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New York is called the Big Apple, Seattle is the Emerald City. Does 東京 have a
nickname?
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2018-07-14T19:55:59.673
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2018-07-15T08:29:20.450
2018-07-15T08:29:20.450
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Does 東京 have a nickname?
Tokyo **_does not_** have a nickname in the same sense that New York City has
the nickname, the Big Apple.

Tokyo can occasionally be referred to by its old name 「江戸{えど}」 when that fits
the speaker/writer's aesthetic purposes. One would definitely need a native-
level fluency to use it "correctly". If used randomly, it would sound
ludicrous at best.

It is not a common practice at all to give towns nicknames in Japanese
culture, but as a rare exception, quite a few places (most notably 金沢{かなざわ})
are often referred to as 「小京都{しょうきょうと}」 ("Little Kyoto") mainly for tourism-
related purposes. It is a compliment in our culture to say that a town or area
reminds one of Kyoto.

Back to Tokyo...

If the degree of recognition in the present time did not matter, Tokyo was
called **the Big Mikan** for a short period of time a few decades ago. But it
was outside of the Japanese-speaking culture and it never took off even in the
U.S. where the name was created.

<https://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=Big+Mikan>
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2018-07-15T02:00:17.737
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answer