Day 14 - Travelogue - Underground to Ginza, Shopping, Ginza GoldFish Aquarium, and Tokyo Skytree

Back to Day 13 - Travelogue - Back to Tokyo - Akihabara - Shinjuku at Night

Today is a Sunday and my last full day in Japan.  Yesterday was a pretty big day for walking around Tokyo and today wouldn't be much different.  It's time for the final big push to see stuff.  Sundays are the most relaxed day of the week even in Japan.  My plan was to take in a few new sights, do a bit of shopping, and just take in everything at a more casual pace.

The Yaesu (east side of Tokyo Station) where the bus stations are - many of them are underground in the building to your right.

The first thing to do this morning was to have breakfast at Anderson Bakery.  Having fresh pastries / baking in the morning is always a treat.  There is an Anderson inside Tokyo Station and I was lucky to get a seat as they don't really have more than a half-dozen tables or so.

Anderson in Tokyo Station.

A few savory baked goods and coffee for breakfast.  Cheese toast, and a quiche bun.

After a quick breakfast at Anderson, I walked out the underground exit on the west side of Tokyo Station.  This leads into a series of underground passages linking subway stations and nearby buildings.  The underground passages can be quite wide and spacious and can run for hundreds of metres or longer, depending on the passage.  The tunnels were mostly empty this Sunday morning, but would fill as the malls and shops open at 11 AM.  My goal was to go from Tokyo Station to Ginza Station without leaving the underground and staying indoors the whole time.  It is a couple of kilometres to walk underground and I've always wanted to do this.   I had a great time exploring and documented the journey in this big post below.

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

I popped up into a few building lobbies (staying inside!) to take pictures.  Here is another Christmas tree with a time theme.

When I arrived at Ginza Station I went up to street level by the new Sony Building and Waco (has clock tower) buildings.  This is probably the most iconic intersection in Ginza on the main street there.  Stores had just opened and I went into the Ginza Six Mall.  This is a really posh mall with many expensive designer stores / high-end craft stores.  I can't really afford to buy much here, but there is a very nice rooftop garden here with views of Ginza and I always visit the flagship Tsutaya Books store here.  The store has many English books and books only published for the Japanese market.  It is also an immaculately presented store with many art / photo / history books, presentations and sales of various crafts (even swords!), and art exhibitions.  There is a nice food hall (not court) here and a wonderful Starbucks where I would go to have a coffee.

Waco Dept. Store.

Aibo on display at the Sony Building.

Inside Ginza Six

Tsutaya Books

Inside the wood paneled Starbucks.

Fantastic pastries and cakes at Starbucks (far better than North America).

Souvenir mugs and tumblers from Starbucks.  They're not cheap though.

Art exhibit at Tsutaya.

Ashura, Buddhist demon statuette.

Books about Tokyo.

Swords for sale!

It is a beautiful bookstore.  The Starbucks has many tables and booths for people to buy a book and enjoy reading it there.

Chuo-dori, the main street in Ginza.  It is empty on Sunday morning as it will become a pedestrian street for the afternoon.

I also visited the UNIQLO flagship store. It has everything you want and lots of sales displays.  There is a printed T-shirt floor here and I always buy something as the shirts are reasonably priced and some are Japan only.

Winter wear display as I was there in December.  I did not wear anything more than a light jacket for the whole trip.  Highs were in the high teens and lows were in the low single digits, especially in Kyoto.

By the time I left UNIQLO, the street was beginning to fill with pedestrians.

New Sony Building.

After UNIQLO I headed over to the Ginza Art Aquarium located in an upper floor of the Mitsukoshi Department Store (a venerable old institution).  An art aquarium has appeared in Ginza on and off over the years and it seems to be back for awhile now.  I've read about it and really wanted to see these fantastic exhibits  of fish displayed in an artistic fashion.  You can either blow through the exhibit or loiter to enjoy the various scenes and take in all of the gracefully swimming fish.  Not really worth the price of admission (which isn't cheap) if you blow through, but I really enjoyed this exhibit.  It was a wonderful photo opportunity too and and I took a lot of pictures.

Hello Kitty and a lucky cat welcome you to Tokyo.  Hello Kitty is not a cat according to Sanrio.

The entrance hall with floating lanterns.

Stars and tubes of lighted fish.  The colours shift over time.

Bulbous eyed goldfish.

More goldfish.  All blue, but the colours shift.

This is one of my favourite shots.

Every goldfish tank is an art piece.

Goldfish tank and rock garden.

This illuminated polyhedron is one of two big center pieces for the exhibit.  It is very pretty.

You can see that the colours shift here too and there is music playing in the background.

These fish tanks look like they are floating!

A combination of tanks and hanging sculpture.

A set of fish tanks set into little shrine lantern type structures.  Note the Christmas theme above.

Another big display of of a Christmas tree surrounded by pillar fish tanks.  The light slowly shifts over time again.  You really need to take your time to enjoy the ambience.  It was nice when I went as it wasn't too crowded or hot because of crowding.

A floral arrangement sculpture incorporating fish tanks.

Another view of the floral arrangement.

Floating lanterns.  I really liked this and spent some time setting up shots.

The hanging lanterns in this show make it look kind of mysterious and ghostly.

After finishing the exhibit I walked further north on Chou-dori past all of the big name designer shops.  You have Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Cartier, etc.  There are some fantastic stationary stores too.  I went into Itoya, but it was soo crowded that I ended up leaving as I didn't want to wait in a long line to buy anything.  I would buy pens / stationary at Loft instead.

Scene on Chuo-dori

Nice jewelry

Loft for stationary and home stuff.

The famous MUJI flagship store in Ginza - really close to Loft.  Home furnishings, luggage, furniture, stationary, food, clothing can all be found here.  It can be quite crowded as it is popular and some food items sell out here, but not at other stores.

Great selection of retort food and curries.  I buy various freeze dried soups and other snacks here.

Clothing at MUJI

After MUJI I walked back to my hotel that was only about 15 minutes north.  I stopped in at Tokyo Midtown Yaesu to buy a late lunch at Pork Tamago Onigiri.  This is a specialty chain out of Okinawa.

They make tasty onigiri that are more like sandwiches.  And they use fried SPAM just like in Okinawa.

The SPAM onigiri I had (Hawaiian Musubi-like).  It has fried SPAM, fried egg onmlet, veggie tempura, a sweet soy sauce and some veggies.  It was very tasty and filling.

I had the onigiri and some pastries from the MUJI bakery back at my hotel room.

Skytree at night.

I spent the late afternoon at the hotel resting and then headed out in the early evening to the Skytree and the Solamachi mall at its base.  This is one of my favourite little malls in Tokyo and I love looking up at the Skytree.  I took a direct train up there but then took the wrong exit out of the train station at the Skytree (I had a problem this trip for some reason reading signs).  I should have known better.  I ended up a few blocks away from the Skytree.  I should have turned around and doubled back, but I thought I  easily walk to the Skytree on the surface, but I couldn't because of a mix of construction and train tracks.  I ended up probably walking an extra kilometre to get around the obstacles, but did get some nice night shots of the tower.

I finally made it back to the tower!  This is the east end of the complex.  There is a flagship Kura Sushi conveyor belt restaurant here and LIFE, a very nice supermarket to buy any food souvenirs. The basement floor is pretty huge for the supermarket. 

Freeze-dried soups.  I always stock up on these.

There are piles of cup noodle you can buy here along with regular packaged noodles.   You could also pick up various dried goods and condiments like Japanese chili oil, seasonings, etc.

Solamachi Mall exterior.

Giant catbus status at Donguri Republic at Solamachi.

Giant Totoro statue also at Donguri Republic selling Ghibli merchandise.

Howl's Moving Castle.

Laputa, Castle in the Sky.

The rooftop of the mall had a Christmas Market where you could buy ornaments, food, and drink.  It was pretty popular.

Another big Christmas tree, but it is dwarfed by the Skytree.

Note walkways up the tower!

The interior of Solamachi has a robot museum in the office tower, many souvenir shops and more serious clothing and housewares stores too.

Iron Man!

Another Jump Store and another Luffy!

Doraemon pop-up store.

Pokemon Center at the Skytree with Rayquaza.

Another legendary Pokemon.

The latest starter Pokemon at the time.

Kirby!

A store that does beautiful sugar candy sculptures.  Pick up a goldfish that looks like it is made of glass.

Knife store.  I use stainless only as I can't always keep it maintained to avoid rust.

Finally, after shopping, loading up on food souvenirs, and checking out the mall I stopped in their food court for dinner.  I went to Ippudo Express there.  The ramen was a bit more expensive here, but it was convenient.

I had a tonkotsu ramen with gyoza.  It was good.  You get your food on real tableware and you must return it to the store after finishing.

It was soon time to leave and I headed back to the train station, a short walk to the south of the tower.

The final Christmas lights photo I'm showing.

It was a good last day and I was ready for the final morning/afternoon in Tokyo the next day.  I needed to start packing my suitcase for the return trip home.

To Day 15 - Travelogue - Museums Close Monday - Ueno Park - Narita - Flight Home

Back to Day 13 - Travelogue - Back to Tokyo - Akihabara - Shinjuku at Night

The Japan Trip 2022 Posts

1. Planning My Tokyo 2022 Trip Highlights and Attractions (for Anime and Regular Tourists)
   
2. Highlights From My December 2022 Trip to Japan (with links to daily pages)
3. Day 1 - The First Night In Tokyo
4. Day 2 in Tokyo - Visiting Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Taking a Taxi 
5. Day 2 in Tokyo - Evening with Godzilla and Christmas Lights
6. Day 3 - Back to Shibuya for New Parco, Nintendo Store, Pokemon Center, Miyashita Park 
7. Day 3 -  Views From Shibuya Sky, Shopping at Tokyu Hands and Don Quijote
8. Day 4 - Nezu Shrine, Ameyoko, Ni No Kashi Candy Store, Yamashiroya Toy Store, and Ichiran Ramen in Ueno
9. Day 4 - Sensoji Shrine in Asakusa, Tokyo Midtown Christmas Illuminations, and Pokemon Store and Cafe Nihonbashi
10. Day 5 - Yokohama, Giant Gundam at Gundam Factory, Landmark Tower Shopping, Harry Potter Christmas Trees
11. Day 6 - Yokohama , Nissin Cup Noodle Museum, World Porters Mall, Landmark Tower Shopping Area
12. Day 7 - Kyoto Part 1, Kiyomizudera and Yasaka Shrine
13. Day 7 - Kyoto Part 2, Kodaiji Temple Night Illuminations and Yasaka Shrine at Night  
14. Day 8 - Travelogue - Kyoto Part 1 - To Fushimi Inari Shrine and The Mountain Summit 
15. Day 8 - Travelogue - Kyoto Part 2 - Kennin Ji Temple and Evening at Kyoto Station
16. Day 9 - Travelogue - First Visit to Nara for Deer, Pikachu Donut, Daibutsu Temple, Kasuga-Taisha, Kohfukuji Temple 
17. Day 10 - Osaka - Seeing Osaka Castle, Pokemon Center, and Dotonbori 
18. Day 11 - Seeing Himeji Castle, the Most Beautiful One in Japan, and the Umeda Sky Building
19. Day 12 - Osaka Aquarium (Whale Sharks!), Den Den Town, Shinsekai, and MOS Burger
20. Day 13 - Travelogue - Back to Tokyo - Akihabara - Shinjuku at Night
21. Day 14 - Underground to Ginza, Shopping, Ginza GoldFish Aquarium, and Tokyo Skytree
22. Day 14 - Tokyo's Underground Labyrinth 2 - Walking From Tokyo Station to Ginza
23. Day 15 - Travelogue - Museums Close Monday - Ueno Park - Narita - Flight Home

Visit My Travelogue Page