Shiodome

Shiodome Station is located in the Shiodome area adjacent to Shimbashi in the Minato Ward of Tokyo. It serves the Toei Oedo subway line and the new Yurikamome line. Shiodome Station opened in 2002 mainly to connect to the Yurikamome guideway transit line. Today it serves as an important transport hub linking central Tokyo and the waterfront area.

The Toei Oedo subway station is located underground on the 2nd and 3rd basement levels. The Yurikamome station is on the 3rd floor directly above the Oedo station. The two stations are directly connected through barrier-free elevator and escalator links. Shiodome Station is also linked to the nearby Shimbashi Station by underground passageways.

The present Shiodome Station was built after the year 2000. The previous Shiodome Station, which was the original Shimbashi Station-turned railway freight terminal, was demolished in 1986. In 1996, the site was declared a national monument. Later, the area around the former site was redeveloped as the modern commercial district of Shiodome, and on the spot where the original station stood, a replica of the original station was built. This replica station now houses a cafe and a Railway Museum. The museum has many artifacts and depicts the history of Japan's early railways. Some of the artifacts were dug up from the very site where the replica station stands.

Shiodome

Shiodome is one of the newest and most modern districts of Tokyo being entirely built after the year 2000. This architecturally stunning area is located adjacent to Shimbashi in Tokyo’s Minato Ward.

Shiodome can roughly be divided into three parts – Shiodome Shiosite (consists of skyscrapers housing businesses, hotels, and restaurants), the West area (a cooperative zone consisting of European-style buildings), and the South area (consisting of residential apartment buildings).

Shiodome Shiosite is a multi-purpose complex consisting of spectacular skyscrapers accommodating offices, a large variety of shops, restaurants, cafes, theaters, and hotels. Among the large corporations having their headquarters here are Nippon Television, Dentsu, Matsushita Electronics, and Nippon Express.

Dentsu, Japan’s leading advertising company and one of the largest companies in the world, are headquartered in the building Caretta Shiodome. Besides the Dentsu offices, this 51-story building also houses a musical theater and an advertising museum.

The Tokyo Advertising Museum is located in two basement floors of Caretta Shiodome. This small, yet fascinating permanent museum is dedicated to Japanese advertising. It is divided into three sections – the Edo period, the Meiji period, and the Taisho-Showa periods – with every kind of display from 18th-century wood-block prints to the postmodern visions of fashion photographers and video directors. Using latest technology, guests can touch screens to look through adverts both past and present. There is also a digital library of some 130,000 entries on everything concerning advertising.

Caretta Shiodome also houses a shopping mall with 23 retail and service shops, and 33 restaurant and bars in the lower floors. On the top floor of the building there is the Milanese restaurant Bice, which offers an excellent view of the bay and lights of Odaiba and Ginza.

Shiodome City Center is another prominent building of Shiodome Shiosite. This emerald green 43-floor building houses shops and restaurants on the 2nd basement level through the 3rd floor level, and restaurants on the topmost 41st & 42nd floors.

The rest of the floors are all occupied by offices. Some of the offices here are headquarters for such names as Fujitsu Ltd. and All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd.

Other prominent office buildings of the area include Nippon Television Tower as the headquarters of Nippon Television, the headquarters of Nippon Express and the headquarters of Matsushita Electronics and the National Panasonic.

The National Panasonic Center consists of four floors that showcase Panasonic and Matsushita household electronic equipment. The showrooms are set out in themed areas as rooms of a house. There are living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens displayed with all the high-tech equipment – including televisions, dishwashers, electric shavers, besides many other innovative products - displayed in the appropriate areas.