Ginza is so deliciously beautiful. If the above photographs don't convince you of that I just don't know what will. If you love food pornography then Ginza will happily supply it to you through its incandescent window displays and inviting aromas that drift out onto the street, wrap around you and pull you through the doors into a den of sweet treats. Perhaps it was foolish of me for not taking note of the name of the stores so that next time I visit Tokyo I'll remember exactly where to go to get my sweet bread and cake cravings satisfied. However I feel like all of the wondering around Ginza's high street has left me somewhat of an expert as to where these stores are and if all fails I could follow my nose as the smell of sugared delights waft through the air. Besides, not remembering where these places are exactly allows you to relive the discovery.
Ginza is just beautiful. Sakura trees are planted in little rows down different streets, pink contrasting against the grey bricks of buildings. The attention to detail is extraordinary. You'll almost always see nature incorporated into their concrete buildings in any and every way possible - even the sewer drainage plates have stamped sakura blossoms on them and instead just look like very large japanese coins someone had dropped on the floor. People cross and converge in an orderly fashion from both sides of the street, dividing into straight lines of people coming and going. No one walks too closely to anyone here, nor do they step on your feet or use you as a lever to propel themselves forward through a chaotic and disorderly crowd.
Apart from sweets, Ginza is of course Tokyo's High End fashion district. Designer brands and designer window displays fill the streets and take up corner blocks. High street fashion somehow melds into middle street and then reverts back to high street again without you even realising - probably too distracted by the bursts of purple and yellow pansies potted every few yards to realise. You can find your usual Zara, H&M, Uniqlo's 11 level flagship store (the best and the biggest), Prada, Chanel, Tiffany's and Michael Kors to name a few. Everything is perfectly and densely spaced that you walk around Ginza forgetting that Japan is just a small country in comparison to so many others, however the use of space is astounding. It doesn't feel claustrophobic and still maintains a suburban feel in some allys. It really is beautiful and my video with snippets of Ginza will be up some time in the next few weeks.