Advice about living in Tokyo and Contemporary Japanese culture?

I may be moving to Tokyo in a year or two and I would like to learn more about the city and about contemporary Japanese culture. As a capital city I am sure they have a lot to do, what kind of Opera is available in Tokyo? what about concerts? What sort of holidays and festivals do they celebrate in japan? I know Tokyo is a very crowded city, how does this affect people living there? is it rare to find an empty street or corner of a park?


Any advice or information is appreciated, thank you.Advice about living in Tokyo and Contemporary Japanese culture?
First of all, Japan is not western Opera maniac country. Most of all Japanese don't pay western Opera at all. They neither understand English nor Italian. Some fake Opera are played by Japanese, which are absolutely nothing but grunge.





Don't expect any good Opera performance in Tokyo like New York, Paris, Vienna or Rome. Your opportunity to watch them in Tokyo would be rather lower than as if you were in Fresno, CA.





There is traditional Japanese classic Kabuki alike Opera, but it is totally different from genuine western Opera and played by Japanese only. You may take some interpreter ear phone to understand what they say in English though. It is anyway not Contemporary Japanese culture.





Actually western Opera itself is not any contemporary culture, it is?





Talking about concert, there are yes of course, so many concerts from classic music to pop music of overseas and Japanese. J-POP music is still very popular among young generation of Japanese.





I don't think any western classic music is strongly supported by them. Of course, there are always core maniacs for the particular category of art everywhere. Tokyo is no exception.





Re holidays of Japan, please refer this below.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holidays_of鈥?/a>





Festivals are so many to tell here as same as every country has. But one thing you have to be noticed in advance, this country is not Christian country.





Christian religious ceremony is not first priority there. Buddhists or non religious Japanese are many who don't pay any attention to church. This is one of indifferent peculiarity from westen culture. There is no church in center of any city but those just remain unknown in Tokyo.





Talking about crowdness of Tokyo, just imagine Manhattan. People who are in crowded place will resemble either way. They look indifferent to outsider, feel invisible pressures, conceited too much on surface, however, are also still very honest, generous, intellectual and patient.





You can easily find out empty street, corner of park or vacant seat at free place on weed-day morning to early afternoon. There are many large park, like Yoyogi park, Hibiya park, Ueno park, Imperial palace park etc.





To recongnize modern Japanese culture, Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Akihabara are the places you must go. Seeing is believing. Eating is relieving. So enjoy Tokyo.Advice about living in Tokyo and Contemporary Japanese culture?
Tokyo isn't a city (technically) it is a large Metropolis with many cities, towns in it. Yes Tokyo is very crowded during the work day, it can get very crowded on trains during the morning and evening rush, however it is not rare to find an empty street or corner of a park in the off non rush hours. Nishi Shinjuku (West Shinjuku) is a business district full of people during the daytime, but in the evening when business hours are off, it can be deader then a doorknob, but thats because everyone went to East Shinjuku and it gets busy there. It is just a matter of time and place you are in Tokyo that determines how busy or not busy it is.
While Tokyo is very populated, there are still a lot of quiet residential areas, parks and little corners you can get away. People tend to congregate in certain areas.





I'm assuming when you say ';opera';, you mean of the western variety. While I'm not certain, I'd say your chances of finding it in Tokyo are much higher than in other parts of the country. And I know it's on TV fairly often (too often for me :P ) And for concerts, again, your chances of getting bigger acts are pretty much guaranteed in Tokyo as opposed to other cities. They even had Mariah Carey throwing the first pitch at a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome (where a lot of concerts are) this year (which landed promptly on the ground in front of her silver platform stillettos...lmao)





Festivals vary depending on which area you're in. And of course there are the small local festivals that aren't widely known. Lots of fun. As for holidays (ones where people actually do something, not just the random long weekend) the major ones are probably Obon (August), New Years (duh) and Golden Week (first week of May). These are the times where there are quite a few days off and people will travel or go back to their hometowns. Western festicals and holidays are more more of a commercial things and a time to learn about other cultures.





As for Tokyo being busy, aside from sometimes getting flustered at train stations, it really wasn't a problem. The transportation system is amazing once you get used to it.
Have you tried to google Tokyo on your own? I am sure you will find a lot of information. I live in Tokyo and I know there are different types of opera that people go to, from traditional Japanese type to the Italian one to the contemporary musical. But I have not attended any one of them yet. As for concerts, there are a lot of concerts hold by both Japanese and international singers. One of my kids' teacher went to a Maroon 5 concert a few months ago.





The biggest holidays they celebrate besides New Years, is the Obon holiday when Japanese go back to their home town, Golden Week takes place in May and a lot of families use that time to travel either domestically or internationally. I know a few families from my kids' school use that time to visit Hawaii. Cherry Blossom festival takes place in March/April, usually people have a picnic in the park, I have not done that because it's usually so packed with people, but the cherry blossom is beautiful around that time of the year.





Tokyo is very crowded, living space is very limited, one of the things I really miss about the US ...so expect everything to be smaller to accomendate the lack of space. Even Japanese strollers are smaller than the American ones.





Some back alley streets may be empty at night, but I usually don't walk through them. Though Tokyo is a very safe city, and I haven't encountered any problem when walking at night, I avoid back alley streets and travel on busy well lighted-streets. Just common sense stuff.





Been here for close to 2 years due to my husband's job. Everything is fine though I miss having a job...