tokyo megacity

This photographic Tokyo travel guide explores the dynamic Japanese culture, art and architecture that make Tokyo a unique, world-class city.

It has been said that "every city has its high points, but Tokyo is all exclamation points " The largest and most populous city in the world, Tokyo is best experienced in-person. The next best way? Through Tokyo Megacity--a visual and descriptive exploration of a city that combines old with new and traditional with trendy, like no other city in the world.

This extraordinary book explores Tokyo through more than 250 revealing photographs by well-known photographer Ben Simmons and over 30 essays by famed author Donald Richie. Their love of the city, sense of its history, and the deep respect and pure joy felt in being here, shine through on every page. Simmons and Richie show us how modern Tokyo evolved from a patchwork of villages that still exist today as distinct neighborhoods and districts to the modern, trendsetting metropolis renowned the world over--that combine to make Tokyo a unique and special place.

Tokyo Megacity presents the districts of the city in the order that they originally developed, starting with the Imperial Palace, sliding down to the "Low City" along the Sumida River, soaring back up to the "Mid-City," and finally, climbing the hills to the newer districts of the "High City." The combination of Ben Simmons' photographs and Donald Richie's text capture the tremendous diversity, vitality and sheer livability of Tokyo.

This new edition is updated with recent photos, up-to-date revisions and new sections on the Tsukiji Fish Market and Tokyo Skytree.

Donald Richie (1924-2013), novelist, essayist, journalist, and film scholar, was born in Lima, Ohio, in 1924, but had spent most of the last sixty years witnessing and reporting on the transformation of Japan from postwar devastation to economic powerhouse. He was the author of some forty books of fiction and nonfiction, dozens of speeches and essays, and hundreds of book, film, and arts reviews.

Ben Simmons grew up in Columbus, Georgia. He studied photography and psychology in Upstate New York before completing a Master of Fine Arts in photography and art history at the University of Florida. Simmons taught photography at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina before relocating to Japan. Ben, owner of Ben Simmons Photography Inc., travels the world specializing in graphic evocative images for assignments, photo-essays, books, and original prints. Recent books include Japanese Architecture and Kyoto: City of Zen.