{"id":341548,"date":"2025-12-13T06:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/going-ginza-gone-joels-journeys-jaunts\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T06:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:10:14","slug":"going-ginza-gone-joels-journeys-jaunts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341548","title":{"rendered":"Going. Ginza. Gone. \u2013 Joel’s Journeys & Jaunts"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"Hibiya
Hibiya Park in Tokyo\u2019s Ginza district<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

When I returned to Tokyo<\/a> yesterday for one night to catch my plane today, I stayed at a different hotel from the one I stayed at for six nights at the start of this trip. I spent my last night in the Ginza district of Tokyo.<\/p>\n

My flight isn\u2019t scheduled to leave until early evening. My hotel gave me a free late checkout, but only until 2:00. If I left the hotel at 3:00, that would still get me to the airport three hours before my flight. I have lounge access at the airport, but many airport lounges have started restricting access to no more than three hours before your flight unless you\u2019re waiting for a connecting flight.<\/p>\n

I wanted a lounge so I\u2019d have a comfortable place to type these words.<\/p>\n

I was able to access a lounge at my hotel thanks to having status at the hotel group it belongs to. I was kind of surprised the hotel had a business lounge at all because it\u2019s one of the hotel group\u2019s mid-range brands. It\u2019s generally only the upper couple of tiers of hotels that have lounges. But I was thankful for it. When I asked for a late checkout and was told I could have it only until 2:00, the hotel volunteered that I could use the lounge after checkout.<\/p>\n

I decided to do that. As much as I like Tokyo and probably would have otherwise left my bags at the front desk and spent the extra time out and about, the forecast called for rain starting at 1:00. I didn\u2019t relish wandering around in the rain.<\/p>\n

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\"Hibiya
Hibiya Park in Tokyo\u2019s Ginza district<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

As it turned out, the forecast was wrong. The rain started at about 11:00. However, it barely reached an intensity that could be called a drizzle.<\/p>\n

The rain was so light that I never bothered to open my umbrella. Although that had a lot to do with the fact that I left it in my hotel.<\/p>\n

Because my hotel was in the Ginza district, I spent the time I had available this morning within the district. I got close to Ginza during my time in Tokyo at the start of this trip (the Imperial Palace<\/a> borders it), but I hadn\u2019t spent any time in it.<\/p>\n

During my time in Ginza, I visited Hibiya Park and the Art Aquarium and walked past Kabuki-za. On my way back to the hotel, I also walked past another landmark, but I\u2019ll save that for later.<\/p>\n

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\"Pond
Pond in Hibiya Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Because this is the end of my time in Tokyo and on this trip, at the end of this post, you\u2019ll find summaries of my time in Tokyo and this whole Japan trip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ginza Sights:<\/h2>\n

Ginza contains Tokyo\u2019s main shopping district, with several luxury brands stationed there, along with many middle-class shops. I\u2019m averse to shopping, so I walked by many stores, but I didn\u2019t go into any except \u2026<\/p>\n

Ginza also hosts several restaurants of various classes and types. I\u2019m not averse to eating, so I had lunch there. My limited experience is that it\u2019s common in big cities in Japan for some tall buildings to have two or three floors\u2019 worth of small restaurants in them. The restaurants can be on the first few floors. Or they might be on higher floors, with department stores or offices on the lower floors. Today I had lunch in a restaurant on the tenth floor of a building that had a huge department store and the Art Aquarium on the lower levels.<\/p>\n

Hibiya Park<\/h4>\n
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\"Crane
Crane statue in a pond in Hibiya Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Hibya Park was about a 10-minute walk from my hotel. It\u2019s a lovely park with a couple of ponds, trees, a flower garden, statues, a small hill, a playground, tennis courts, and a playing field. I read that it also has an outdoor concert venue. I didn\u2019t see it. I\u2019m not sure, but it might have been behind the construction hoarding that I did see.<\/p>\n

In the middle of one of the ponds, there\u2019s a crane statue with a fountain spouting out of the top of it. When I say \u201ccrane statue,\u201d I am, of course, talking about a bird, not a large piece of construction equipment used to help construct tall buildings. Come to think of it, if the bird sculpture did help to construct tall buildings, now, that would be a sight to see indeed.<\/p>\n

A sign by the statue told me that it was commissioned in 1905 and, \u201cIt is the third-oldest decorative fountain in Japan (the oldest is in Suwa-jinja Shrine, Nagasaki, and the second-oldest is in Mino Park, Osaka).\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Flower
Flower garden Crane in Hibiya Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Among the trees is a special one, an old ginkgo. A sign by it told me that the gingko tree stood at Hibiya Approach before the park opened. Around 1899, the already well-established tree was doomed to be cut down for a road expansion. The designer of the park, Dr. Seiroku Honda, was surprised to learn about the imminent felling. He got the Chairman of Tokyo at the time to agree to have the tree transplanted instead. And, there it is.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a gingko tree in the park that\u2019s called \u201cThe Tree of Tokyo.\u201d It was decided that Tokyo needed an official tree, like an official animal or official plant of a country. After a vote, the ginkgo biloba was named Tokyo\u2019s official tree. That year, they planted a ginkgo biloba tree in Hibiya in honour of the new designation.<\/p>\n

There is, as I mentioned, a hill in Hibiya Park. It\u2019s a hill, and a tiny one at that, that thinks it\u2019s a mountain. Don\u2019t let anyone rob you of your dreams, little hill. Dream big and be your dreams!<\/p>\n

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\"Mt.
Mt. Mikasa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A sign beside it names it as Mt. Mikasa. Despite naming it as a mountain, the body copy of the sign calls it a hillock, saying, \u201cThe hillock is an artificial one, made with leftover soil from the construction works making ponds when the park was constructed. At the time it was created, the physical shape of the whole area resembled three woven hats, or kasa in Japanese, so that it got its name \u201cMikasa\u201d, meaning three woven hats.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to improvement works such as the construction of the tennis courts, the mountain shape has changed, still the name of it remains as the original one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Hibiya
Hibiya Park in Tokyo\u2019s Ginza district<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Art Aquarium<\/h4>\n
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\"Fish
Fish in an upturned cube in the Art Aquarium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I suspect that when one particular reader read that a discussion of an art aquarium was coming up, she was probably particularly pleased. \u201cArt and an aquarium in one, who could want anything more from life?\u201d I hear her say in my mind.<\/p>\n

Upon entering the Art Aquarium<\/a>, still in Ginza, I entered a corridor. Mounted on one wall of the corridor were several small spherical aquariums with fish that were generally goldfish-sized, but not all goldfish. The lower half of the spheres was decorated with patterns. Inside the aquariums, in addition to the fish, there were small glass shapes\u2014cylinders, spheres, etc.\u2014on the bottom of the aquarium and lit from below. The tanks were also lit from elsewhere. The colours of the lights changed regularly.<\/p>\n

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\"Fish
Fish in a glass box with plastic leaves in the Art Aquarium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The otherwise low ambient lighting level made it difficult to take pictures of the fish, which wouldn\u2019t stay still for the shot. I tried, but I wasn\u2019t happy with any of the results.<\/p>\n

Not being able to see anything past the end of the corridor, I thought, \u201cWhat? That\u2019s it? That\u2019s all they\u2019ve got?\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t. Around the corner of the corridor, there were more rooms. Exquisite rooms of aquariums with small fish.<\/p>\n

There was another corridor with slim vertical floor-to-ceiling cylinders lining the walls on both sides of the corridor, with myriad goldfish swimming in each of them.<\/p>\n

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\"Fish
Fish in another glass box<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In other rooms, there were various shapes of tanks, some with sculptures hanging over or sitting beside the tanks. Some displays had tiers of artistically arranged aquariums.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Art Aquarium, the lighting in and of the tanks regularly changed dramatically.<\/p>\n

Some of the rooms had mirrored walls that people could use to take selfies. Other people, you understand. Not me. That\u2019s what mirrors are for. <\/p>\n

There was one section that had some parallel long tanks that were wavy-shaped. I can\u2019t describe it well, so I took a short video of some of the action in one of the wavy rows.<\/p>\n

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