GINZA SHOPPING

Ginza Shopping Tokyo Japan - Ginza Shopping Guide with detailed interactive map of locations of major shopping department stores and boutiques in Ginza.

Ginza Shopping

Ginza is the home of Tokyo's oldest and most prestigious department stores; the most exclusive is probably Wako. And of course Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel and Prada have stores as well. See the Ginza map for the location of the main stores in Ginza.

Wako Department Store
Wako Department Store (和光) is considered by some to be the most exclusive department store in Japan, located at the heart of the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo. This store is famous for its watches, jewellery, porcelain, dishware, and handbags, as well as foreign luxury goods. There is also an art gallery, called Wako Hall, on the sixth floor. Wako was founded in 1881 by Kintarou Hattori as the Hattori Watch and Jeweller (now Seiko Corporation) in Ginza. In 1947, the retail division split off as Wako Co., Ltd.

Its 1932 neo-Rennaisance-style building, designed by Jin Watanabe, with its curved granite façade, is the central landmark for the district and one of the few buildings in the area left standing after World War II. The building functioned as the Tokyo PX store during the American Occupation of Japan, from 1945 to 1952. The clock tower plays the famous Westminster Chimes.

Mitsukoshi Department Store
Mitsukoshi Ltd. (株式会社三越, Kabushiki-gaisha Mitsukoshi) is an international department store chain founded in 1673 with the yagō (shop name) "Echigoya." Its headquarters are in Tokyo, Japan. Mitsukoshimae Station on the Tokyo Metro is named after the adjacent Mitsukoshi department store. Mitsukoshi is the root of Mitsui group.

There are many famous brand shops in Namiki street, such as Gucci or Coach and so on. If you do not have much money, you can enjoy just looking around the street.

Matsuzakaya Department Store
The Matsuzakaya Co., Ltd. (株式会社松坂屋, Kabushiki-gaisha Matsuzakaya) is a major Japanese department store with headquarters in Nagoya. Established in 1611, it is one of the oldest department stores in Japan. There are branches in Ginza; Ueno, Tokyo; and Paris.

Sony Building
 5-3-1 Ginza, on Sukiyabashi Crossing. Eight stories of high-tech gadgets. If you want to actually buy stuff, head down to the basement. It also houses a BMW showroom. The Sony Building, designed by Japanese architect Yoshinobu Ashihara and opened in 1966 in Tokyo's Ginza ward, Chūō-ku; is a superb example of early Japanese towers, and is located in the prominent position on Harumi Dori, Ginza: where the first towers were built in Tokyo. The building is also a fine example of Postmodern architecture, and is externally still in fine condition, with major renovations having taken part internally. The original mural still lines the facade.

Hakuhinkan Toy Park
Hakuhinkan Toy Park (博品館) Ginza 8-8-11, (South end of Ginza-dori by the elevated highway), 03-3571-8008. One of the oldest and largest toy stores in Japan (it first opened in 1899), this is the place to go for all the latest cute and strange toys.

Apple Store
Apple Store Ginza, corner of Chuo-dori and Matsuya-dori. While Apple is seen as the ultimate in high-tech hipness in the west and USA, it does not have the same standing in Japan. While you can see some iPods around on the trains they are not anywhere near as popular in Japan. The Apple Store in Ginza is an attempt by Apple to buy some coverage as a fashion statement. Interesting Apple computers were more successful in Japan than in the west and USA in the early days of the personal computers. This success was due to their better support for Japanese characters, however the development of Microsoft Windows has seen this early lead disappear.

Tenshodo (天賞堂), Ginza 4-3-9, on Harumi-dori. Jeweller and maker of luxury watches. The upper floors, however, are devoted to railroad models, many of which match the watches in intricacy and price.

Seibu Department Store
Features has nine floors of fashion and accessories.







Hankyu Department Store
Hankyu Department Store is a fairly main stream department store.



Opaque Department Store
Opaque Department Store is a fashion, cosmetics and related department store that includes a salon and restaurant.





Yurakucho has branches of two large discount electronics stores, Bic Camera and Sofmap. The former, right next to the Yamanote tracks, is housed in what was until 2001 the famous Sogo department store, which in 1958 spawned a popular hit song, "Yurakucho de Aimasho" ("Let's Meet at Yurakucho"). The big red building housing the latter used to be a theater for the renowned all-female Takarazuka Revue.

(Article based on Wikitravel article by Paul N. Richter, Wikitravel user(s) Jpatokal, Nzpcmad and Luke and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. Article used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0.)