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| Caretta Shiodome: Shiodome | |||
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Caretta Shiodome is the first of several skyscrapers to open in the newly developed area between Ginza, Shimbashi and Hamamatsucho. The 47-story Caretta tower is a pretty featureless piece of modern architecture and really doesn't offer much excitement - apart from the thrilling ride on the super high-speed elevators that will make your ears go pop. The sky restaurants offer a good vantage point for a spectacular night view of Tokyo - if city lights are your thing.
The Canyon Terrace is much more fun. Cross the Caretta Plaza from the station exit and enter the lobby of the 3-story glass and stone building. Now look up. A dramatic concrete wall curves up to the glass roof, and suddenly the "canyon" part of the name makes perfect sense. It backs on to the new Sea Theater, home for the Shiki musical theater troupe, and the Tokyo Museum of Advertising, which features material on the history of advertising in Japan going back to the Edo era. Like most new shopping and restaurant malls in Tokyo, Caretta boasts several unique stores and shops. The sky restaurants include Bice, a branch of the famous original in Milan; Zipangu, a traditional Japanese kaiseki ryori restaurant from Kyoto; and Sushi Zen, the first Tokyo branch of the Sapporo sushi restaurant. In the lower floors, you'll find branches of popular Tokyo stores such as the Indian restaurant Ajanta, dim sum restaurant Din Tai Fung and onigiri takeout store Omusubi Gonbei. Interesting Tokyo newcomers include the first Lavazza Cafe (by the famous Italian coffee supplier), the first Via Quadronno (the popular panini sandwich store from New York), and the Coffee Machine Tricolore (with a unique coffee drip machine that preserves the sweetness in coffee). Do not miss the Parisian patisserie Angelina: the Choco Mont Blanc (rich chestnut paste, fresh cream and bitter chocolate on a meringue base) is exceptional. Pick of the bunch must be the Sho-chu Authority, a specialist liquor store with a choice of over 3,000 types of sho-chu mainly from Kyushu and Okinawa. They even have vintage sho-chu. The most expensive bottle there is a 30-year-old bottle of Kaneyama, an awamori from Okinawa, that retails for 60,000 yen. by Richard Jeffery |
Caretta Shiodome
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