Around Maronouchi, the Kitte Building, and Tokyo Station

During my visits to Tokyo, I never really spent any time in Maronouchi, the financial district in Tokyo.  This area is on the west side of Tokyo Station and borders the Imperial Palace grounds.  The Tokyo Stock Exchange is here, there are many impressive looking office towers, some fancy hotels, a few malls and museums, but nothing that would really attract most tourists.  Still, on my last trip I thought I would have a look around the area.  Tokyo Station and the Kitte Building are the big attractions along with the Imperial Palace East Gardens, but I took a stroll around to see what the area was like before and after visiting the East Gardens.

The west side of Tokyo Station.  To the right of the picture is the Kitte Building with its rooftop garden.

The Kitte Building is a dining and shopping mall complex that is a really nice place to visit.  The basement has food shops and some quick food places to eat at, a Lawson konbini.  The main part of the building has a really nice atrium, with colourful Christmas tree in December.  The shops here are first rate and there are nice stationary places, and other shops selling innovative made in Japan products.  There are restaurant floors higher up in the building.  If you are shopping in Tokyo Station at Character Street or passing through, do take a half hour to visit the Kitte Building. 
On a totally unrelated sidenote, the next time I visit I am going to try and get from Tokyo Station to Ginza Station underground or inside buildings as I saw a Youtube video that seemed to indicate it was possible.  That is a long way to travel without going outside!

Atrium of the Kitte Building.

One of the most interesting shops in the basement is the Amano Foods freeze dried food shop.  They have all kinds of freeze dried soups, pastas, curry.  There is even a little quick dine area so you can try your purchase out.  I really like their products, especially their eggplant miso soups which taste great.  There is a huge variety as you can tell from the photo above.

View of the west side of Tokyo Station from the Kitte rooftop garden.

View of trains at Tokyo Station from Kitte rooftop.

A Nozomi bullet train.

Red Brick Square Christmas decoration.  Nice bakery here.

White tiger statue.  There are many pieces of public art here.

A few of the impressive office towers.

Futuristic electric car.

Another futuristic car on display.

Could be New York.  Tall office towers.

More office towers.

Another statue.

There are many places to dine and shop in this area, but it is mostly overlooked by tourists.  Even this area has interesting things to see and do, but I would catch the other Tokyo highlights first.

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