Unified style is overrated. London is gorgeous and it's because of its mixing of modernity with the ancient. It feels fluid and alive. Same with Tokyo. Feels magical. By comparison, old European cities feel like tombs.
No reason to look at publicly photos when street view shows what the city actually looks like.
It's really interesting how anti-Zen it all is, and how the disharmony of Japanese cities contrasts with the harmony, balance, and simplicity of Japanese parks and temples.
Again, as an urbanist, I ADORE Japan; the public transportation, the convenience, the dense urban fabric, but you cannot deny how ugly it all is haha
You obviously only lived in Tokyo. I live in the inaka, and it is horrible urban sprawl: a million little houses scattered everywhere, and the random big supermarket or shop here and there. There is no public transportation, and you need the car for everything. I absolutely hate it.
Seeing different architecture styles of different periods of time somehow creating a cohesion is a wonderful experience, but I think it only works if the city is big enough (I have a blast in Tokyo just for that reason!). Toronto is trying out quite a lot of "save facade, build a glass house on top of it", which I'm kind of enjoying when I visit the city. Wondering how it'll look 5-6 years later.