My impression when I first came to Japan was that there is no clear-cut division
between rural and urban areas. If you drive along the road, houses look similar. On the
T.V. programmes, you can see rural houses equipped with all modern facilities similar to those in the city. In Thailand, on the contrary, the distinction between life in the city and that in the village is quite remarkable. Bangkok, for example, represents the modern city, the metropolis, in every aspect. What you find in Tokyo you can also find it in Bangkok. A problem of Bangkok is that it is a primate city --the over-populated city and the center of economic wealth and political power of the country. In terms of population, Bangkok is more than 10 times larger than Chiang Mai city, the No. 2 city of the country. Many problems in Bangkok have remained to be solved, such as road traffics, air and water pollutions, housings and land squatterings , and even city poverty.