Ginza on Sunday Afternoon

We took a trip to Ginza today which is one of the premiere shoping streets in Tokyo. It was the location of the 'mint' hence the name Ginza. Gin means silver.

The original shopping district was burnt down after an earth quake in 1920 something. They then paid a english architect to build a new shopping area. He made a bunch of totally inappropriate brick buildings that nobody wanted to live in as they were too hot in the summer. Eventully the government subsidised the rents and people moved in. The area was then christened 'Brick town'.

Highlights of today's tour.

Chuo Dori being closed to traffic so that shoppers can wander anywhere they like.

4th Floor of Toy Park which has a 36m, 8 lane Scalextric track which the kids can pay 200 JPY for a 5 min go on.

Totally realistic dog soft toy/robot that you could stroke and cuddle and behaved just like a real dog.

Sony building that has 5 floors of show rooms of all the latest technology. We played with PS3, camera's, Cinema surround sound, PCs and Walkmans.

Strange cat man. Bloke had brought a bag of kittens down to Ginza and placed the mum and a kitten on top of the sign. In typical Japanese fashion this then resulted in camera frenzy by passer by's including us.

Politician sound off in the centre of the street. There were lots of groups of politicians and their supporter groups. We thought this was going to result in big punch up but they failed to perform and we wandered on the next attraction disppointed.

The last picture is for Steve (you know who you are). The Mount Blanc shop has a huge bill board on the side showing Steve's most favourite pen with the diamond in the top.