Japan has been going through a long period of economic struggle, and the natural disaster of last year damaged it even more. However, Tokyo recently added three new shopping complexes -- one in Shibuya called Hikarie, another called Diver City in Odaiba, and the third, Solamachi, under the Sky Tree.
Shibuya Hikarie Grand Opening
Despite the lack of English information available right now, which is unusual for a newly introduced attraction like that, Shibuya Hikarie opened its doors on April 26th. Recently (meaning except during the recession after the disaster) most visitors are from China so lots of tourist attractions provide Chinese information which seems to urge English information as well; but this place doesn't seem to have it set up yet.
Sorry, I didn't find a good video in English, so here is a clip in Spanish.
Diver City, Odaiba
Odaiba is a whole new place to me, you the readers probably know about it a lot better than I do. So I will explain what I know. Odaiba means battery. The island was built as a battery to protect Edo, nowadays Tokyo, after the 1853-54 visit of Commodore Perry. It had been a coastal park for a long time but I grew up in the age of air and water pollution; I never went there. I only knew there were ruins of the battery on that site, which was interesting to me.
A few years ago, one day I was talking with a guy who had just visited Tokyo. I asked him where he stayed and he explained the location, which went, in my knowledge, off the cliff. I mean, Tokyo Bay ended in the middle of his explanation in my mind but it continued in his visit. Yeah, they extended the landfill -- that I never knew. So, I think this is built on the newer landfill.
Diver City, which opened on April 19th, features a large complex of shopping, dining and attractions; you can browse in this page too. It seems, in my observation on the net, to target a casual crowd rather than high end. It has the regular suspects in the malls all over in the US such as Old Navy and Auntie Ann's pretzels. I know these places, so seeing them there is nothing special to me. But they are new to Japanese.
The most talked-about spots are the Calbee's store and the life size (?!) Gundam, a robot transformer statue. They only have a take out only shop for Gundam Cafe - the eat-in cafe is in Akihabara - but the statue is a big favorite of visitors. Calbee is a large snack producer, probably the biggest, for Japanese potato chips. They have a take out shop in the store which serves fresh fried potato chips that I've seen many times in Japanese blogs of common people. They line up for a long time to get these just fried chips.
Tokyo Solamachi
Okay! This establishment is built in an area I'm familiar with, near Asakusa, by the Tokyo Sky Tree. It opened on May 18th. This large shopping and amusement complex surrounds and is attached to the Tokyo Sky Tree. It has a couple of restaurants in the high floors of the building next to the tower so I don't know how to describe the building location.
The area is in Oshiage of Sumida ward in current address, commonly known as an area of Shitamachi which is old residential area. Therefore this place is more traditional and domestic oriented. They have 312 businesses including shops and restaurants and many of them are from the domestic area. Some of them have been carried by a few generations. The video introduced shops selling original sweets and jewelry as well as traditional crafts and curios. It also has an aquarium.
Although the near-by train station of Tobu line changed its name to Tokyo Sky Tree, the station used be called Narihira-bashi (業平橋 Narihira Bridge). It was named after Ariwara no Narihira, a legendary good looking romantic poet who lived during the 9th century, and supposedly the main character of Ise Monogatari (Tales of Ise). The area used to be Narihira which is from the shrine dedicated for him.
The broader area also is known as Mukoujima - it is familiar to people like me who grew up in Asakusa, which means "the island across (the river)". The area is on the other side of Sumida river from Asakusa.
For the both sides of the river, the area never had been fashionable. Well, actually it had been at the turn of the century, around the 1870's. But it was hit pretty hard by the WWII air raids, and was a forgotten domestic dead area ever since, especially when we were kids.
It was a big topic a few years back when I visited Tokyo that the city would soon see a new tall tower like Tokyo Tower by the Narihira river. My friends and I didn't that expect a major attraction like this would be coming, though. Fashionable boutiques and updated buildings don't fit the area. I thought it could adopt the updated fashion like Shibuya or Odaiba and they are close but not quite.
Even though the sleek look of the tower and all new shops in the brand new Solamachi mall are nice to look at, the architects did not forget to add the spirit of Shitamachi, that is what I observed from the video. The domestic shoe maker doesn't have one of those cute girls or boys, instead, they have this middle age guy explaining his long time inherited business and a guy sawing a shoe. The guy of the fish market says he wants neighbors to come and shop everyday... uh... you want to turn this major tourist attraction a supermarket, my dear?? I love these people.
Well, it's not like any other shopping malls I've seen but I bet it is a fun place to visit. Of course, you'll get the updated attractions as well.
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