Miyashita Ginza

photo by Miyuki Meinaka · Public domain

photo by Asturio Cantabrio · CC BY-SA 4.0

Below the Tōshōgū stood Mito's amusement park: the 60s signs now host new venues.

The street runs down from Mito Tōshōgū, and its name (‘below the shrine’) comes from there. In the Shōwa years it was home to the Shin-Mito Kaikan, a large amusement park with cinemas and game halls that made it the heart of the city's entertainment; when the prefectural government offices moved away, in the '90s, the number of passers-by dropped and the atmosphere of those days has stayed almost intact. Today the old signs sit alongside new venues opened by young people, where rents are still cheap.

A shopping street in Mito running down from the Tōshōgū shrine towards the city centre: one of the main entertainment districts of Shōwa-era Mito, now reappraised as a ‘retro’ neighbourhood as new businesses settle in alongside the historic ones.

ℹ️ About three minutes' walk from the north exit of JR Mito Station. Venues of every kind, from long-established izakaya to new openings by young owners, with their own hours that vary from shop to shop: it is worth going in the evening, when the signs light up.

🚉 Mito · 5 min walk

Sources: mito-ibaraki.mypl.net

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