>It's kind of a surreal dreamscape of unbroken high density urbanity
the funny thing is Tokyo's not even that dense, about a third as dense as Paris or Barcelona, and very sprawlish and suburban (IIRC 75% of the city is suburbs) but transit is indeed excellent and at least they don't inhibit construction to run a housing value racket.
But the suburbs themselves are interesting in tokyo! There are always bars, shops, shrines, gardens, rivers, playgrounds...I've never found that sort of liminal neighbourhood made of rows and rows of identical houses with no one out in the street as I've found in America and Europe.
the funny thing is Tokyo's not even that dense, about a third as dense as Paris or Barcelona, and very sprawlish and suburban (IIRC 75% of the city is suburbs) but transit is indeed excellent and at least they don't inhibit construction to run a housing value racket.