One day · Ginza

Ginza, dressed up: a department store at the bell, one act of kabuki, a stationery floor, a sushi counter and a bar that knows its whisky

Published 2026-09-26 · Season: any · Who it is for: A couple with one smart outfit and an appetite for the polished version of Tokyo

Ginza is where Tokyo goes to be seen behaving well. The day below is the polished version: a department store opening, a single act at the Kabukiza, lunch at a counter where the chef has been slicing for forty years, and an evening in a bar with a hundred bottles behind it. Every stop is a named operator we have checked; two of them need booking, the rest reward showing up on time.

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi Ginza Marunouchi Nihonbashi Asakusa Ueno · Yanaka Akihabara · Kanda Roppongi Aoyama Harajuku Shibuya Shinjuku Tsukiji · Toyosu Daikanyama · Ebisu Kagurazaka Ryogoku Kabukiza Theatre Chuo-dori and the Sunday promenade Ginza Six Ginza Itoya Hama-rikyu Gardens The Ginza gallery walk Tsukiji Hongwanji The Ginza bar streets Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building Imperial Palace East Gardens Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum Marunouchi Naka-dori KITTE and the rooftop garden Idemitsu Museum of Arts Nihonbashi Bridge Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store The old shops of Nihonbashi Artizon Museum Fukutoku Shrine and the Coredo lanes Nihonbashi river cruise Sensoji Temple Kappabashi kitchen street Sumida river water bus The craft and coffee streets west of the temple A kimono day in Asakusa Tokyo Skytree Asakusa Shrine and Sanja Matsuri Tokyo National Museum National Museum of Western Art Ueno Park and Shinobazu Pond Yanaka Ginza and the Yanesen lanes Nezu Shrine Ameyoko market street Asakura Museum of Sculpture Akihabara Electric Town Jimbocho book town Kanda Myojin Shrine Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do) Kanda's old noodle houses Yushima Seido and the Confucian hall Mori Art Museum and Tokyo City View The National Art Center, Tokyo Tokyo Midtown and the Suntory Museum of Art Azabu-Juban shopping street Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple Roppongi after dark Nezu Museum The Omotesando architecture walk Aoyama Cemetery Meiji Jingu Gaien ginkgo avenue The Aoyama and Minami-Aoyama back streets Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Park Takeshita Street and Cat Street Ota Memorial Museum of Art Togo Shrine Shibuya scramble crossing and Hachiko Shibuya Sky Nonbei Yokocho and the Shibuya alleys Udagawacho record shops and Shibuya vintage Tomigaya and Kamiyamacho Live music in Shibuya Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatories Golden Gai Omoide Yokocho The Isetan food hall Hanazono Shrine Tsukiji Outer Market Toyosu Market and the tuna auction teamLab Planets The Tsukiji-to-Ginza walk The Meguro River cherry trees Daikanyama T-Site Daikanyama's low-rise streets Ebisu Garden Place and the Ebisu restaurant streets Nakameguro's back streets Kagurazaka's stone lanes Akagi Shrine Dining in Kagurazaka Zenkokuji Bishamonten Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo Edo-Tokyo Museum Kiyosumi Garden Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) The Kiyosumi-Shirakawa roasters
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.

The day

  1. 10:00

    The bell at Mitsukoshi

    Be at the Chuo-dori doors before ten. The staff line the aisles, the bell sounds, and every customer is bowed to as they walk in — a ritual Tokyo has kept for a century. Go straight down to the food hall while it is quiet and up to the foreign-visitor desk if you need tax-free paperwork later.

    Mitsukoshi Ginza →

  2. 11:00

    One act, fourth floor

    The Kabukiza sells single-act seats on the fourth floor for the price of a coffee: an hour of the real thing without committing the day. Rent the English earphone guide, which explains the plot and the stagecraft as it happens. Check the day's programme on the official site and pick the act with a dance in it.

    Kabukiza Theatre — Single-Act (Hitomaku-mi) Seats →

  3. 12:30

    The counter at Kyubey

    Kyubey has been feeding Ginza since 1935 and lunch is the civilised way in: the omakase is shorter, the room brighter, the price lower than dinner. Sit at the counter, say "omakase", and eat each piece as it lands. Book through your hotel or the site's form.

    Kyubey Ginza →

  4. 14:30

    Twelve floors of paper

    Itoya is the stationery shop Tokyo has trusted since 1904, now a tower on Chuo-dori: fountain pens on one floor, a paper library on another, a floor that will make you a personal stamp while you wait. Buy the postcards you will actually write, and write them on the top floor.

    Ginza Itoya →

  5. 16:00

    Galleries between the shops

    Ginza has more private galleries than any district in Japan, most of them free and most of them upstairs. Tokyo Gallery on Namiki-dori, the Shiseido Gallery, the Hermès forum in the glass-brick building: an hour of looking, no tickets.

    The Ginza gallery walk →

  6. 18:30

    Tempura at Kondo

    Dinner at a counter again, but a different craft: Kondo fries vegetables the way others fry fish, and the sweet-potato that closes the meal takes half an hour in the oil. Reserve well ahead; the room seats a few dozen and Ginza knows it.

    Tempura Kondo →

  7. 21:00

    Down the stairs to Star Bar

    Basement, wood, one bartender who won the world and still cuts his own ice. Ask for a Japanese whisky you cannot buy at home and let him choose. Two drinks, quiet voices, then the Hibiya-line home.

    Star Bar Ginza →

A bell, a stage, three counters and a basement: Ginza does not need to be expensive to be Ginza, but it does need you to be on time.

Before you go

  • Single-act tickets are sold on the day; arrive thirty minutes before the act for a good seat.
  • [object Object]
  • Ginza's Chuo-dori is pedestrian-only on weekend afternoons; the galleries stay open.

Areas: Ginza

More

One day · The whole loop

Around the Yamanote line in a day of eating: soba in Kanda, unagi in Ueno, a tea house in a garden, tempura in Shinjuku, tonkatsu in Meguro and oden in Ebisu

The Yamanote loop takes an hour to ride and a lifetime to eat. This day rides it clockwise from Tokyo Station and gets off six times, once for each meal a body can reasonably hold: soba, unagi, tea, tempura, tonkatsu, oden. Every stop is from our station-by-station guide, verified on the date shown; walk times are from the station gates. Buy a day ticket and eat small.

Akihabara & Kanda · Ueno & Yanaka · Shinjuku · Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu · Ginza · 7 stops

One day · Tsukiji, Hama-rikyu, Ginza

A first day in Tokyo: the market at seven, the shogun's garden at nine, Ginza at eleven, kabuki at four

The best first day in Tokyo needs no train. It starts before the city does, at a market that has fed it for a century, and ends in a theatre that has entertained it for four; between them are a tidal garden, a boulevard of architecture, and the kind of lunch counter that makes people plan a second trip. Everything is within two kilometres. Wear shoes you can stand in.

Tsukiji & Toyosu · Ginza · 9 stops

One day · Asakusa, Kappabashi, the Sumida

Asakusa before the crowds: the temple at seven, the kitchen street, and the river down to the shogun's garden

Asakusa is the most visited district in Tokyo and, at seven in the morning, one of the emptiest. This day is built on that hour: the temple to yourself, breakfast in a coffee house from the Showa era, the street where every restaurant in the city buys its knives, and then the river — twelve bridges downstream to a garden the shoguns built on the bay. It ends in Ginza, which is how Tokyo has always ended a day in Asakusa.

Asakusa · Ginza · 8 stops