In the eyes of many travelers to Tokyo nothing gets more iconic than the Sony building. After all the premiere consumer brand of Japan has world wide recognition and is often equated with being the ultimate state of the art in technology.
Needless to say we were very excited to find this location in the heart of Ginza. We arrived at the location roughly an hour early, and already saw a small group of tourists waiting outside the glass doors. I wouldn't recommend doing this since there is not much to do waiting, and there is plenty of other things you can explore in Ginza. (To include a wonderful cake shop roughly 1 block away).
Roughly 5 minutes before opening time tons of tourists will congregate around the main front door. Don't worry about rushing in its not like you are going to have to get in line for anything. There is no entry fee, so feel free to roam around. The building itself is a series of narrow floors connected by winding stairways, with glass and metal adorning the railings. As for sightseeing don't expect anything more than a showroom showcasing the latest in electronics from Sony. Here's the catch, don't expect anything too fancy. Sure they had the latest in HD tv's, camcorders, and Playstation 3 games, but somehow we feel that there is nothing you wont find at your local Best Buy. The only item we found interesting was a small cylindrical robot/mp3 that spun around to the music. Other than that don't expect much. Every item on display is for sale, but make sure you ask for the overseas version. If you ask us though, you're better of shopping at home where you can compare prices for similar products.
The only redeeming quality this place has is their attempt to make the showroom entertaining by using a common theme to keep the tourists going from floor to floor. While we were there, they showcased kabuki theater, and used the HD and sound equipment to show kabuki related exhibits. This is a creative idea, but a poor excuse to keep people in an over-glorified store.
Bottomline: The Sony building is not bad to kill roughly an hour or so of time, but don't make it a sole destination. Instead you may find its location on the corner of Harumi Dori and Sotobori Dori. This intersection is filmed by many travel shows for its X shaped crossing which allows more people to cross the street at once. The highlight of our visit to the Sony building was taking pictures of this intersection from the 5th floor.
2 stars out of 5
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