Situated on the Kanto plain in the middle of Honshu, Tokyo (pronounced "To-o-kyo-o," in four syllables)--home to 12.7 million people--is the geographic center of Japan.
...Although Tokyo is commonly referred to as a "city" in English, it is actually a prefecture (like a state) with a governor, and officially called Tokyo-to (Tokyo metropolitan prefecture). This narrow piece of land, measuring 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from north to south and 90 kilometers (56 miles) from east to west, is divided into 23 core ku (city wards) and 26 cities, five towns, and eight villages extending west. Included in the villages are the Izu and Ogasawara Islands, dotting the Pacific like skipping stones.
Sound a little crowded? Certainly, when you're rubbing elbows with eight million people in the core ku. Even so, most Tokyoites--or New Yorkers or Parisians--would very likely say, "So what if it's crowded? It's convenient," and disparage the countryside as too far out of the way. If you love noise, lights, crowds, trains, and a full palette of choices for how to spend your time, then Tokyo maybe the place for you. (If, on the other hand, you love solitude, gardening, and animals, suffer from asthma or allergies, or play the trumpet, you might prefer to live elsewhere in Japan--see the other prime living location chapters for ideas.)
(excerpt from p. 208)