Ginza: the grand blocks
The Wako clock, the kabuki theatre, and the Sunday afternoon when the avenue belongs to walkers. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Ginza 4-chome crossing
Start at the famous intersection under the Wako clock tower — the 1932 Seiko building whose chime has marked the hour for ninety years. The crossing is the centre of *Ginza*; everything on this walk is a few minutes from it.

2. Mitsukoshi depachika
Down to the basement food hall of the Mitsukoshi store — a *depachika*, the department-store food floor that is the best free show in Japan: lacquered sweets, single perfect peaches, fish laid out like jewellery. Buy nothing or buy lunch; either is fine.

3. Itoya
The stationery hall on *Chuo-dori* — twelve floors of paper, pens, ink and notebooks, with a café and a small hydroponic farm near the top. *Chuo-dori* is the main avenue; Itoya has been on it since 1904. Go up slowly, floor by floor.

4. The back-street galleries
Cut off the main avenue into the side streets, where small galleries and old *kissaten* coffee houses sit above ground-floor shops. The blocks behind Chuo-dori are quieter and older; this is where Ginza stops performing and starts living.

5. Kabuki-za
The kabuki theatre on Harumi-dori, its tiled gables rebuilt in 2013 over a new tower. You don't need a full ticket; single-act seats are sold at the door on the day, and you can climb to the rooftop garden for free. The lobby alone is worth the detour.

6. Higashi-Ginza station
The theatre sits over the station entrance, so the walk ends where the metro begins. If it's a Sunday afternoon, double back up Chuo-dori first — the *hokousha tengoku* turns the whole avenue into a pavement.

Ginza: the grand blocks