Picking a hotel in Shimbashi was something I wanted to try as it is a little more centrally located and it wasn't much of a tourist district. Getting to Ginza, Tokyo Station, Akihabara, the Tokyo Skytree, Shiodome, Kamakura, Yokohama, and Shibuya is a single train ride from this station, and even Shinjuku is one transfer, but not much more time. The area is really set up for the working folk of the city and there are all of the chain restaurants (Ichiran, McDonalds, KFC, Matsuya, Tenya, Mos Burger, Yoshinoya, etc.) all available to dine in near your hotel. But, there are no really good supermarkets here, even though there are konbini on every corner it seems. I won't stay in this area again, but it was a nice change of scenery.
On the way back to my hotel every evening I would walk by many konbini
and the myriad number of bars and restaurants east of Shimbashi
Station. Evenings are lively with entertainment, people, and touts for
their restaurants or bars. Below are some pictures of the area by night and day. It is very busy in the evening on the main bar/restaurant streets leading from the station, but it quiets down after a couple of blocks.
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| Train Square just outside the east exits of Shimbashi Station. |
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| South along the Yamamote Line. Lots of pubs and such. |
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| Looking west towards the Shiodome area. |
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| A little alley / backstreet with bars. |
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| A main street just east of the station. |
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| A quiet bar street. |
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| Some bar / restaurant signs |
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| Backstreets during the day. |
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| A vending machine in the area. |
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| Fujiko pachinko machine advertisement. |
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| A Kuroneko depot in the area (black cat courier service). |
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| A street during the early morning. |
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| View of the train tracks from a McDonalds where I had breakfast one morning. Got to watch trains go by and it was kind of nice. |
The area doesn't have a lot of tourist attractions itself other than a few shrines, some museums like the NHK broadcast museum, but walking west takes you to the Shiodome which is a pretty cool futuristic mega office complex area that I blogged about.
http://tokyoexcess.blogspot.ca/2012/03/shiodome-megaplex.html
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