Exploring Ginza on a Rainy Day Things to Do in Tokyo

Hi, I'm Yasu from GearTokyo. Hi, and I'm Julian. So today we've come to Ginza, the biggest and most luxurious shopping and dining center in the whole of Japan. So it's looking a little bit more busy today. As you guys at home might know, the economy just recently reopened. Yeah, and that's probably why we're seeing fewer people today. You know, usually it's a lot more crowded. You know that the land price in Ginza is the most expensive in Japan? I didn't know. Yeah, so it costs 28 million yen per square meter. Wow, that's a lot of money. I mean, square meters is like this, right? So I guess that means that staying socially distant in Ginza is going to cost millions of dollars, right? That's an interesting way of thinking. So we've got loads of places to check out today, so let's get on with it, yeah? Cool. We're starting at the main Ginza crossing, and on its southern corner you'll find the popular Nissan showroom. Here you can check out some of the latest concepts from Japan's most recognizable car manufacturer. Another global Japanese company is Sony, which has its own showroom located a few floors higher. Here you'll be able to get your grubby mitts all over the most cutting-edge products in consumer electronics, and also find many reasons to melt your credit card. Hey guys, so right now we're in the Sony showroom at the main Ginza crossing, and I'm just setting up my new beauty blog. So I've got some lights over here, you can change the brightness. I've got a disco ball going on over here, and even a little fan to keep you cool. So I guess we're now live on air. Action! On the sixth floor you can check out the entries for Sony's International Photography Awards. Just remember to pay attention to and abide by the social distancing protocol. So these are the latest generation of the Sony AIBO toys. But these came out when I was a kid, I remember. Like, a long time ago. But these ones look super cool, they even have little cameras on their noses. Sit! Suwatte! Okay, they don't speak English or Japanese. All of that tomfoolery has made us hungry, so now would be a perfect time to take a quick walk over to the oldest bakery in Ginza, Kimuraya. Established over 150 years ago, Kimuraya is the birthplace of the famous Japanese sweetbread roll, the Anpan, which has been further cemented in the history books as the main inspiration for the wildly popular children's anime, Anpan Man. So guys, we've got some Anpan here. We've got four different flavours, but I don't remember which one's which. So I guess it's kind of like a mystery selection. Do you want to go first? Yeah, sure. It's a bit of a big one. What did you get? This one's just cream. Oh, cream. Okay, nice. That was a bit intriguing, I was wondering about that. Okay, this is like Anpan roulette. I'm going to go for my big one, see what this is. Oh, jam. Ooh, look at that. It's like oozing out. It's almost like a donut. That's actually a lot nicer than I thought it would be. I'm not a big fan of Anzu, I usually find it way too sweet. So when you have it in mochi, things like that. But as a jam, actually, it works pretty well. So right now, guys, we're in Yamano Gaki. And Gaki means musical instrument in Japanese. So basically, it's just a massive music store. So we're in the sheet music section at the moment, but we're looking for the instruments. So we're going to have a little hunt around. Do you play anything, Yasu? I used to play piano when I was a kid. Oh, yeah? And some guitar in high school and in college. Nice. Maybe we can go have a little jam. Let's go find some instruments. Music stores in Japan are often impressive, spanning across multiple floors and offering a vast array of instruments and sheet music. And Yamano Gaki is certainly no exception. So I'm sure a lot of you guys at home before have heard of Uniqlo. It's one of Japan's biggest and most cost-effective brands. Yeah, so behind us is a global flagship store of Uniqlo. It consists of 12 floors, all filled with Uniqlo stuff. So, yeah, if you're in the mood for a bargain, you get caught in the rain and you want to do some shopping in Tokyo, this is definitely one of the best places to do so. Uniqlo is just one of the many brands that has a flagship store here in Ginza. And it's certainly the place to come if you want to be freed from your burden of a wallet full of cash. A personal favourite of mine is Itoya, which you might call a stationery store, but it's a great place to pick up birthday cards and nice, high-quality gifts for all occasions. Another great place to check out if you're not quite yet ready to accept life as an adult is the best toy store in Tokyo. Yeah, so this shop is called Hakuhinkan Toy Park. And it's like the Toys R Us of Japan. I've already found my new beast of a cannon. I can use this in some of those hot summer water battles. What about you, Yasu? Um, gotta find something. Yeah, you could have a rocket launcher. Yeah. Maybe in a future episode we can have a water gun battle. To the death. Yeah, this one is for the water balloon. Oh, it shoots balloons. So yeah, they've got all kinds of toys in this store. So not just weaponised water cannons. So we're gonna go take a look and see what we can find. So I know there's a lot of you Ghibli fans at home. So you can see this cool little corner we've got in this shop here. Just everything dedicated to Ghibli films. But mostly My Name is Totoro. And they've got these cute little music boxes over here. So you get a little picture of Totoro in the front here. And you can wind it up and it'll play the song. Yeah, so these characters are called Ultraman. One of the original superheroes in Japan. And they are like aliens. Good aliens to protect human beings on Earth from bad aliens. So they fight with all the crazy monsters and stuff. So right now we're just in front of Tokyu Plaza back there. But we found this cool little chill out area. They've got all these plants from all around the world. They've got some from Spain, some from Mexico. So, I mean, if it wasn't raining so much it might be a little bit nice. But on a sunny day, this would be a great place to sit down, have a coffee and just chill out. Tokyu Plaza is one of the most premium shopping centres in the city. And has outlets for tons of upper market brands. More importantly though, it also has an incredible selection of high-end restaurants. One of which we're going to check out for lunch. The Udon restaurant Tsurutontan. What's interesting about this Tsurutontan restaurant is that you can increase the portion of udon up to like three times. Oh, wow. So you can double or triple your udon noodle for the same price. Same price? Yeah. Oh, I thought it cost more. I mean, one portion looks pretty big. So, double. I can't go triple. That's insane. But if you look at the size of the bowl here, you'll understand. Because all the bowls are gigantic. Oh, okay. So even if you triple the udon portion, it can still fit. Oh, okay. I'm looking forward to that. Look at the size of this spoon. It's mildly comical. I couldn't get this in my mouth. You're going to give it a try? Tastes the same, but it's just so big. It feels like there's way more soup on this spoon than I could possibly fit in my mouth. But as some of you guys might not know, udon is quite messy. When you're slurping up, it splatters everywhere. So they give you these little paper bits to put on and keep your clothes safe. Hopefully I won't have any stains when I finish this. Less talking, more eating. In the evening, Ginza is a great area to enjoy Tokyo's nightlife. If you're looking for a cultural experience, then you could catch a traditional Japanese Kabuki show at the Kabukiza Theater, which first opened its doors during the Meiji era all the way back in 1889. For a more modern night out, Ginza has got you covered there too and is packed to the brim with stylish bars and izakayas. Okay, so we were actually trying to go to the Japanese sake bar in Ginza. They have a bunch of different Japanese sakes here. So I thought it would be nice to go there at the end of the day. But it was unfortunately closed. And I think it's due to the outbreak of Corona. And I think they're seeing less number of customers now. So we ended up coming to Lion Ginza. And I found out after we came here, but it says that it's the oldest beer hall in Japan. And according to them, they started their business almost 100 years ago. Oh wow. So it's not bad, eh? Yeah, so we were going to go for something a bit Japanese style. But we've ended up in a large European beer hall. But neither of us are actually fans of beer. So I've gone for a classic Japanese highball. It's a whiskey and soda water. And you've gone for a nice fruity cocktail. Yeah, random wine cocktail. Not bad. What was your favorite part of the day today, Yasu? I really liked Kimuraya, the bread shop. And I was so happy to see all different kinds of Anpans in one place. Because I quite like Anpan. And they taste good, of course. Of course, yeah. So what was your favorite part? Maybe my favorite part. Maybe Hakuhinkan. I liked playing Scalextrics. That was fun. It reminded me of being a little kid. I used to have the track at home set up. Yeah, we were like kids. Not as grand as it was in the shop, though. It was huge. Even though I did lose. I'll have to have a redo of Battle again. That was close, to be fair. Yeah, but there's plenty of stuff you can do. Especially on a rainy day in Tokyo. Ginza is a great area to come to. Lots of great shops, great food, great drinks. And yeah, lots of easy ways to spend the day. Yeah, so I hope this video gave you a good idea of what to do on a rainy day in Tokyo. Yeah, so make sure you subscribe, guys, to RyuTokyo. We're going to be posting new videos every week. And you can also check out our podcast this week in Japan that goes out every Saturday night. So until next time, thanks for watching. Kanpai!