Essay for IE2 writing(Comparison & Contrast)

Good evening :)

Today, I'd like to put on the essay which I wrote  it in the first semester. We learned to write "Conparison and Contrast" in the IE2 writing class. My title of that essay was "Tokyo and Osaka".

Tokyo and Osaka

     Tokyo and Osaka are two big cities in Japan. Tokyo, which is the capital of Japan, lies in the east of Japan. Osaka is located in the west of Japan and has the second largest population following Tokyo. These two largest cities have both similarities and differences.

     First of all, both Tokyo and Osaka have been the center of culture, so they are famous for tourist sites. Tokyo Tower is one of the most famous tourist sites in Tokyo. It has a mean of communication and is an observation tower which is located in Shiba Park. Its height is 332 meters, and it is the second tallest artificial structure in Japan. Tochu Naito, the designer of Tokyo Tower, was inspired by Effel Tower in Paris, so the color of Tokyo Tower is red and white. The tower is also a support structure for an antenna. Today, the tower is used to broadcast signals for Japanese media outlets, such as NHK, TBS, and Fuji TV. Osaka has a similar symbolic tower, too. The tower’s name is Tsutenkaku. It was also patterned after Effel tower, but it doesn’t have a function of broadcasting like Tokyo Tower. It’s an observatory and a symbol of Osaka. The height of is about 100 meters. It is smaller than ordinary high-rise buildings, but the figure which is illuminated is so beautiful that Tsutenkaku has been loved by many people for a long time. These two towers are the most famous tourist sites in Japan and a number of tourists come and see them every day.

     Secondly, both cities have long histories. In the Edo period, Ieyasu Tokugawa built Edo Castle in Tokyo and established Tokugawa Shogunate there. This made Tokyo become the capital of Japan. Tokugawa Shogunate practiced politics in Edo Castle, so the city of Edo was called “Shogun-no-Ohizamoto”. Edo Castle doesn’t exist now because of “Great Kanto Earthquake(1923)” and “Tokyo Airstrike(1945)”. The vestige of Edo Castle is now Tokyo Imperial Palace. Osaka faced the sea and there were many rivers, so it was the center of transportation. At that time, Osaka was one of the largest commercial cities, so it was called “Tenka-no-Daidokoro”. There were many kurayashiki, the storage of rice and special products of each area, and merchants worked busily.

     It seems that both of the cities have brilliant histories, but they have negative histories, too. In 1923, Tokyo had a big earthquake called “Great Kanto Earthquake”. The quake had a magunitude of 7.9 and caused widespread damage throughout the Kanto area. There were 105,000 confirmed death in this earthquake. In 1960, a Japanese government declared September 1 as an annual “Disaster Prevention Drill Day”. Osaka also had a big earthquake in 1995. It is called “Great Hanshin Earthquake”. Approximately 6,434 people lost their lives. This has been Japan’s worst earthquake since Great Kanto Earthquake.

     In conclusion, Tokyo and Osaka do not only have many tourist sites, but they also have long history, both positive and negative, and the ways of flourishing are different; Tokyo was an important place of politics and Osaka was an important place of commerce. It is good for us to visit two cities to learn more about Japanese history.