Before I moved to Tokyo, so many people asked me the same two questions: how do you feel about being shoved into a train, and are you going to go to that big crosswalk? After a year and a half, I can tell you that the trains are no more crowded than those back home and that infamous crossing is not unique in Japan nor representative of Tokyo as a whole.

It became especially clear after returning home that most people’s impression of Tokyo is simply that it’s really crowded. Sure there are crowded shopping streets and tourist destinations, but nobody lives in those parts of town. As a fan of urban living, I want people to understand that dense does not mean crowded. It means walkable and accessible.

In this guide, I attempt to show that the beauty of Tokyo lies in its compact, truly neighborly neighborhoods and how essential freedom of movement and freedom of construction is for the health and stability of communities.