Togoshi Ginza
Paved with bricks from Ginza — said to be the original of every "Ginza" shopping street in Japan.
The Togoshi Ginza shopping street runs for about 1.3 km through Togoshi in Shinagawa Ward. Its name comes from the bricks taken up from Ginza's roads after the Great Kanto Earthquake and used to pave this street, and it is said to be the original of the many 'Ginzas' across Japan. The street runs right by Togoshi-ginza Station on the Tokyu Ikegami Line, and you can eat fried food from the butchers and delis as you walk.
How long it takes to reach the main destinations with this station as your base.
| Destination | Approx. time | Transfers | Main lines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haneda Airport | about 30 min on board | 2 (Gotanda, Shinagawa) | Tokyu Ikegami Line → JR Yamanote Line → Keikyu Line |
| Narita Airport | about 105 min on board | 2 (Gotanda, Shinagawa) | Tokyu Ikegami Line → JR Yamanote Line → Keikyu / Toei Asakusa / Keisei Lines (through service to Narita Airport) |
| Tokyo Station | about 30 min | 1 (Gotanda) | Tokyu Ikegami Line → JR Yamanote Line |
| Asakusa | about 30 min on board | 1 (Gotanda) | Tokyu Ikegami Line → Toei Asakusa Line |
| Shibuya | about 15 min | 1 (Gotanda) | Tokyu Ikegami Line → JR Yamanote Line |
| Shinjuku | about 25 min | 1 (Gotanda) | Tokyu Ikegami Line → JR Yamanote Line |
| Tokyo Disney Resort (via Tokyo) | about 40 min on board | 2 (Gotanda, Tokyo Station) | Tokyu Ikegami Line → JR Yamanote Line → JR Keiyo LineFrom the operatorIt is a long walk to the Keiyo Line platforms. |
Rough times from official timetables, checked with one weekday daytime service (24 September 2026). "On board" is riding time only and does not include changing trains. Times vary by time and day.
The main 1.3 km arcade is divided into five sections, each with its own shopping association. Colorful banners, mom-and-pop stores, and the smell of grilled skewers fill the air from morning to evening.
One minute on foot. The street runs about 1.3 kilometres and is divided among five shopping-street associations. The banners change design partway, so the boundaries are visible as you walk.
This small, retro above-ground station sits right by the shopping street. The station building itself is a charming piece of old Tokyo infrastructure that blends seamlessly with the arcade atmosphere.
The station is above street level, so you get a nice elevated view of the shopping street from the platform — worth a quick photo before you descend.
The far end of the shopping street near Nakanobu and Ebara-machi Stations has a slightly older, more working-class neighborhood feel. This end is less visited by outsiders and feels the most authentically local.
Head to this end first if you want to avoid crowds and see the street before you get hungry — save the Togoshi-ginza Station end (more food stalls) for last.
The local tutelary shrine, a little off the shopping street. Families from the neighbourhood come for Shichi-go-san and the New Year visit; the rest of the year it is quiet. Stone steps lead up to the hall.
The grounds are free and open. On a weekday morning there is hardly anyone there.
One street off the main run, wooden houses and narrow lanes continue. The shopping street is wide and bright; behind it the roads are thin and almost no cars pass. If the street tires you, cutting through here means fewer people.
Three minutes on foot. Turn at right angles off the arcade and two blocks brings you into it. It is residential, so walk quietly.
A butcher towards the western end of the shopping street, selling fried food at the counter; the croquettes can be eaten on the spot. Togoshi-Ginza is known as a street where eating as you walk is normal, and shops of this kind are dotted along it.
Closed Mondays. Ten minutes on foot. The street runs about 1.3 kilometres, so this shop is some way along it.
A taiyaki shop on the shopping street. You buy one hot at the counter and eat it walking, which is how this street is used.
11:00–19:00. Four minutes on foot.
An offal-grill just off the shopping street, mostly counter seating, filling with local customers from the early evening.
Closed Mondays. Five minutes on foot.
The main shop of a chain serving karaage in the style of Nakatsu in Oita. Most of the trade is takeaway, eaten while walking the street.
11:00–21:00. Three minutes on foot.
In 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake struck. Togoshi sat in a low-lying hollow with poor drainage, and every rainfall turned its main street into a channel of mud. In Ginza, burned in the same disaster, the reconstruction plan called for tearing up the famous brick pavement and laying asphalt instead. Mountains of brick were left over as rubble, with nowhere to go.
The shopkeepers of Togoshi pulled their handcarts all the way to Ginza. They brought the bricks home and laid them across the mud. Then they named the street Togoshi-Ginza — borrowing the name of what was then Japan's grandest commercial district, in the hope that a little of its fortune might rub off.
Today more than 300 shopping streets across Japan carry "Ginza" in their name. This street is said to be where they all began.
A neighbourhood bathhouse a few minutes off the arcade, drawing genuine black hot-spring water — the dark, mineral-rich kuroyu found under the Tokyo lowlands, long called a beauty bath. There are two bathing halls, Hi-no-yu painted with the Seven Lucky Gods and Tsuki-no-yu with Mount Fuji, and they swap between men and women each day. Both have an outdoor bath and a sauna.
Open 15:00–25:00, closed Fridays. Adults ¥550, primary-school children ¥200; the sauna costs extra. Which hall you get depends on the day, so it is worth returning to see the other.
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A business hotel in front of Togoshi station on the Toei Asakusa Line, close to the eastern end of the Togoshi-Ginza shopping street. It is one of the few places to stay in this part of the ward.
Four minutes on foot. Shinagawa and Gotanda are both a few stops away.
A small lodging on the second and third floors of a building in the residential streets towards the western end of the shopping street. It is not a hotel; you stay inside the neighbourhood's daily life.
Twelve minutes on foot. Reception around the clock. It sits near the far end of the street, which suits shopping in the evening.
Septhe second Sunday
Togoshi Hachiman Shrine
Shrine maidens perform the urayasu dance, there are lion dances, and children's mikoshi, the large mikoshi and floats go round the district. Every third year, at the shinkosai, the main shrine is carried the length of Togoshi Ginza — 1.3 kilometres of shopping street, and the length of the street becomes the length of the procession.
Dates shift from year to year. Check the shrine or organiser before you plan around one.
Togoshi-ginza Station on the Tokyu Ikegami Line is a 2-minute walk from Exit 2; Togoshi Station on the Toei Asakusa Line is a 1-minute walk from Exit A2. The arcade runs about 1.3 km east to west, with Togoshi-ginza Station near its middle. From Shinagawa, take the JR Yamanote Line to Gotanda, then the Tokyu Ikegami Line two stops.
Weekday afternoons show the street at its most ordinary. Before nine in the morning most shops are still shut, and what you see instead is owners wetting the pavement and delivery vans coming through, which is worth catching in itself. After six in the evening the standing bars come alive. In autumn there is a street festival with stalls along the road, but the dates move each year, so check with the shopping-street association.
Bring cash — the majority of small shops in the arcade are cash-only. Small denomination coins and 1,000 yen notes are ideal for street food. Avoid carrying large bags as the arcade can get narrow and crowded on weekend afternoons. Bring a small bag or tote for any purchases you make along the way.
The name is said to be a worn-down form of Edo-goe, crossing out of Edo — the village where the city ended. Togoshi Hachiman shrine keeps an old verse beginning with those words, and the name is traced to it. The Ginza half is quite separate: after the earthquake the shopping street was paved with bricks given up by Ginza, and took its name.