Dead Frank

There is nothing that subsitutes for first hand experience.  You cannot learn how to fly a plane just from reading a book.  This is why you need to log hours before they give you a pilots license.  You’re going to have a tough time learning how to paint a picture just by watching Bob Ross and never picking up  brush.  And so will you have a hard time understanding how huge some of these office buildings are without standing at the very base of them and looking up.

Perhaps what is so remarkable about these skyscrapers in Tokyo is not so much the height but frequency with which they occur around the city.  Most metropolitian areas have a cluster of sky scrapers in the central financial districts.  The heights of buildings taper off outside this core.  Tokyo has massive office buildings sprinkled throughout the metropolitian area in every ward.

The best way I can describe Tokyo is through a metaphor that will make sense to most Californians.  Take Los Angeles and make the entire thing as dense as San Francisco.  Triple the number of skyscrapers from both cities.  Now increase the average size of the buildings to eight stories.  That’s Tokyo.