Otemachi

Otemachi Station is a station on the Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway Lines in the Otemachi district of Chiyoda Ward of Tokyo. It is the biggest subway station in Tokyo as it is served by five lines, more than any other station in the Tokyo underground network. It serves the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi, Tozai, Chiyoda, and Hanzomon Lines; and the Toei Mita Line. Otemachi Station is spread out underneath the Marunouchi district between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Garden. The station is also within walking distance, both on street level and through underground passageways, to Tokyo Station.

Otemachi is located in Chiyoda Ward to the east of the Imperial Palace. Its location is the former site of the village of Shibazaki, the most ancient part of Tokyo. Then during the Edo period, Otemachi was the location of the enormous palace of Prince Matsudaira. Today, the district is the center of Japanese journalism, housing the main offices of three of the biggest five newspapers (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, and Yomiuri Shimbun) as well as being a key financial center (Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Company, National Life Finance Corporation, Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Development Bank of Japan, Mitsui Life Insurance Co., and Mizuho Financial Group) and headquarters for some of the largest Japanese corporations (Marubeni Corporation, Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd., Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Japan Post, Millea Holdings, Inc., Mitsui & Co., and Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd.).

Communications Museum 

Communications Museum, located just 1 minute's walk from Exit A4 of Otemachi Station, is Japan's only museum of information and telecommunication. It is jointly owned by the Ministry of Posts and Communications, the Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, the Japanese International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (KDD), and the broadcasting authority NHK. Also called TEI Park, it exhibits and displays everything related to communications from ancient times to present day using actual objects, panoramas, models and recordings played over earphones.

On the first floor of the museum building is the history section dedicated to the development of postal services. The second floor is dedicated to the memory of Hisoka Maejima, the founder of Japanese postal services, besides an exhibition space for the red round-shaped mailboxes, and a Telecommunication Science Center. The third floor relates the history of telecommunications through valuable materials in an atmosphere of post offices of the relevant days. There is also a Utopia NHK Broadcasting Hall, which hosts a comprehensive permanent exhibition of contemporary and future broadcasting, including digital satellite, digital Hi-Vision TV services, and digital terrestrial TV.

TEI Park, or the Communications Museum, is the place to visit for all those fascinated by communications.

Wadakura Fountain Park

Wadakura Fountain Park is located 5 minutes from Otemachi Station next to Palace Hotel just inside the outer moat of the Imperial Palace. Though small, Wadakura Fountain Park is an important park of Tokyo as it was built to commemorate the wedding of the Crown Prince in 1993. Its main features are the many fountains that automatically change in shape and strength as if dancing to the tune of music. There are several granite seats throughout the park where visitors can sit and relax and enjoy the wide variety of beautiful flowers and the dancing fountains. A coffee shop is also located in the park, with wide windows through which visitors can take in all the beauty of the park while having coffee.