Sony Building
The Sony building, at the Sukiyabashi intersection, is a must-see for all the cyberjunkies, digital-devotees, and Playstation groupies. Any electronic gizmo that has ever been invented is here in the Sony building, as well as some yet-to-be-retailed prototypes. With most of the displays being a hands-on proposition, it‘s an oversized kid‘s arcade.
The building itself is a rather phlegmatic version of the sixties - a lot of function over form - but with eight stories of unadulterated electronic heaven who cares about the packaging.
Ginza
Despite its disaster-ridden history and propensity for shape-changing, Ginza has become synonymous with conspicuous consumption and excessive shopping. At the end of the 19th century, after fire razed it to the ground, it was ressurected in a London-cum-faux-Parisian style with brick buildings and wide boulevards that mimicked the Champs Elysses. Since then, earthquakes and WWII carpet-bombing has seen it gradually transform from continental chic to trans-atlantic functional, but it still pulls the crowds.
There are some jejeune shopping districts that have tried to wrestle the crown from Ginza - they‘re more crowded, more opulent and hipper - but the grande old dame of ostentatious spending stills retains her imperious snob value. Serious shoppers don‘t leave town without swinging through the doors of Matsuya, Mitsukosh and Wako department stores. The Ginza strip is where you can purchase novelty items whose fetishistic value far outweigh its functional value, and indulge in a spot of retail therapy. Window shopping is free, though, and the window displays in the department stores are works of installation art in themselves.
Ueno-koen park
If Ginza is for shopping, Ueno-koen Park is for strolling, museum-hopping and temple-gazing. The area of Ueno was historically the Alamo of the last shogunate - site of his futile last-ditch effort to prevent a takeover by the imperial army. Today it‘s a carefully landscaped park dotted with museums, temples and a not-half-bad zoo.
Attractions inside the park include the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art (if contemporary art is your bag this is a good place to start), the Tokyo National Museum, the National Science Museum, the National Museum of Western Art (not only does the building house some impressive examples of western art, the building itself was built by Le Corbusier and the garden contains original Rodins including his iconic sculpture,The Thinker), the Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall and the Ueno-no-Mori Art Museum, which often has calligraphy exhibitions scheduled.
One of the most frequently and fervently patronised temples in Ueno-koen park is the Kiyomizu Kannon-do Temple. Women wishing to conceive leave a doll here for the 1000-armed goddess senju Kannon; after the dolls are burnt in an annual bonfire on 25 September, the women wait to see if Kannon has granted them the gift of fertility.
Hama Rikyu Detached Palace Garden
The Hama Rikyu Detached Palace Garden, south of Tokyo central, is 25 hectares (62 acres) of Tokyo‘s greenest, and most finely landscaped, pieces of real estate. In the 17th century it was the happy hunting ground for the Tokugawa shogunate but passed into the hands of the good citizens of Tokyo, post World War II. The park is actually on an island, cut off from the surrounding metropolis by an ancient walled moat and accessible by only one entrance over the Nanmon Bridge.