Shinagawa Station

Shinagawa (品川区, Shinagawa-ku?) is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. In English, it calls itself Shinagawa City. The ward is home to nine embassies.

As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population of 344,461 and a density of 15740 persons per km². The total area is 22.72 km².

(source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinagawa,_Tokyo)

Nakamise Street

This is a famouse place for shopping. You can find a lot of traditional Japanese souvenirs and snacks along this street.

Roppongi Hills

Roppongi Hills (六本木ヒルズ, Roppongi Hiruzu?) is one of Japan's largest integrated property developments, located in the Roppongi district of Minato, Tokyo.

Constructed by building tycoon Minoru Mori, the mega-complex incorporates office space, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafés, movie theaters, a museum, a hotel, a major TV studio, an outdoor amphitheater, and a few parks. The centerpiece is the 54-story Mori Tower. Mori's stated vision was to build an integrated development where high-rise inner-urban communities allow people to live, work, play, and shop in proximity to eliminate commuting time. He argued that this would increase leisure time, quality of life, and benefit Japan's national competitiveness. Seventeen years after the design's initial conception, the complex opened to the public on April 23, 2003.

Visit their website here.

(source: Wikipedia)

Ginza 9

Ginza 9 is one of the popular shopping centre in Ginza. http://www.ginza9.com/

Ginza (銀座) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaicho, and north of Shinbashi. It is known as an upmarket area of Tokyo with many department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses. It is recognized as one of the most luxurious shopping destinations in the world. Many upscale designers' flagship stores are in Ginza, notably the Gucci Flagship Store.

(source: Wikipedia)

Tsukiji Outer Market

Just outside of the wholesale market is a thriving "outside market" of small retail shops and restaurants that cater to the public. Here you can find all sorts of food related goods, knives, vegetables and fish for sale in smaller (than wholesale) portions.

Tsukiji

Tsukiji fish market (築地市場, Tsukiji shijō?) is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. The market is located in Tsukiji in central Tokyo, and is a major attraction for foreign visitors.

When I reached there, it is already 11AM and all the fish auction have been completed. It is already too late to catch any interesting scenes.

I will visit this place sometime again and will post more pictures.

Shinjuku

Shinjuku (新宿区, Shinjuku-ku?) is one of the 23 Special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the busiest train station in the world (Shinjuku Station), and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration center for the government of Tokyo.

Surrounding Shinjuku Station are department stores, specialist electronic and camera shops, cinemas, restaurants and bars. Many international hotels are located here.

As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population of 312,418 and a density of 17,140 persons per km². The total area is 18.23 km².

Shinjuku has the highest numbers of registered foreign nationals of any community in Tokyo. As of October 1, 2005, 29,353 non-Japanese with 107 different nationalities were registered in Shinjuku.

(source: Wikipedia)

Daiso Harajuku - 100 Yen shop

Daisō or The Daisō (ザ・ダイソー, Daisō or The Daisō?) is the largest franchise of 100-yen shops in Japan. Its parent company is Daiso Industry Corp. (株式会社大創産業, kabushika gaisha daisō sangyō?). Daiso has a range of over 90,000 goods, of which over 40 percent are imported goods, many of them from China.

Many of these are own-brand goods.Daiso sets itself apart from other 100 yen shops by choosing not to sell closeout or factory second merchandise. Instead ,they keep prices low by purchasing directly from manufacturers in very high volume, a strategy often compared to Wal-mart.

In 2004, Daiso also started selling items priced at multiples of 100 yen, such as 200, 300, 400 or 500 yen. Examples of such items would be children's clothing or large toys.

Visit Daiso website here: http://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/english/index.html

(source: Wikipedia)

Takeshita Dori

Takeshita-dori - Opposite Harajuku Station, Takeshita-dori is a narrow pedestrian only street packed with young fashionable people and lined with fashion boutiques and cafes. Takeshita-dori is located within Harajuku Tokyo.

Takeshita-dori is definitely the place to be seen if you are young Tokyoite, but well worth visiting as a tourist. Takeshita-dori represents the cutting edge of fashion in Tokyo where you can see all the latest in Japanese street fashion and then buy in the boutiques.

(source: http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/tokyo/harajuku_takeshita-dori.htm)

Omote Sando Hills

Omotesando Hills (表参道ヒルズ, Omotesandō hiruzu) was built in 2005, in a series of Tokyo urban developments by Mori Building. It occupies a two hundred and fifty meter stretch of Omotesandō, a famous shopping and (previously) residential road in Aoyama sometimes termed Tokyo's Champs-Élysées. It was designed by Tadao Ando, and contains over 130 shops and 38 apartments.

The construction of Omotesando Hills, built at a cost of $330 million, has been marked by controversy.[1] The building replaced the Bauhaus-inspired Dōjunkai Aoyama Apartments, which had been built in 1927 after the 1923 Kantō earthquake.[2] The destruction of the apartments again raised questions about Japan's interest in preserving historic buildings. A small section of the old apartments is reconstructed in the South-East part of the new complex.[3]

Minoru Mori noted that there had been resistance from local landowners to the use of Ando as architect, saying that they were concerned that his buildings were too fashionable for the area.[4]

Regarding the construction, Ando said, "It's not Tadao Ando as an architect who has decided to rebuild and make shops, it was the owners themselves who wanted it to be new housing and to get some value with shops below. My task was how to do it in the best way.”[5]

(source: Wikipedia)

Nakamise-dōri

Nakamise-dōri is a street on the approach to the temple. It is to have come about in the early 18th century. Neighbors of Sensō-ji were allowed to set up shops on the approach to the temple. In May of 1885 the government of Tokyo ordered all shop owners to leave. In December of that same year the area was reconstructed in Western-style brick. During the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake many of the shops were destroyed. They were rebuilt in 1925 using concrete, but destroyed again during the bombings of World War II.

The length of the street is approximately 250 meters and contains around 89 shops.

(source: Wikipedia)

Akihabara Electric Town

Akihabara (秋葉原, Akihabara?) ("Field of Autumn Leaves"), also known as Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街, Akihabara Denki Gai?), is an area of Tokyo, Japan. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba in Japan. While there is an official locality named Akihabara nearby, part of Taitō-ku, the area known to most people as Akihabara (including the railway station of the same name) is actually Soto-Kanda, a part of Chiyoda-ku.

Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items. New items are mostly to be found on the main street, Chūōdōri, with many kinds of used items found in the back streets of Soto Kanda 3-chōme. First-hand parts for PC-building are readily available from a variety of stores. Tools, electrical parts, wires, microsized cameras and similar items are found in the cramped passageways of Soto Kanda 1-chōme (near the station). Foreign tourists tend to visit the big name shops like Laox or other speciality shops near the station, though there is more variety and lower prices at locales a little further away. Akihabara gained some fame through being home to one of the first stores devoted to personal robots and robotics.

(source: Wikipedia)

Music VOX @ Akihabara