Ginza Walk

This article is based on a visit made on Monday, 31 March 2014.

On the second full day of my Spring 2014 trip, I had intended to visit the town of Kamakura, an hour south from Tokyo by train. However, I had something of a stressful time the night before, and on the fly decided to forgo that in favour of other places around central Tokyo I had not yet experienced. First on my list was Ginza, a famous commerce and retail district in eastern Tokyo.

Before setting out to Ginza, however, I had a look around Tokyo Station, which was adjacent to the hotel I was staying at (the Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo Marunouchi). The Yaesu entrances face east...

...And the Marunouchi entrances face west. This side, refurbished in 2012, was built to resemble the old station building from over a hundred years ago.

From Tokyo Station, I took a hop on the Yamanote line one stop down to Yurakucho Station, and walked eastward from there.  The name "Ginza" (銀座) means "silver place", referring to a silver-coin mint located in the area back during the Edo period.  After a fire in 1872 devastated the area, it was rebuilt in a more modern fashion, under the supervision of the Irish architect Thomas Waters.  Today, Ginza is one of the ritziest places in Tokyo.  As property values in the area can go up to 40 million yen per square meter (over US$3.9 million per square foot!), the retail options tend to skew towards the higher end of the economy. [1]

I had a look around the Yurakucho area on my first night in, too.  It was then that I had a peek in the Tokyo International Forum, a convention centre and concert venue.  It will also host weightlifting events in the 2020 Summer Olympics.  The complex consists of a lobby called the "Glass Building", shown, and a series of halls and conference rooms in separate buildings, connected by underground and overhead passages.  The centre was designed by the Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, and opened in 1997.

I passed this movie theatre not far along the way.  It's called the Marunouchi Piccadilly, and it shares a building with the Lumine department store.  Some of the movies advertised were famous American movies just getting their release in Japan. I can identify the following: Frozen (far left), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (3rd from left), and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2nd from right).

Not far down the road stands this mini-police station, or koban (交番, kōban, lit. 'meeting number'). In addition to taking crime reports, the officers at koban will hold lost-and-found items and even give directions for those lost. It is a good idea to find the closest koban to where you will be staying in Japan.

Across the road from that police box, this wavy glass building is the headquarters of Fujiya, a confectionery and restaurant company. They have a mascot named Peko-chan, a girl with pigtails who is always licking her lips. Trust me, she'll become more instantly recogniseable the longer you stay in Japan.

One block down from there, I came to the Ginza 4-chome intersection. Standing at the west corner is the Ricoh Art Gallery.

The Wako department store stands on the north corner of Ginza 4-chome.  Its famous clock tower is an homage to the previous building that occupied this corner, which was also topped by a clock tower.  The current building dates back to 1932. [2]

And on the east corner is the Mitsukoshi department store.  The brand gets its name from a kimono company which, in the late 1600s, set up shop in the nearby Nihonbashi district.  Their store here in Ginza opened in 1930.   If the name sounds familiar to Disney park fans, it's probably because they own the store at Epcot's Japan pavilion, their only location in the US. [3]

Just a couple of blocks down from Ginza 4-chome, I came across this golden, twisted building. This happens to be the headquarters of PIAS, a cosmetics company.

Eventually, I reached the Kabuki-za (歌舞伎座) theatre.  On my first visit to Japan, Kabuki-za was closed for renovations, but it had since re-opened in 2013. This is, in fact, the fourth theatre standing at this site, the first having been built in 1889, but demolished in a fire in 1921.  This iteration of the theatre is virtually identical to its predecessor (1950-2010), except that a high-rise tower now stands behind it.

A tourist information centre for Gunma Prefecture (northwest of Tokyo), across from Kabuki-za. The mascot of the prefecture, named Gunma-chan, is seen multiple times across this window, fittingly dressed up in various kabuki costumes.

Another window of the same tourist centre. The red thingy on the left side is called a Daruma (達磨). What is a Daruma, you may ask? It is a doll modelled after Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk attributed to bringing the Zen Buddhism sect to Japan from China. There is a legend in which Bodhidharma meditated in front of a wall for nine years, upon which his arms and legs decayed and fell off. Hence, the doll's form. Another tradition of the Daruma has to do with its eyes, which start off as blank. You fill in one eye when you make a wish or set out on a personal goal, and fill in the other when this has been completed.

Ginza is also famous for its "Pedestrian Heaven" events, in which a section of Chuo-dori is shut down to automotive traffic, letting pedestrians walk the streets freely. This takes place on weekends and holidays, from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM (6:00 PM during the summer). Alas, since I visited on a Monday morning, I could not witness this for myself.

江戸村のとくぞう (Edomura no Tokuzo) [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

There were other hotspots in Ginza which I failed to visit... if only because they hadn't been built yet.  The Tokyu Plaza shopping mall, situated across from the police box and the Fujiya building shown above, opened in March 2016. Its angular glass design offers some fair views for shoppers on its upper floors, as well as from the rooftop garden and cafe.

江戸村のとくぞう (Edomura no Tokozo) [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Also opened in 2016, Ginza Place is a building on the south corner of the Ginza 4-chome crossing.  It features the Nissan Crossing showroom, the Sony Imaging Gallery and showroom, and some restaurants.

ITA-ATU [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Finally, a block away from Ginza 4-chome, a new mall called Ginza Six opened in 2017.  It is the biggest building in the area, and boasts a hybrid tourism office / Lawson convenience store, a Noh theatre in the basement floors, and as with Tokyu Plaza, a rooftop garden and cafe.

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Access: The Ginza district is best accessed by Yurakucho Station (JR Yamanote (JY), Keihin-Tohoku (JK), and Tokyo Metro Yurakucho (Y) lines), Ginza Station (Tokyo Metro Ginza (G), Hibiya (H), and Marunouchi (M) lines), or Higashi-Ginza Station (Tokyo Metro Hibiya and Toei Asakusa (A) lines).

From Tokyo Station, take the Yamanote or Keihin-Tohoku lines to Yurakucho (JY30/JK25, 2 minutes, ¥140), or the Marunouchi subway line to Ginza (M16, 2 minutes, ¥170).  From Shinjuku Station, take the Marunouchi line to Ginza (15 minutes, ¥200).

Tokyo Station, also seen in this article, is served by the JR Tokaido/Tohoku/Joetsu/Hokuriku Shinkansen, Yamanote, Chuo (Rapid) (JC), Keihin-Tohoku, Tokaido (JT), Sobu (JO), Yokosuka (JO), Keiyo (JE), and Tokyo Metro Marunouchi lines.

[1] Plaza Homes, Ltd.  "Official Land Prices of Japan in 2016".  Retrieved on 8 June 2017. http://www.realestate-tokyo.com/news/official-land-price-tokyo-2016/

[2] Sundberg, Steve. "Hattori (Wako) Building, Ginza".  Retrieved on 8 June 2017.  http://www.oldtokyo.com/hattori-wako-building-ginza/

(3) "Mitsukoshi's History".  Retrieved on 8 June 2017. https://mitsukoshi.mistore.jp/store/nihombashi/foreign_customer/history/index.html

Super Potato Akihabara

This article is based on a visit made on Sunday, 30 March 2014.

As you might be able to gather from reading my other blog, especially my older reviews, I quite like retro video games. But it's not the most accessible hobby, with the major game retailers in the US long having since stopped selling anything more than ten years old. You'd pretty much have to rely on conventions or online shopping to find older stuff. Japan is a little better in this regard, with some anime and game/related stores, like Mandarake, having sections for used retro games. But the crowning jewel of this market has to be Super Potato. Super Potato is actually a small chain with stores across Japan (full list: (Japanese)), but their flagship store is in Akihabara, due west of the train station.

Super Potato occupies the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floor of this black building you see here. The Pac-Man and Donkey Kong characters on it are hard to miss.

There is an elevator in the building you can use, but take the stairs at least once. They are labeled with what is for sale on the next floor up.

Customers are greeted on the 3rd floor by a life-size statue of none other than Mario! But don’t touch! Other "characters" you can see in this pic include the Super & 1-Up Mushrooms and Goomba from Super Mario (top centre), and a Slime from Dragon Quest (top right).

Apart from game hardware and software, you might also find some unique merchandise based on your favourite characters. For example, I picked up a Legend of Zelda deck of playing cards.

The 3rd floor focuses on older consoles (NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, etc.), and the 4th floor focuses on newer ones (PlayStation 1 & 2, Nintendo 64 & GameCube, etc.). The games shown here are for the Nintendo Famicom, the original Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) sold in America and Europe. As seen here, loose cartridges are shrink-wrapped for preservation. For example, humidity is a serious problem during summers in Japan. Whatever the reason, you just don’t get that kind of service over in America!

Games are also sold complete-in-box, but cost more.

An aisle of Super Famicom (Super NES) games for sale. Certain games are grouped together instead of by title, for example by publisher (Nintendo, Namco) or genre/theme (role-playing, fighting, anime-licence). The rest are sorted by the consonant of the first syllable. For example, first you have the "blank vowels" (A I U E O), then the 'K's (Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko), the 'S's (Sa Shi Su Se So), et cetera.

Games for the PC Engine, sold abroad as the TurboGrafx-16. While the TG-16 didn't garner so much support abroad (thanks to competition from the Sega Genesis and Super NES), it got hugely popular in Japan and stayed that way for some time. TG-16 games were sold both on solid-state cards (seen on the left) and CDs (to the right).

Now, before you start writing your Super Potato shopping list, please be aware that not all Japanese video games are compatible with American or European hardware. There are different work-arounds available for each console, but the easiest method is just to buy a Japanese console. It’s not necessarily expensive, either -- a used Famicom should cost less than ¥5,000 / US$50. And, of course, there's the language barrier to get over, but this is less of an issue for more action-oriented genres.

The 5th floor hosts some arcade games and light vending options, all guarded over by Metal Gear Solid’s Big Boss.

Simply put, Super Potato is the kind of place where, if they didn't close, I'd never leave!

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Hours: Open 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM on weekdays, and 10:00 AM to 8:00PM on weekends.  No regular closing days.

Address: 1-11-12 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo-to 〒101-0021

Access: Super Potato is accessed from Akihabara Station on the JR Yamanote (JY), Keihin-Tohoku (JK), and Tokyo Metro Hibiya (H) lines, or Suehirocho Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza (G) line. From Tokyo Station, take the Yamanote or Keihin-Tohoku line to Akihabara (JY03/JK27, 4 minutes, ¥160, JR Pass OK).

Directions: From Akihabara Station, turn right out of the Electric Town Exit ticket gates, and immediately left upon exiting the station.  Continue straight, cross Chuo-dori, and take the next right afterwards.  The Super Potato building will be on your right.

Website: (Japanese)

Edo-Tokyo Museum

This article is based on a visit made on Sunday, 30 March 2014.

On the first morning of my second holiday in Japan, I woke up with no jet-lag, but was greeted by windy and intermittently rainy weather. Luckily, that had no impact on how I planned to spend the rest of that morning -- at the Edo-Tokyo Museum (江戸東京博物館), one of the premiere history museums of the entire city.

For those unaware, Tokyo’s former name was Edo (江戸), and it flourished economically and culturally under that name during what we now call the Edo Period, lasting from 1603 to 1867. Following the Edo Period, the Emperor of Japan took back power from the Tokugawa shoguns, establishing a new capital city in the newly-renamed Tokyo (東京). The re-opening of foreign trade helped the city flourish even further, and quickly bounce back from the damage sustained from the 1923 Kanto Earthquake and from World War II. As per its name, the Edo-Tokyo Museum focuses on these periods of history, from the 17th century through the present day.

But first... we've got to get there!

The nearest station, Ryogoku Station, also sits right next to the Kokugikan (国技館), the premiere sumo stadium in Japan. So, there are numerous decorations dedicated to the sport of sumo wrestling.

Along the walls of the station interior, you can measure your height against those of the many yokozuna, or sumo grand-masters, over the years. At 5 ft. 8 in. / 173 cm, I'm just about as tall as this guy, Kagamisato Kiyoji (鏡里 喜代治). Born in Aomori Prefecture, and with a registered weight of 335 lbs. / 161 kg, he gained the top rank in 1953 and retired in 1958.

This is the actual Kokugikan stadium, which sits across from the museum. The original stadium, the first fixed sumo stadium in Japan, was built in 1909; the current structure dates from 1985. It has also hosted boxing, Japan Pro Wrestling, and even WWE events. In fact, it will host boxing events in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

There is also a museum dedicated to sumo on the site, but it was closed when I visited. I was still able to snap a pic of this mural, though. But enough about that -- wasn't there that other museum I wanted to go to...?

The Edo-Tokyo Museum building. It's big, unique, and I must say, impressive. It is modeled after old warehouses for storing rice, which were put on stilts to protect their contents from floods and pests.

Underneath the Edo-Tokyo Museum. The ticket window is located in this plaza, as is the entrance. You ride the escalators up the red and glass tube to enter the museum.

The escalators put you at the upper floor of the museum. To continue through the museum, you’ll cross a life-size model of the Nihonbashi bridge. the "mile zero" from which all roads across old Japan were measured. Alas, the real Nihonbashi was replaced with a new concrete bridge in 1911.

One thing you’ll notice about this museum is that there are a lot of scale-model dioramas, depicting city life across a variety of eras. Photography and even flash photography is generally allowed, and there are even binoculars attached to some of these displays so you can get a closer look at all the detail that went into them.

Some dioramas are cross-sections cutting into larger buildings. I'm not sure in retrospect, but I think this might have been a palace building from the former Edo Castle, which had since burned down and been replaced by the Imperial Palace.

Some dioramas are a bit larger in scale, to better depict the interactions of everyday life back then. I think this was a restaurant of some sort. Although, the glass surrounding them makes it difficult to take clear pictures, especially if you use the flash.

Still other models are of a more lifelike scale, such as this re-creation of a single-family home.

There are a fair number of displays devoted to the kabuki theatre, such as this life-size diorama of a kabuki stage. Hard to believe that female roles are played by men -- but in fact, this never always used to be the case. In fact, the first kabuki troupes from the early 17th century were all-female. The Tokugawa shogunate of the time banned women from performing in 1629, due to the erotic content of some plays, and because some performers doubled as prostitutes. Technically, the ban was revoked as early as 1652, but female Kabuki actors never quite caught on again.

A life-size model of a kabuki theatre. I think it may have been a re-creation of Ichimura-za (市村座), a theatre was built in 1634, but not rebuilt since having burned down in 1932. The pictures and text banners on the upper tier of the facade may have advertised what plays were in production, similar to movie posters.

Kabuki isn't the only art form represented in this museum, however. A display showing the steps of making an ukiyo-e (浮世絵) colour woodblock print.

A re-creation of a store selling ukiyo-e prints.

Some of the exhibits are more interactive, such as this one where you can step inside a palanquin...

...and this one, where you can try hoisting the banner-signs used by firefighters and other brigades...

...and this one, where you can try lifting a box of old coins. The whole thing weighs 14 kilograms / 38 pounds, and yeah, that's something.

As you progress through the museum, the focus shifts from the "Edo" to the "Tokyo" period.

A model of the Ginza district from the turn of the 20th century.

An early-20th-century car and traffic signal.

Artifacts from World War II.

The red-lit areas correspond with the destruction of the city by Allied fire-bombing raids during World War II. They tend not to get as much publicity as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they were no less destructive. In fact, with estimates ranging from 75,000 to 200,000 casualties combined, they may have had an even higher death toll. This, in addition to the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, is why few historical buildings survive in Tokyo today.

The Instrument of Surrender which ended the Pacific theatre of World War II, signed by Japanese and Allied commanders.

Have you ever heard of the "Three Sacred Treasures" (三種の神器) of Japan? Also known as the Imperial Regalia of Japan, they are three artifacts which play a role in the coronation of each new Emperor. They are never shown to the public, but are known to be a sword, a mirror, and a jewel. For postwar Japanese civilians, however, these three "treasures" were three appliances everyone seemed to want: a television set, a rice cooker, and a refrigerator.

Posters from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. This event was a big deal not just for the city, but for Japan as a whole, marking the completion of its postwar recovery and the start of its march to become of the world’s strongest economies.

Of course, Tokyo has also been awarded the honour of hosting the Olympics again, for 2020, and this fact is not lost on the Edo-Tokyo Museum.  Posters describing development plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The upper picture is of Shibuya, where venues from the 1964 Olympics will be re-used. The bottom picture is of Odaiba and the Tokyo Bay area, where new venues will be built, along with the Olympic Broadcast Centre.

The Edo-Tokyo Museum is the perfect place to start your exploration of Japan’s history, but it shouldn’t end there!  The Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum, affiliated with the main Edo-Tokyo Museum, sits across town, 50 minutes away on the JR Chuo line.  Or, hop a couple of stations down the Toei Oedo line to the Fukagawa Edo Museum for a life-size, in-depth look at the Edo period lifestyle.  And, as previously mentioned, the sumo museum at the Kokugikan is directly across from this very museum.

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Hours: Open from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM, or to 7:30 PM on Saturdays.  Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time.  Closed Mondays (except holidays), and on the 1st of January.

Costs: ¥600.  Special exhibitions may cost extra.  If you present an active subway pass, entry is discounted to ¥480.  More information: (English) (Japanese)

Address: 1-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida-ku, Tokyo-to 〒130-0015

Access: Right next to Ryogoku Station (JR Chuo-Sobu (JB) and Toei Oedo (E) lines).  From Tokyo Station, take the Yamanote (JY) or Keihin-Tohoku (JK) line to Akihabara (JY03/JK28, 4 minutes), then take the Chuo-Sobu (Local) line to Ryogoku (JB21, 4 minutes, total ¥160, JR Pass OK).  From Shinjuku Station, take the Chuo (Rapid) (JC) line to Ochanomizu (JC03, 10 minutes), then take the Chuo-Sobu (local) line to Ryogoku (5 minutes, ¥220, JR Pass OK).

Directions: From the Chuo-Sobu line platform, take the west exit and turn right.  From the Oedo line platform, head straight from exit A4.

Website: (English) (Japanese)