35M

i've been lucky enough to travel many of the largest cities in the world. And generally, I can feel all 20 million people in these cities. it is often claustrophobic in mumbai, mexico city, sao paolo, new york, delhi, manila etc...

greater Tokyo has 35M people, and there is an order to the way people live. everyone knows that at some point during your day, you must give into this order, or this city will become chaotic.

so people wait at cross walks, even though there are no cars to be seen.

people rarely bark on their cell phones in public.

everything is on time. everyone is prompt.

people are friendly. no one gets angry.

and so on and so on. everyone at some point falls into line and it makes this city work and i rarely feel overwhelmed.

....until i get up high enough to see how much humanity is actually here.