Togoshi Ginza

photo by パリカール · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by Kentin · CC BY-SA 4.0

1.3 km, over 400 shops: a pedestrian street every afternoon (15:00–18:00, holidays 14:00–19:00).

It is a shōtengai, the neighbourhood shopping street that in so many Japanese towns runs straight from the station. It began in the mid-'20s, when the residents paved the road with bricks salvaged from the Ginza destroyed by the 1923 earthquake, hence the name. Every day it becomes a pedestrian zone for a few hours (15:00–18:00 on weekdays, 14:00–19:00 on holidays); about twenty shops fry their own korokke, the potato croquette that is the street's symbol.

Togoshi Ginza is one of the best-known shōtengai in Tokyo: it runs for about 1.3 km between Togoshi and Togoshi-Ginza stations, with almost 400 active shops in three separate traders' associations. The claim ‘the longest shōtengai in Japan’ often circulates in guidebooks, but the official site does not make it: it speaks only of ‘one of the longest’.

ℹ️ The street is public and can always be walked; the shops have their own hours. It becomes a pedestrian zone every day, from 15:00 to 18:00 on weekdays and from 14:00 to 19:00 on holidays and Sundays: outside those hours cars drive through the street and narrow the space for people on foot. Seven minutes on foot from Togoshi Station (Toei Asakusa) or right at Togoshi-Ginza Station (Tōkyū Ikegami).

🚉 Togoshi-ginza · in front of the station

Sources: togoshiginza.jp · togoshiginza.tokyo

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