Tokyo New City Guide. Mayumi Yoshida Barakan

of public establishments in Tokyo.

      Expensive and conservative, for the postwar generation Ginza has less shopping appeal than the newer districts to the West. Yet somewhat incongruously, the area has Tokyo's largest concentration of art galleries, many of which specialize in the young and avant-garde.

      Hibiya—Kasumigaseki—Yurakucho

      Like Ginza, Hibiya was part of the marshland reclaimed from the sea during the early Edo period. Close to the central part of the castle, daimyo mansions occupied the grounds. With the early Meiji period exodus of daimyo families from the city, the area was left an empty wasteland. Part of the land was used as the first parade ground for the new Western-style military. Nearby were built the Rokumeikan in 1883 and in 1890 the original Imperial Hotel.

      The Rokumeikan was a state-owned guest house designed by Josiah Condor. One of the more idealistic endeavors of the Meiji period establishment, it was believed that, by inviting foreign diplomats to parties given at the ornate western-style building, Japan would be placed on the roster of civilized nations.

      The Imperial Hotel was built on the site of the present hotel building. Originally designed by a Japanese, the second building was the work of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The Wright building was torn down in 1968 and the third and present hotel constructed.

      The military gave its parade ground to the city in 1893. The initial plan was to build a concentration of government office buildings on the site, but when the land proved unable to support the weight of the proposed constructions, the area was made into the city's first western-style park and opened in 1903. If you happen to take a bus tour that passes through the area, the tour guide is likely to make some slightly risque joke about Hibiya Park's reputation as a favorite spot for lovers. As early as 1908, the police were raiding the park and fining indiscreet couples.

      Hibiya is now the home of numerous theaters and movie houses, as well as the famous Takarazuka Theater.

      The neighboring Yurakucho area is known for its cheap yakitoriya beneath the elevated train tracks. During the first five years after the war, General McArthur's headquarters were located in the Yurakucho Daiichi Seimei Building (the room remains, though you can't enter). The area had a large black market and was full of U.S. soldiers, prostitutes, orphans, and shoeshine boys. Even today, there are several blocks near the station with a slight postwar air about them.

      Kasumigaseki is a short walk through Hibiya Park. In this district of government offices, there are ministries of just about everything—MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry), the National Diet building, and the Prime Minister's Official residence. The thirty-six story Kasumigaseki Building, constructed in 1968, was proudly known as the first Japanese skyscraper.

      Marunouchi

      Marunouchi is as prestigious as business addresses come in Japan, and most major corporations are located here. Typically, little of the corporate income, however, has been spent on image and the area remains architecturally one of the least interesting in the city.

      Marunouchi's reputation was set in the early part of the century. Like many of the city's central areas, the land had been vacated by the samurai at the start of the Meiji period and had been taken over by the new government. Owned by the military, the lands were left unused by all but rickshaw pullers and other Meiji period lowlife characters and became known as "Gambler's Field." The land was put up for sale and first offered to the imperial family, who were unable to raise sufficient funds. In 1889 it was bought by the already powerful Mitsubishi Company.

      Plans were made for the Mitsubishi purchase to become a new business district and Josiah Condor was commissioned to build a brick office center modeled on London's Lombard Street. The first building was completed in 1894, and about twenty-five years and twenty-seven brick buildings later the development was completed and became known as Tokyo's "Little London." The buildings were torn down after the war and the area took on its current middle-of-the-road modern air.

      The strategic location of Tokyo Station was largely responsible for the success of the new development. Built as the main terminal for trains from the south, the main entrance faced toward the palace and the Mitsubishi buildings, rather than the more established Nihombashi and Kyobashi districts. The Mitsubishi gamble paid off (whether someone else was paid off to ensure the pay-off is another story), and by 1922 over half of Japan's major corporations had already relocated there.

      Tokyo Station, home base of the famous Shinkansen "Bullet Train," was built in 1914, and is the oldest remaining station in the city. The Japanese had just beaten the Russians in war and, full of pride and patriotism, decided to build a station to shock the world. Amsterdam Station was chosen as the unlikely model and a vaguely post-Victorian red brick building was erected. The old building can still be seen from the west side of the station. Uninspiring though the building may be, it was the site of two famous political assassinations: that of Prime Minister Hara Takashi by a nineteen-year-old youth in 1877, and in 1930 that of Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi by a right-wing terrorist.

      Shimbashi—Shiba—Hamamatsu-cho

      Situated at the southern end of Ginza, Shimbashi has always been the less illustrious neighborhood of the two. The station was one of the first in the city, and the original terminal for trains from the south. The surrounding area was known for its shopping arcades, bazaars, and cheap drinking spots. The "Shimbashi geisha" quarter was one of the two great geisha districts of the Meiji period.

      Ginza was centered closer toward Shimbashi during the early Meiji period. But, with the opening of Tokyo Station, Shimbashi lost its prominence and the center of Ginza moved north to the crossing where it remains today. The old station was closed and a new one built on the old drinking area. The shops moved to the side and the district is still known for its tiny restaurants, nomiya, and salaryman clientele.

      South from Shimbashi is Shiba, an important Edo period temple district protecting the castle from the south, a direction that, according to superstition, was a potentially dangerous one. Zojo-ji, a Tokugawa family temple, was the area's greatest.

      The sea reached as far as the Zojo-ji daimon (main gate) at the beginning of the Edo period. A port served merchant vessels, and salt was made on the beaches. Hamarikyu, a villa of the Tokugawa shogun, and its extravagant gardens stretched along the Shiba coast. Now only the gardens remain. Reclamation projects moved the sea far away, and by the Meiji period Shiba became one of the city's industrial districts.

      Now Hamamatsu-cho to the west of Shiba borders the sea, its coast lined with warehouses and piers. Takeshiba Sanbashi pier serves ships to the islands lying off the Izu Peninsula. Hamamatsu-cho is best known for its World Trade Center, built in 1970, which became the second tallest skyscraper in Japan. The terminal for the monorail to Haneda Airport is connected to the Trade Center. A copy of the Brussels Manniken-Pis is in the Hamamatsu-cho Station building. Since 1956 this statue of a small naked boy has collected an extensive wardrobe of clothing donated by concerned women passengers. The wardrobe now includes over two hundred outfits that may make the statue one of the best dressed works of public art in the world.

      Another famous neighborhood copy is the Tokyo Tower. Built as a tourist attraction in 1958, the tower unfortunately fails to lend the area the hoped for European flair.

      Nihombashi—Kyobashi

      Old money and conservatism usually go hand-in-hand, and Nihombashi is no exception. Nihombashi has been the center of big money in Japan since the Edo period, and most of the country's big mercantile families started off in this neighborhood.

      Nihombashi was the first of the merchant neighborhoods designated by the shogun to be reclaimed from the sea. Wit h the construction of the Nihombashi Bridge in 1603, it became the official last stop on the famous Tokaido route from Kyoto and the point from which all roads in Japan were measured. Rebuilt in 1911, the Nihombashi and the nearby Tokiwa are the oldest bridges in the city.

      The district grew up as the heart of commercial Edo with a fish market, the shops of craftsmen and artisans, and offices of money-changers. One of the most densely populated districts of the city, wooden houses were cramped together along the narrow alleys and backstreets. The homes of wealthy merchants and