Ginza
One of architect Kenzo Tange's most iconic buildings, this early example of Metabolist architecture was completed in 1967 and occupies a prominent corner location just north of Shimbashi station. Built on a triangular site that's only 189 square...
The innovative headquarters building of the Swatch Group in Japan is the work of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who is known for implementing outside-the-box concepts such as buildings made from paper tubes. Completed in 2007, the greenery-covered...
[Open Mon-Fri 11am-7pm; Sat -6pm. Closed Sundays.]
Monthly exhibitions focus on contemporary graphic design, showcasing the work of prominent designers from Japan and abroad. The gallery is run by Dai Nippon Printing, one of Japan's largest printing companies.
[Open 11am-9pm daily.]
METoA is a three-floor exhibition space and cafe produced by Mitsubishi Electric located at the south end of Tokyu Plaza Ginza. Currently (September 2016 - January 2017) the exhibition space is devoted to a show called "Robotic Art in Ginza." The...
[Open 11am-7pm daily.]
Occupying three floors of the new (Fall 2016) Ginza Place complex, the Sony Showroom shows off the company's cameras (4F), music and gaming gear, and other electronic products. A small art gallery on the sixth floor hosts photography exhibitions.
The slender, 12-meter-wide building housing the Tokyo flagship store of the French fashion house is covered with 13,000 custom-fabricated glass blocks. Designed by architect Renzo Piano, the building was completed in 2001. A small art gallery...
[Open 10am-8pm daily.]
Since the store's recent renovation, Mitsukoshi's two-level food hall has expanded to more than a hundred food stalls run by well-known restaurants, bakeries, sweets shops, tea sellers, and other purveyors of gourmet food and drink. The tiny...
[Open 10am-8pm daily.]
The two-level basement food hall at Matsuya houses dozens and dozens of kiosks and stalls with freshly prepared foods and packaged goods to take home. There are also a few sit-down counters run by the various shops and a decent wine department with...
[Open 10am-9pm (B1F 7:30am-9:30pm LO) daily.]
If you were acquainted with the spectacular Muji flagship store located in nearby Yurakucho, this current incarnation may be disappointing. The wide-open spaces and vistas of the former flagship have been replaced by poorly planned narrow aisles...
[Open 11am-7pm. Closed Sundays, Mondays, holidays.]
Manga, anime, toys and other aspects of pop culture are the inspiration for many of the shows at this international gallery. The exhibition area is comfortably spacious and can accommodate fairly large shows. As with all independent galleries,...
[Open 11am-7pm daily.]
The nine-story Ginza showroom and head office of Mikimoto, the Japanese pearl company, was designed by architect Toyo Ito and completed in 2005.
[Open 11am-9pm daily.]
Dedicated to the crafts and local foods of Niigata Prefecture, Niigata Ichi-Maru-Maru feels like a cross between an upscale design shop and a prefectural antenna shop. The shelves are filled with beautifully crafted glassware and pottery,...
Marunouchi
[Open 10am-5:30pm (last entry 5pm). Closed Mondays.]
Calligraphy students, former calligraphy students and hard-core calligraphy fans would appear to be the main audience for this specialized museum, which showcases the work of calligrapher and poet Mitsuo Aida (1924-1991).
[Open 11:30am-8pm.]
Run by the well-known US furniture manufacturer, the Herman Miller Store offers ergonomically designed chairs and office furniture, lighting equipment and stationery.
[Open 10am-5pm (Fri -6pm). Closed Mondays.]
An extensive collection of Chinese pottery and porcelain, covering several dynasties, is at the heart of this century-old museum's holdings. The 6500-item collection also includes swords, tea ceremony utensils, Chinese and Japanese paintings,...
[Open 10am-11pm daily.]
Located on the site of Tokyo's former central post office, Kitte (the name means "postage stamp") is one of the more interesting multi-use complexes in Marunouchi, housing a good number of design and lifestyle shops and a first-rate museum in...
[Open 11am-9pm (Sun -8pm) daily.]
One of the many design and lifestyle stores in the Kitte complex, this tiny branch of Spiral Market focuses on housewares and casual gifts, and it seems like a good place to find a tasteful housewarming present or a party gift. The main branch is...
[Open 11am-9pm (Sun -8pm) daily.]
All the goods on display here have been past winners of Japan's Good Design Award for noteworthy industrial design, so browsing the shelves is a bit like visiting a design museum. The collection is incredibly diverse but often quite mundane,...
[Open 11am-9pm (Sun -8pm) daily.]
Stationery enthusiasts will marvel at the breadth of offerings at this gorgeous little shop - everything from vintage fountain pens and artisanal ink to deluxe planners and notebooks from Japan and abroad. There are tasteful knickknacks and...
[Open 11am-6pm (Thu, Fri 8pm; entry until 30 minutes before closing). Closed Mondays.]
The Marunouchi district is teeming with smart new shopping-dining-office complexes, but Kitte ("postage stamp"), brought to you by the Japanese Postal Service, is the only one with its own natural-history museum. Or is it a contemporary art gallery?...
Designed by New York architect Rafael Vinoli and completed in 1997, TIF contains two theaters and 6,000 square meters of exhibition space as well as restaurants and shops. At the heart of the complex is a sixty-meter-high, hull-shaped glass and...
[Open 10am-6pm (enter by 5:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Located inside the historic Tokyo Station building, the gallery puts on regular shows of contemporary art, modern art, traditional Japanese art, graphic arts and architectural design. English-language audio guides are available. In addition to...
Kyobashi, Yaesu, Nihonbashi
[Open 9:30am-5pm. Closed Mondays.]
Aimed primarily at school-age children, this specialized museum focuses on the history and operations of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, exploring the topics of crime-scene investigation and disaster response in particular. There are a...
[Open 11am-6:30pm. Closed Mondays.]
The seventh-floor gallery of the Film Archive has a permanent gallery devoted to the history of the Japanese film industry, with a lot of old posters, photographs and film paraphernalia. The focus is mainly on notable directors and actors, but they...
[Open 11am-7pm. Closed weekends.]
This charming hands-on museum is jam-packed with now-obsolete gadgetry that once represented the cutting edge of technology and industrial design. Hand-cranked movie cameras, pre-war film cameras, manual typewriters and early-model laptops are...
[Open 11am-5pm. Closed Sundays.]
A visit to Nihonbashi's Taimeiken Kite Museum feels a bit like stepping into the attic of an eccentric old man. The room is a tangled heap of color and string, requiring you to duck under and step around the hundreds of kites that couldn't fit...
[Open 9am-5pm. Closed weekends.]
Gorgeous soup and salad bowls, bento boxes, trays and other items for the table are sold at this lacquerware specialty shop. In addition to traditional styles they also offer modern interpretations of the classics, including lovely silver-colored...
[Open 10am-8pm daily.]
Nagasaki Prefecture runs one of the largest prefectural antenna shops in Tokyo, selling a wide range of regional food items that are otherwise hard to find. There's quite a bit of Nagasaki-made shochu (and a smaller amount of Nagasaki sake) in the...
[Open 10:30am-9pm daily.]
The largest Pokemon shop in Japan with 1,300 square meters of retail space, Pokemon DX is also the home of the first permanent Pokemon Cafe, serving Pokemon-themed food and drink and providing ample photo opportunities. As you would expect, a huge...
[Open 10am-8pm daily.]
The basement food floor of Takashimaya is upscale and a bit old-fashioned at the same time, just like the rest of the store; you'll find booths run by traditional eel restaurants and similar fare.
[Open 11:30am-midnight daily.]
Sumptuous is the word for the Mandarin Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Nihonbashi. The interior by Ryu Kosaka, with richly tactile accents by textile designer Reiko Sudo, is chic and inviting, dominated by seductive earth tones. The scale of...
[Open 10am-8pm daily.]
Established in 1792 and still going strong, Kiya sells an amazing variety of kitchen knives, including ones crafted specifically for cutting fugu, salmon, soba noodles and vegetables. They carry seven different styles of eel knife alone. They also...
Taguchi Fine Art - Art gallery: Mitsukoshimae
[Open 1-7pm. Closed Sundays, Mondays.]
Founded in 2001, Taguchi puts on six or seven shows a year, showcasing established German and other international artists as well as artists from Japan. They also produce occasional pop-up projects in Osaka, Germany and elsewhere.
[Open 10am-5pm (last entry 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
The Mitsui family's immense collection of Japanese and Asian art sounds impressive in the catalog, but in reality the exhibition space is quite small and the Y1000 admission price seems rather steep considering how little you get to see. It might...
[Open 10am-9pm daily.]
Taiwan's coolest bookstore and lifestyle shop has created a unique "hub for cultural exchange" in Nihonbashi. In addition to selling books, stationery and miscellaneous goods, the shop incorporates a workshop zone with areas devoted to Japanese...
[Open 11am-8pm (Sat, Sun -6pm) daily.]
In addition to the usual local food and booze, this large prefectural antenna shop offers a good assortment of crafts - tableware, glassware, wooden dolls and other decorative items - all made in Fukushima. The sake refrigerators - showcasing more...
[Open 11am-5pm (enter by 4:30pm). Closed Mondays.]
Japanese printmaker Yozo Hamaguchi (1909-2000) was perhaps the most renowned mezzotint artist of the twentieth century. This small private museum exhibits sixty of his works, and has frequent shows devoted to the work of printmaker Keiko Minami,...