Japan Traveler's Companion. Rob Goss
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development. With the support of European architects, the district saw its fire-prone wooden buildings replaced by stone architecture, its muddy streets transformed into paved roads, and eventually the advent of electric trams and subways. Head to the Ginza Crossing today and you can still see examples of that early architecture in the shape of the Wako department store, whose curved granite façade and clock tower (first built in 1894, but then redone shortly after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake) stand across from another landmark in the prestigious 1930-built Mitsukoshi department store.
Today, shopping is one of the major draws to Ginza. Along with Mitsukoshi and Wako, you have branches of Matsuya and Printemps department stores, the plush Ginza 6 shopping complex, a slew of sleekly designed flagships for European luxury brands like Bulgari, Cartier, Chanel, and Omega (to call out just a handful) and—highlighting the trend toward simple, “un-branded” fashions—major local branches of local retailers Muji and Uniqlo. Then, of course, comes the food. It isn’t all in the wallet-hurting category, but the fact that thirty-eight restaurants in Ginza have Michelin stars speaks volumes. If you wanted to splurge on the best sushi, finest tempura or most expensive wagyu steak, Ginza would be the place to do it. Yet on the flipside, if you wanted something cheaper, the restaurants under the elevated train tracks that cut between Ginza and the Imperial Palace area have the cheerful side of Japanese cuisine with yakitori joints, izakaya and plenty of other casual places.
And what of the Imperial Palace area? Heading there from the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station you get a real clash of the old and the new, the station’s restored historic 1914 façade dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the Marunouchi business district, shimmering giants that appeared during Marunouchi’s much needed facelift of the early 2000s and which on the opposite side to the station now cast their reflections in the outer moats of the palace grounds. Beyond some simple but unspectacular gardens, there isn’t really all that much to explore at the palace—although the uninterrupted three-mile (five-kilometer) running loop around it is one of the best runs in Tokyo—but that doesn’t stop busloads upon busloads of visitors from coming to snap photos of the moats and the few off-limits structures that are visible. And to be fair, as Tokyo goes, the classic palace photo—the doubled-arched Nijubashi Bridge in the foreground with an Edo-era guard tower poking through thick woods beyond the moat behind—is undoubtedly one of Tokyo’s most iconic historic sights.
The Wako department store at the Ginza Crossing.
Whether neon-drenched at night or glistening in the sunshine, Ginza always manages to retain a flashy sense of high style.
Ginza teems with architecturally striking flagship stores for high-end brands like Bulgari, Cartier, Chanel, Mikimoto and many others.
It’s not just expensive brands and boutiques in Ginza nowadays. Simple, affordable and extremely popular stores like Uniqlo and Muji are going from strength to strength in Japan, Ginza included.
The Marunouchi area on the Imperial Palace side of Tokyo Station. Over the past decade, the neighborhood has been transformed by multipurpose skyscrapers like the Marunouchi Building—it’s not just gray offices here anymore, but swanky bars, restaurants, shops, and hotels.
Ginza isn’t just about Michelin restaurants. In the neighboring Shimbashi and Yurakucho areas are hundreds of lively, value restaurants and bars popular for unwinding after work.
The old Tokyo Station building has recently undergone a renovation and is well worth exploring to view its early twentieth-century interior.
The Nijubashi Bridge and an outer turret at Tokyo’s Imperial Palace.
THE TSUKIJI FISH MARKET
Will it or won’t it? As of the time this was written—and very likely when you are reading it, too—the future of Japan’s largest market and one of Tokyo’s finest foodie destinations is up in the air. In November 2016, large parts of Tsukiji Market, a twenty-minute walk southeast of Ginza, should have begun relocating to a new site in nearby Toyosu, but a soil contamination scandal at the new (and fully built) market has put that in doubt. How long it will be delayed or whether the relocation will even be canceled, nobody seems to know for sure, but the upshot is this—you might still be able to visit Tsukiji. The early-morning tuna auctions here are worth a 4am alarm just by themselves, but mix that with a walk around the multiple warehouses and inner and market areas, where some sixty thousand wholesalers, buyers and shippers trade two thousand tons of seafood and other produce daily and you get to experience one of Tokyo’s most colorful and energetic spots. Even better, the sushi and other seafood breakfasts available at the many restaurants in and around the market don’t come any fresher.
Ginza is home to some of the city’s finest and most exclusive sushi restaurants, but the freshest can be found at Tsukiji Market, southeast of Ginza.
ASAKUSA, UENO AND THE EAST END
Glimpses of Tokyo Old and New
Asakusa and its neighboring areas form the heart of Tokyo’s shitamachi (literally “low town”)—the city’s traditional working-class east side—and are the perfect counterpoint to the sleek and chic parts of central Tokyo. Forget European boutiques and cosmopolitan malls, swanky cafés and hipster fashion—this is the real Tokyo; friendly, chatty, sometimes a bit rough around the edges, full of color and packed with history.
Looking back at the history of Asakusa, the area grew up around what is still its most famous sight, Sensoji, a temple that legend has it was founded in the early 600s to house a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, fished out of the nearby Sumida River by two brothers. While Sensoji has gone through numerous incarnations since (that happens in a disaster-prone city like Tokyo), its current look comfortably makes it Tokyo’s standout temple. Smack in the middle of Tokyo’s far-from-glitzy east-end urban sprawl, the 39-foot (12-meter) high, 39-foot wide Kaminarimon roofed gateway to the complex is in stark contrast to its surroundings, although that’s only the start of things. What follows is a colorful stall-lined street that leads onto the even more imposing, 72-foot (22-meter) high Hozomon Gate, which then gives way to Sensoji’s five-story pagoda and main hall. It’s frequently crowded with tourists and all the touristy touches that come with that (rickshaw rides included), but nevertheless it’s an incredible complex.
Away from Sensoji, a walk around Asakusa also provides a glimpse at the area’s pre-World War Two position as Tokyo’s main entertainment district, with places like the rickety, retro and tiny Hanayashiki amusement park, which once was one of Tokyo’s major draws because of its now sedate-feeling roller coaster (the first in Japan in 1953). Then there’s Rokku Broadway, a street traditionally known for its theaters, like Engei Hall, the place to catch classic shitamachi comic storytelling such as rakugo and slapstick manzai standup acts. For street food, spilling out onto the backstreets around here are also some of Tokyo’s most welcoming and cheap-and-cheerful yakitori (chargrilled chicken) restaurants.