The lights of Shinjuku at night.

To try and sum up Tokyo on this page seems, I think, overly ambitious. This page will be, then, just what our trip was: an attempt to cover in broad strokes the outline of a city with so many faces.

Tokyo is, today, what it has always been from the beginning: bold, new, and ever changing. From the first, Tokyo - or Edo, as it was first known - represented a radical break from the past. Chosen as the capital by the third of Japan's great latter-day military dictators, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tokyo was a

pointed departure from the politicking and the power-brokering that had for centuries been centred in Kyoto.

By breaking from cloistered Kyoto and channeling the wealth and resources of his foes into ambitious building projects in the new capital, Ieyasu was able to set the mold for an entirely different political, economic and cultural centre for the country that was to become - by the time Commodore Perry steamed into Tokyo Bay in the 1860's - one of the most populous cities in the world.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Centre - the towering home of Tokyo's bureaucrats in Shinjuku.

Best thought of as the chaotic amalgam of the smaller former cities and districts that it really is, Tokyo shows a different face depending on which part of the bewildering mass one emerges into. There is Shinjuku, the bustling centre of business in the city during the day, and of drinking during the nights. Ginza, the exclusive realm of the well-heeled. Roppongi, the haven for foreigners...and centre for sleazy nightlife (an unfortunate...coincidence?) Ebisu, the up-and-coming area for shopping and nightlife, and the home of one of Japan's original big brewing companies. Shibuya, the inspiration for Bladerunner and of countless fashion crazes throughout Japan. Akihabara, the discount electronics district where shops

peddle all of the latest gadgets you never knew you needed.

This is, of course, to name only a few. Stricken with the enormity of the task, I was hard-pressed to wrap my head around all that is Tokyo in the three days that I was there. Nor can I say that in our travels to the capital, we were able to see any of the many temples or shrines that have escaped the steady onslaught of modernity, but then - having come from Kyoto - that was hardly my priority.

I have since travelled to Tokyo again, and more than anything I found myself trying to answer the question: "Why was I going to move here?" Tokyo's manic energy is something that seems best enjoyed as a Tourist, and after spending three straight days in the bustling Shinjuku district in May, I realized that I would have been a very unhappy camper if, indeed, I had transferred to Tokyo to work.