Sunamachi-Ginza, Shopping street in Koto, Japan
Sunamachi Ginza Shopping Street is a shopping street in Koto, Tokyo, running about 670 meters east-west between Meiji-dori and Maruhachi-dori. It has roughly 140 shops, and its layout took shape around 1963. The street retains a Showa-era downtown character.
Before the war Sunamachi Ginza counted about 30 shops; the 1945 firebombing of Tokyo left it burnt ground. Shops multiplied in the postwar years, and by around 1963 the street had reached its present 670 m length and roughly 180 stores, later settling at about 140. It runs east-west between Meiji-dori and Maruhachi-dori and is counted with Togoshi Ginza and Jujo Ginza among Tokyo's three great Ginza shopping streets.
The name borrows from Tokyo's Ginza, and Sunamachi Ginza is counted with Togoshi Ginza and Jujo Ginza as one of the three great Ginza shopping streets. Its slogan is "Sunagin e GO!" A Tanabata festival is held in early August, and on the 10th of each month the street stages a big discount sale called Bakane-ichi.
The street runs about 670 m between Meiji-dori and Maruhachi-dori, with roughly 140 shops; no roof is documented, so bring an umbrella in rain. It lies away from train lines, so reach it by Toei bus and get off at North Sunamachi 2-chome or 7-chome. Weekdays draw about 15,000 visitors and holidays about 20,000, so mornings are quieter.
The street's catchphrase is "Sunagin e GO!" and it is counted with Togoshi Ginza and Jujo Ginza as one of Tokyo's three great Ginza shopping streets. In a 2005 Nikkei survey of shopping streets people want to visit, it placed third, after Sugamo and Yokohama's Motomachi.
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