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Tokyo — The Ultimate Big City

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With 37 Mio habitants it has more than ten times more people than Berlin

Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world

The GDP of the Tokyo is bigger than the GDP of Russia

Despite being ultra-modern, Tokyo was originally a small fishing village called Edo before becoming the political center in the 17th century

The city was almost completely destroyed twice — first in the Great Kantō Earthquake and later during Bombing of Tokyo in 1945

Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city in the world

Trains in Tokyo are famously punctual — delays of even a minute can come with formal apologies

The city is extremely safe, with very low crime rates compared to other megacities

Even with its dense population, Tokyo has many quiet temples, gardens, and neighborhoods that feel far removed from the urban intensity

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Hiroshima: When Time Stops

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A visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park inevitably begins with a single date: August 6, 1945.

At 8:15 a.m., the United States dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy” over Hiroshima. Within seconds, the city was engulfed in a blinding flash and a fireball hotter than the surface of the sun. Buildings were vaporized, tens of thousands of people killed instantly. By the end of the year, around 140,000 people had died — many from burns, radiation, and injuries that medicine at the time could not treat.

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Japan: Hiking around Koya-San

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The funny animal I saw, first scared me, because there where some bear warnings and it looked like a big raccoon 🙂
Later I was able to google it with the picture I took and found out that it is a goat-antelope called “Japanese serow”. It is native to Japan, often found in mountainous forests. They’re usually solitary and surprisingly calm, which is why they sometimes just stand and observe – like in the photo.