Togoshi Ginza Shotengai
戸越銀座商店街 · Togoshi Ginza Shotengai
- Ward
- Shinagawa
- Price
- ¥100~500 (meals)
- Hours
- varies by shop (pedestrian onl
- Closed
- varies by shop
- Getting there
- Right by the gates of Togoshi-ginza Stn (Tokyu Ikegami Line) and Togoshi Stn (Toei Asakusa Line)
- Founded
- 1927
- This is the first of the three-hundred-odd '○○ Ginza' shopping streets nationwide
- The famous croquette is not one shop's product but a street-wide brand
- Vehicles are barred from mid-afternoon to early evening
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Obvious to locals, invisible to visitors
There is a simple reason guidebooks leave this out: to the people who live here it is too obvious to be worth explaining.
This is the first of the three-hundred-odd '○○ Ginza' shopping streets nationwide. After the 1923 earthquake levelled Ginza's brick buildings, merchants here hauled the rubble back by cart and paved their poorly-draining street with it.
The famous croquette is not one shop's product but a street-wide brand — around twenty butchers, delis and restaurants each make their own. Walk the 1.3km comparing them. Some are odd, like the oden-flavoured one.
Vehicles are barred from mid-afternoon to early evening, turning the street into a pedestrian zone — the time to come. At roughly 1.3km it is Tokyo's longest, with the station at its midpoint.
What it is
Shinagawa is a ward of the old Tokaido post town and shopping streets. The sign has faded and the doorway is narrow — yet at lunchtime people file through it without a break. Portions run generous — think twice before upsizing. Monday closures are common in this line of business — check especially if you plan an early-week visit. Menus are often Japanese-only; showing a photo or pointing works perfectly well. The more times someone has been to Tokyo, the longer they tend to stay in places like this.
What to order
Why locals keep coming
The layout suits solo diners: mostly counter seats, and nobody encourages you to linger. Prices have barely moved in a decade, meaning the shop has absorbed much of the rise in ingredient costs.