There are a lot of surprising things about Tokyo. That itself shouldn’t be surprising given it is a totally different culture to anywhere I have lived. It was very well illustrated after we finished dinner last night.

The surprise results from an incorrect perception.

Most people seem to think Tokyo is a 24 / 7 kind of town – bright lights, big city, continual buzz.

It is. And it isn’t.

Pumpkin Time is 11pm.

I was reminded of this after dinner last night when we went to Takeshita Dori, in Harajuku, with the intention of seeing some of the fashions. And to have an ice-cream. It is a vibrant place, a hub of activity and an abundance of buzz.

Tumbleweed.

With 37 million or so people, the city itself is quite spread out so it has a lower population density than New York in spite of having significantly more people than 8.5m. Tokyo is the world’s most populated metropolitan area.

The Greater Tokyo area is significantly larger than Greater London and can hold its own, size-wise, against Great Britain itself.

So what I’m saying is that it’s big and has a lot of people. This is where the buzz comes from. Albeit a very polite buzz. And a mostly well-dressed buzz.

After dinner, the buzz either goes out or goes home.

Trying to get this many people home in an efficient way as possible is left mostly to the incredibly comprehensive and efficient train system. They stop running at around 11pm. Roughly the same time that taxi prices increase.

Remember how spread out Tokyo is?

To miss the last train and catch a taxi is ridiculously expensive to most of the areas where people actually live. This leads to a rush for the last trains. That said, some people just stay out and catch the first train that runs in the morning back to their home (these are around 5am). Fine for a weekend but during the week, this is a little rough (the concept of “school night” doesn’t seem to be that big here, particularly among the salarymen). Those people tend to stay in the capsule hotels before going to work.

This doesn’t mean all of Tokyo closes down before Pumpkin Time.

Takeshita Dori does. No cosplayers, no ice-cream and no touristy knick-knacks. As an aside, this place does sell the largest fairy-floss / candy floss I’ve ever seen. Before 11pm.

There are areas where tumbleweed isn’t rolling. These areas tend to be nearer to residential places so locals stay out or Roppongi, mostly tourists with a smattering of locals.

* Thanks to Gwen Stefani for the title to this post. Not surprisingly, this song was inspired by the area. Catchy tune that does explain the area pretty well, before 11pm.