Such a large and detailed map is necessary because it is such a gigantic city that you need to really study a map of it in order to orient yourself. You can live in Tokyo for years and still easily get lost and not know where you are in relation to other neighbourhoods.
It is hard to explain what Tokyo is as a political entity. There used to be a city of Tokyo as well as a Tokyo Prefecture, like a province. But in 1943 these two governments were merged into one called the Tokyo Metropolis. So now when we speak of Tokyo, we are either speaking about the metropolis (which is the former Tokyo Prefecture in its entirety) or we are speaking about the 23 "Special Wards" that used to comprise the city of Tokyo. The 23 special wards have a population of 8,967,665. The entire Metropolis has a population of 13,185,502. It gets further complicated when we talk about the entire metropolitan area that includes surrounding cities and suburbs. The population of that entire metro area (of which Tokyo Metropolis is a part) is over 35 million, making it the most populous metropolitan area in the world.
I hope the above map of Tokyo gives you a better idea of the layout of the city and just how massive it is.
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