Tokyo was originally known
as Edo, which means "estuary". Its name was changed to
Tokyo (Tokyo: to (east) + kyo (capital)) when it became the
imperial capital in 1868. In line with the East Asian tradition
of including the word capital in the name of the capital city.
During the early Meiji period, the city was also called
"Tokei", an alternative pronunciation for the same
Chinese characters representing "Tokyo". Some surviving
official English documents use the spelling
"Tokei".However, this pronunciation is now obsolete.
Population as of August 1, 2011 for the Metropolis was
13,185,502. So it's a huge city, but the metro is a very good
alternative to get around as stations are named in english also,
and the same on the metro, next station appear in english. And it
was the same on the train. So get hold of a good map, and you
will be able to get around.
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