Life in world class cities vs. everywhere else

Originally Posted by Fuuma

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I like to be walking down the street, be "I'm hungry", stop at some random place, be served relatively quickly and have an average to good meal, this happens waaaay more often in Rome than Paris, for example..

When I see SFer planning eating trips and doing everything in advance in a frantic attempt to cram all the "must try" places in four days I feel totally alienated from the forum. As I stated numerous times the elevation of art of living into a sort of art (food for food) really goes against how I want to approach day to day activities.

Any city/town/village in Japan if you choose Japanese food you'll be served relatively quickly and have an average to good meal at almost any shop.

Try doing anything with any Japanese person without planning every last detail and they'll have a melt down. Or try doing some activity without first buying all the latest equipment and preparing with an intensive six week training course! Faaaaarkkkk I just wanna go surfing/fishing/play golf, give me a board/rod/bag of clubs and a pair of shorts for fuk sake.

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

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I don't like how Paris bunches all the skyscrapers into La Defense; much prefer London in this respect. And in general, London modern architecture is rivaled only by New York.
I don't know about Ho Chi Minh. I was just there recently and was quite excited about going but it was very disappointing, like a third tier Chinese city. At least the food was good. Not at all like Shanghai or Beijing.

Is there another London? I think using the word architecture to describe the pile of poo that is modern London is stretching it.

Originally Posted by holymadness

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Brussels has enough to keep you entertained for about four hours, though they do have a world-class men's clothing store. Coincidentally, the only time I ever stepped in dog **** in Europe was in Brussels.
One of my closest friends used to work at a very nice restaurant in Chicago. Apparently her French co-workers were always making fun of Belgians and she never understood why. Then one day the Belgian ambassador to the U.S. dined at the restaurant. He was courteous, tipped fine, and walked out of the restaurant with his napkin hanging from where he had tucked it into his trousers.

Originally Posted by Fang66

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Is there another London? I think using the word architecture to describe the pile of poo that is modern London is stretching it.

We get it. You really don't like London. The debate here is not favourite cities, however, but world class cities. Yes, we're struggling to define 'world class', but I think the vast majority would include London near the top of any such list. It is a huge financial centre, a hub for many other major industries, has a rich cultural spread (music, art, opera, sports, theatre, etc.), and satisfies many of the other criteria suggested here.

Originally Posted by holymadness

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Nonsense. The only truly expensive aspect of living in a huge metropolis is accommodation. If you can find a decent apartment (and I grant this can be a large if), you can find and do anything else for a reasonable amount of money. Paris can be very comfortably lived in starting at €40k/year, including regular trips to superb restaurants and the opera/theatre. The principal advantage of huge world cities, in fact, is the absence of a monoculture; there are aspects that will appeal to both rich and poor.

This, but with one proviso: having children ranks right up there with housing in terms of enormous expenses. First, they double, if not treble, what you would otherwise spend on housing. Also, urban public schools can often be of poor quality, and private school is prohibitively expensive.

I moved from NYC to Denver for the express purpose of having/raising kids. I pay approximately $12k/annum per kid for private preschool ($24k/annum total). Schools of lesser quality in NYC cost double that. Moreover, the public schools here are excellent. As someone who once taught in a public Manhattan school -- for the "gifted" no less -- I will say only that I was unimpressed.

NYC is eminently doable on the cheap, however, if you're young and unattached. When I moved to the city in the mid-90's, I earned about $50k a year and got by just fine. Found the cheap apartment -- or rather, a succession of them -- and everything else took care of itself. It cost maybe 85 cents or $1 for a subway fare at the time. What more does a single guy need?

Originally Posted by Fang66

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I could drop everything and move to Paris tomorrow if my wife was up for it.

I'd be happy if you just moved somewhere without an internet connection.

Originally Posted by Fang66

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I live in and love Tokyo been here for a decade but if you think things are well made you are obviously immersed in the disposable culture The food (in general) is meh compared to other places in Japan and especially the world. Restaurant scene is OK but shopping for produce is a joke.

I think in large cities different people have different experiences, and this leads to different impressions. My impression is that things are well made (in general better than anywhere else in the world). In general the food is better, and especially the top tier stuff is better than anywhere else in the world. The good part about the food is that you can get a much better variety than other large cities. Then moving on to produce, you can get the best selection in the world. Virtually anything you can think of from the world is available in Tokyo. In other large cities, there are a lot of things you can't get. As for daily produce, I guess it just depends on where you shop, which is no different from any other city. Now if we include "value" in the equation then things change a lot.

I think I read a comment about pizza. That I have to agree if you are talking N.Y. style pizza, but it's not like you can find any in other non U.S. major cities either. If you are talking about Italian style pizza, there are probably more places now than Italy and the majority of them are genuine.

Originally Posted by Dragon

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I think in large cities different people have different experiences, and this leads to different impressions. My impression is that things are well made (in general better than anywhere else in the world). In general the food is better, and especially the top tier stuff is better than anywhere else in the world. The good part about the food is that you can get a much better variety than other large cities. Then moving on to produce, you can get the best selection in the world. Virtually anything you can think of from the world is available in Tokyo. In other large cities, there are a lot of things you can't get. As for daily produce, I guess it just depends on where you shop, which is no different from any other city. Now if we include "value" in the equation then things change a lot.

I think I read a comment about pizza. That I have to agree if you are talking N.Y. style pizza, but it's not like you can find any in other non U.S. major cities either. If you are talking about Italian style pizza, there are probably more places now than Italy and the majority of them are genuine.

It may be true that the best of the best is available in Tokyo (in some cases it is) but you have to search it out. Also there is little middle ground between 3 star and pizza with mayo and corn.


Please let me know where you do your shopping because I really don’t see how you can get the best selection of produce in the world in Tokyo. Sure for some specific things like some fruit and say ***** tuna for example that may be true but in general the supermarkets are a joke and other quality shops or markets cater almost exlusively to Japanese oriented food. Walk into a random supermarket and try to buy a leg of lamb, impossible, or even a whole chicken is often problematic, try to buy something as simple as a ham bone or even a proper ham! Yes you can get anything you want in Tokyo just less easily than almost any large (or medium) sized city in the western world.

ps the pizza comment was just a generalisation of how the Japanese ******** up even the simplest of food.

Originally Posted by Gene Parmesan

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We get it. You really don't like London. The debate here is not favourite cities, however, but world class cities. Yes, we're struggling to define 'world class', but I think the vast majority would include London near the top of any such list. It is a huge financial centre, a hub for many other major industries, has a rich cultural spread (music, art, opera, sports, theatre, etc.), and satisfies many of the other criteria suggested here.

Sorry I made you cry, probably a whiney Londoner.

Yes London has all of the positives you mention, so is there some unwritten code of conduct against pointing out how it also sucks dogs cocks?

I stepped in dogshit in Paris. Twice

Originally Posted by Fang66

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It may be true that the best of the best is available in Tokyo (in some cases it is) but you have to search it out. Also there is little middle ground between 3 star and pizza with mayo and corn.


Please let me know where you do your shopping because I really don't see how you can get the best selection of produce in the world in Tokyo. Sure for some specific things like some fruit and say ***** tuna for example that may be true but in general the supermarkets are a joke and other quality shops or markets cater almost exlusively to Japanese oriented food. Walk into a random supermarket and try to buy a leg of lamb, impossible, or even a whole chicken is often problematic, try to buy something as simple as a ham bone or even a proper ham! Yes you can get anything you want in Tokyo just less easily than almost any large (or medium) sized city in the western world.

ps the pizza comment was just a generalisation of how the Japanese ******** up even the simplest of food.

Thats because dont want to ******** like lamb or crappy ham. Jesus, not everyone wants to have a god damn slice of pizza. The last thing my friends craze in Japan is a slice of pizza. But Im sure they have awesome pizza in Paris for your American ass dont you worry.

It's surprisingly hard to get good Italian food outside of Italy.

Originally Posted by holymadness

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It's surprisingly hard to get good Italian food outside of Italy.

Unless, of course, you live in New Jersey.

Originally Posted by mm84321

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Unless, of course, you live in New Jersey.
That is not Italian food. That is Jersey food.

Originally Posted by Dashaansafin

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Thats because dont want to ******** like lamb or crappy ham. Jesus, not everyone wants to have a god damn slice of pizza. The last thing my friends craze in Japan is a slice of pizza. But Im sure they have awesome pizza in Paris for your American ass dont you worry.

Dragon is of the opinion that Tokyo offers the best of everything. I disagree.
I gave examples that illustrate a point; I could name many other items that are not popular in Japan and thus less than readily available.

I don't craze [sic] lamb, ham or pizza I generally eat Japanese staples, the point is that Tokyo is lacking in the availability of international cuisine and produce compared to other cities.

Also I'm not American and neither is ******, and you can eat the crotch out of Amy Winehouse's panties for all I care you lice infested turd sniffer.