Each chapter ends with a sub-section describing a particular Tokyo district -- the up-market residential area of Denenchofu, the reclaimed Odaiba waterfront, the volcanic foothills of Hakone. These sections are a weak feature, giving the book an air of having been written to a formula, a criticism it elsewhere doesn't necessarily deserve.
The Japanese must be getting used to seeing their capital described by foreigners as a city teetering on the brink. Author Peter Popham, for instance, the current Delhi correspondent for London's The Independent newspaper, published a book in the 1980s called Tokyo: City at the End of the World. Presumably it's Tokyo's location off the easternmost extremity of the planet's largest landmass that leads to the thought -- that and the precariousness of its existence. It was almost wholly destroyed twice in the 20th century, by earthquake in 1923, and by US fire-bombing in 1945.
But it's the comparisons with Taipei that are irresistible -- Tokyo's Shibuya versus Taipei's Hsimenting, Tokyo's Hakone versus Yangmingshan, plus all the things that are so very similar -- youth fashions, total strangers saying "Hi!" or "Good morning!" in English as you pass, the Tokyo Walker/ Taipei Walker magazines, Mitsukoshi and Seibu department stores, Doutor coffeeshops, and even the threat of earthquakes.
The similarities may outnumber the differences, but differences there are nonetheless. Taipei's young women cannot necessarily be said to take the lead in fashion, with the young men following "clumsily behind." Nor is a rise in crime ever attributed to an influx of foreigners here, as it routinely is in Japan.
But the conclusion any Taipei resident must come to after reading this account is how very much more pleasant and congenial this city is to the Japanese capital. The fashionable Taiwanese young may look up to all things Japanese, but the mega-stress Tokyo provokes stands in strong contrast to Taipei's altogether more laid-back, and economical, ambiance.
Taiwan may be aspiring to equal Japan in many ways -- it's soon to create a shinkansen super-fast train, for instance -- but for the time being Taipei remains far and away the more attractive city. No six-hour round-trip commuting here, and should you miss the last bus to your home in Keelung, the taxi fare for one person is far from being a hundred US bucks.
This, nevertheless, is a useful compilation rather than a vivid personal account. If, as the publisher claims, it is the best introduction to this world-class city available, it is more for want of a better than on account of its own incontestable merits.
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