Tokyo's Underground Labyrinth 2 - Walking From Tokyo Station to Ginza

Tokyo has vast sets of tunnels that connect the underground levels of buildings and subterranean malls.  A person might not even realize they are underground in the basement of a building or a mall because it looks so open or it looks like any floor of a shopping center.  I previously posted about Shinjuku's underground labyrinth here, and during my last visit to Tokyo I explored the tunnels below Marunouchi and Ginza.  Specifically, I wanted to walk from Tokyo Station to Ginza Station completely underground without going going to street level / outside once.

Tokyo Station is the central hub for all long distance rail traffic in Japan and mile 0 for the railways starts here.  It is a huge sprawling complex on the main and underground levels.  There are tons of fine dining and shopping options available here or in annexes to the station which are seamlessly integrated into one giant building.  The basement level sprawls out both to the east and west side of the station and there are levels that go deeper to the subway platforms in addition to the above ground and 2nd floor train platforms.

I had read online and seen some Youtube videos about people traversing the several kilometres distance between Tokyo Station and Ginza Station underground and I wanted to try it for myself.  If you happen to be in Tokyo on a rainy day, this would be a fun thing to do if you wanted to explore and not shop in a mall all day.

The approximate underground path from Tokyo Station to Ginza Station.  The pink areas are all underground passages.

I started from Tokyo Station's B1 underground level (Point A on the map) and left Gransta behind me to exit out through the Marunouchi Exit.  This takes you out into a large wide underground area with a corridor that leads quite a ways west towards the ground of the imperial palace where it would cut north / south.  This corridor was closed for some kind of construction when I went there so I headed south instead in another set of tunnels.

This south corridor isn't a straight corridor and it zig and zags a bit.  These corridors have many side branches and connections to the basement levels of adjacent buildings.  The corridors and underground spaces at this point were quite spacious and wide.  There were not very many people around as I did this walk on a Sunday morning before 11 AM when the stores open.  The construction in this area is newer and the builders left more room.

This route led me by the Kitte Mall / Japan Post Office Building in which I went to the first floor to shoot some interior shots before descending back into the basement.  This is a pretty neat building / mall with a great rooftop garden that has views of the trains going into and out of Tokyo Station.  This is Point B on the map.

Kitte Building interior.

Going back into the basement level of the Kitte Building I went back into more spartan corridors that were long and still spacious with the occasional open area.  Again, many adjacent buildings connect to this tunnel network.

These corridors eventually led me to the Tokyo International Forum.  This is a beautiful convention center in the shape of a narrowly drawn teardrop.  I entered on the basement level from the north end and shot the pictures from the basement.which is open to the glass roof.  This is Point C on the map.

Tokyo International Forum

I admired the architecture and walked by a basement konbini to exit at the south end.  The exit was a little confusing here but I found a way back into the tunnels via a subway entrance.  I passed through Yurakucho subway station in a westerly direction that would again take me all the way to the edge of the imperial palace.  More people were starting to show up at this point in my trip.

When I reached the end I headed south towards Hibiya Station which is Point D on the map.  You can tell there is a lot of tunnel and that you sometimes go up and down a little depending on the geography and how the subway lines are placed.  The only narrow passages tend to be exits to the surface and most of these are not that narrow either.

From Hibiya Station the tunnel will take you east in a more or less straight line all the way down to Ginza Station. I've walked this section of tunnel before in earlier visits to Tokyo.  This tunnel seems to go on forever and it left a lasting impression on me.

The long tunnel to Ginza,

The long tunnel to Ginza continues!

The tunnels get snazzier as your approach Ginza with renovated areas.  Ginza Station has also had a bit of a facelift to reflect the poshness of the area above ground.  There are new buildings that have gone up above ground and some of these redevelopments may be from a spill over effect.

Entering Ginza Station Proper.  The closer I got to the station, the crowds started to build up.  It was just after 11 AM now with the malls open for business.  Ginza Station is typically a very busy station as several important subway lines intersect here.

I surfaced at this point to come up in the main intersection by the Mitsukoshi department store!  I went over to the Ginza Six mall and went up to the Starbucks there to have a break and a well earned latte!  On a Sunday, the main street through Ginza also becomes a pedestrian street at noon with no vehicles allowed on it.  There are crowds here wandering up and down the street and shopping.

This underground walk took me through four different train stations, all connected by passageways, not necessarily in a direct manner.  Once I left the immediate vicinity around Tokyo Station there were no underground malls on this trip, but the passages connected to four or five different malls along the way.  This was a neat journey and there was more than one time where I had to figure out the right way to go.

 

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