heralding its rebirth as a dynamic modern city and the showpiece of a rapidly modernising country. Despite the catastrophic 1923 earthquake and near obliteration during World War II, Tokyo was able to rise from the ashes to host the 1964 Olympics and went on to preside over the Japanese economic miracle.

(Visiting the Royal Palace)

Tokyo enjoys a temperate climate, with warm although sometimes muggy summers and mild, dry winters. The balmy spring days or in autumn are the best times to visit the city.

👈2000: Hiroshima, Japan  

1999: Paris, France 👉