Tokyo - Ginza

Ginza is Tokyo's most famous shopping center. Lined by exclusive shops and imposing palatial stores which sell literally everything that can be obtained anywhere in the world, in the area there are many tea and coffee shops, cáfes, bars and restaurants. At weekends, when everything is open, it is a shopper's paradise because traffic is barred. Gigantic advertising panels on many buildings bathe Ginza in bright light in the evenings. The crowds of moving people carry the visitor along with them, and the din is almost frightening.

Here lie - within the precinct of the shopping street - the Kabuki-za Theatre in which Kabuki performances take place, as well as the Shimbashi Embujo Theatre in which the traditional Azuma-odori dances or Bunraku performances may be seen. The Ginza district was the commercial center of the country in the Edo period. It was here that the Chonin, craftsmen and merchants lived. In 1612 Tokugawa Ieyasu had the silver mint (in Japanese "ginza") moved to Edo. At that time Nihombashi was the point where five highways led out into the countryside - the Oshu Road to Sendai, the Nikko Road to Nikko, the Tokaido Road to Kyoto, the Koshu Road to Kofu and the Nakasendao Road to Nagano.