This interesting collection of short stories about Tokyo does indeed suggest much of the ambience of the place -- enormous, ugly, random, seemingly uniform but packed with pockets of individuality, all of it creating what Edward Seidensticker has called the world's most consistently interesting city.
And one of the most singular, despite all the superficial similarities. Lawrence Rogers, who has translated and edited this collection, remarks that in prewar Tokyo, keen observers "claimed the ability not only to identify a stroller's calling by apparel, but also the part of town he or she hailed from."
While this is perhaps no longer possible, sections of the city retain a distinction that is in other cities rare. Walk through Ueno, then walk through Harajuku and compare the differences. It is the people, the Tokyoites, who create this singularity.