The Great Voyage Vol. 226: A Tale of Tokyo, by Stephen Mansfield [English] and published by China Translation Publishing House.
On August 8, 2021, the 32nd Summer Olympic Games, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, which was one year late, came to an end, and at the moment of the global spread of the epidemic, the spirit of Olympico and the hard work and style of athletes once again gave the world unlimited motivation, and Tokyo once again became the focus of global attention. Whenever I talk about Tokyo, I always think of "Tokyo Love Story", although it is a film and television work 30 years ago, but I am deeply attracted when I think back to the first time I saw this drama on TV.
It's not because the love story inside isn't complete, after all, it was only a few years old at that time. I saw that the streets of Tokyo at that time were full of high-rise buildings, the roads were full of traffic, the infrastructure was complete, the economy was developing rapidly, everyone was dressed in fashion, the home supplies were avant-garde, the neon at night was intoxicating, and I saw the development and modernization of the city. In my opinion, Tokyo has a strong cultural diversity and explorable depth, including food cultures from all over the world, as well as changing trends, cutting-edge technology and humane service, and you can feel the traditions of the eight million gods and reach out to touch the changing seasons.
I had a personal experience on an educational exchange trip ten years ago, and if you want to understand Japan today, then Tokyo is the best window. Recently, I was reading the city biography of Stephen Mansfield, a British writer and freelance photojournalist living in Japan, on Tokyo, which made me see the changes and development of the city in a more three-dimensional way, and felt its unique history and modernity, noise and tranquility, classic and frontier. The reason why Tokyo can become Tokyo is also based on its historical construction planning positioning.
According to the will of the goddess, Ota Michigan built a castle called "Edo" in an ordinary small fishing village, and after a hundred years of wind and rain, under the leadership of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the castle-building movement was launched, history continued to evolve, the seeds grew from the buds, and the city gradually took shape, but the shogunate era ended, a fierce fire, let the former glory burned, countless people were buried in the sea of fire, Edo Castle was razed to the ground. Everything is looking forward to the formation of a new order, and after another period of construction and development, the glory of the Meiji era has arrived, but the relentless earthquake has submerged the city, and compared with natural disasters, the war is even more indifferent and ruthless.
A city is a property created by people, and a city, no matter how big or small, has a history that is different from any other city. Stephen Mansfield's biography of Tokyo chronicles the changes in the city of Tokyo, leading us through Tokyo's past, where the city went in the face of natural disasters, wars and other disasters, and how the city responded. After hundreds of years of wind and rain, the city of Tokyo has overcome various natural and man-made disasters again and again, such as the phoenix thriving in the rebirth of the fire, but it is these disasters that have finally achieved Tokyo's self-reshaping.
It is an all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, renewed, polarized, devastating and reborn tokyo on several occasions. Today's Center of Japan Tokyo, as of December 2020, with a population of 13.96 million, Tokyo's comprehensive strength evaluation is the first in Asia, the international community practices to see it as a western London, New York, Paris side by side, in Tokyo, you can experience many aspects of Japanese culture, to some extent, Tokyo represents Japan. After reading the "Tokyo Biography", understanding the development of Tokyo from a historical perspective, understanding the political environment, economic development, social atmosphere and life of Tokyo in different periods, we can understand why it has a rare strong integration force and becomes a rich and diverse mixture.