Ginza, Shiba Park & Tokyo Tower

This is Ginza. Back in the Edo area, Ginza was an area of merchants and trade. It's name means "silver place" because a silver mint was build there in 1612. In 1872, the whole area was destroyed by fire, and with the Meiji restoration going on in full force, the Japanese government commissioned the English architect to resign the area in red brick. from that point on, it's the source of many things Western. It's a massive shopping district with Park Avenue style shopping --that's Park Ave. New York for you pretentious Winter Parkers :-).

The pic on the right is obviously a postcard. I liked that it perfectly captured what Ginza looks like at night.

In Ginza, there are many things that are shiny and new, but not everything. Not far from the subway station is narrow street. And off that narrow street, under a bridge is a small strip of yakatori restaurants. The one show in these pictures is called Ton Ton (literally: pig pig).

The baritone of The Dockside Porters found the place the night of his bachelor party and later took his new wife there. The people at the restaurant totally remembered him and invited him to bring the Porters by to eat. While there, they sang a few songs for the restaurant patrons. In exchange, the restaurant gives all you can eat yakatori and beer. In the picture on the left, you see how small and old this place is.  Only the place on the right side of the ally is Ton Ton. That's not a ceiling you see...that's the underside of a stone bridge. No, that's not a concrete floor - it's a ROAD.  cars and motorbikes occasionally drive right down the center, and the people eating have to scooch their chairs in to keep from being in the way. And yes, that's an open air restaurant. 

On the right, you see the audience watching as the Porters sing. The old lady in the lower right hand corner is actually the owner, and she's holding up a sign that says "applause" in Japanese. The man standing in the center of the photo is taking a picture with his phone and probably recording the sound as well. Japanese cell phones are magical.

On the left is the guys singing. the shot doesn't really show it, but the crowds go NUTS when they perform...especially the Disney songs. As comic relief, please note how much taller Chris is than all of his quartet mates.

On the right is a look at the folks working in the Ton Ton kitchen. Yakitori is lots of grilled meats, and it's quite yummy.

This is just a small section of Shiba Park. It featured rows and rows and rows and rows of little stone statues that looked a lot like children. The statures all wore knitted red caps and some wore brightly colored bibs. There were also colorful pinwheels. We have no idea what any of it represents or means. If you look at the background of the picture, you can see the giant temple hall in the park.

Here's a little more of the temple and statues on the left. We didn't get a chance to really look around the park much - we plan to return to do that. 

And here's the reason why we didn't look around the park: we were on our way to Tokyo Tower. I liked this picture because there's such a new and industrial structure so close to the traditional roof of a temple.

The left shows Tokyo Tower as seen from Roppingi. built in 1958, it's a giant TV antennae. It's modeled after the Eiffel tower, but is is higher. It's 1,093 feet tall. The ground floor has an aquarium and there are a couple other floors with silliness. But the real attraction are the two observation towers. One is at 492 feet up, and the other is at 820 feet.   

The pic on the right is the Tower from the street right in front of it.

Postcard Alert!

On the left is a great picture of what the Tower looks like at night. Pretty.

The pic on the right amuses us greatly because it causes much speculation on how much digital editing it contains. First off, that's the tower with Mt. Fuji in the background. But what is amusing is that Fuji looks huge. Fuji is an hour and a half by train, so it's a little unbelievable that it looks so close in the picture. Second, it's sooooooo clear in the picture. We have never seen a day that clear in this city. Perhaps in the winter, things do clear up this much, but we'll believe it when we see it.

Finally, this is Tokyo from the lower observation deck in the Tower. I don't know why we don't have more pictures from the observation decks - maybe we ran out of film.

Back to main Picture page

Back to main Coffees in Japan page