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RTW Trip Day #3: Exploring the Historic District of Ginza, Zojo-ji Temple and the Tokyo Tower
- andrewsco3
- Oct 3, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Welcome to our Round‑the‑World Family Sabbatical diary! We’re a Calgary‑based family travelling for 100 days, documenting each step so other families can get an honest, real‑life look at long‑term travel with kids - the highs, the chaos, and everything in between.
This is Day 3 of our journey, and with rain threatening, we changed our plans to a day exploring Ginza’s malls, bookstores, alleys, and temples.
You can browse the full 100‑day contents list here, but for now, come along as we wander through Ginza Six, hunt for stamps on Character Street, visit Zojo‑ji Temple, view the iconic Tokyo Tower, and finally enjoy our very first sushi dinner in Japan.
Day 3 Highlights at a Glance
Exploring Ginza Six Mall and its rooftop garden
Visiting the enormous 12‑floor Uniqlo flagship store
Lunch in Yakitori Alley
Stamp‑hunting on Character Street at Tokyo Station
Zojo‑ji Temple with views of Tokyo Tower
First sushi dinner in Japan
Exploring the District of Ginza
We slept a bit better last night, but decided to let the kids have a slow start with another 7-11 breakfast. Since it was raining and the forecast didn’t look much better for the rest of the day, we changed our plans.... so instead of heading to Ueno, we chose to explore Ginza, where most of the attractions are indoors.
We got off the train and headed toward the Uniqlo flagship store, only to find that nothing was open yet. With some time to spare, we ended up grabbing a coffee at Starbucks of all places. Susie was pretty happy to get her first chai latte in a while though!
Ginza Six Mall
The Ginza Six Mall opened at 10:30, before Uniqlo did, so we headed inside as we wanted to check out the rooftop garden, which gives a nice view over Ginza’s main shopping street and the Uniqlo store.
On the top floor we found a fantastic bookshop called Tsutaya Books - our friend Brie would be in heaven there!
I browsed through plenty of Japanese cookbooks and, even though I couldn’t understand the words, the pages were beautiful.
Uniqlo Flagship Store
We love Uniqlo and were excited to finally visit the Tokyo Uniqlo flagship store - all twelve floors of it! Pretty crazy.
The store carries much of the same clothing we get in Calgary, but also plenty of other things you don’t usually see, including fresh flowers of all things.
We ended up getting Evelyn a cardigan that we hadn’t come across in Canada. It was beautiful, though maybe not the most practical purchase to carry around for the rest of our trip!
Post Trip Update: The cardigan ended up being really handy for our time in New Zealand, as it rained a lot!
Yurakucho & Yakitori Alley
We had lunch at a small restaurant in Yakitori Alley, where the girls tried their first sashimi of the trip. I love the look of all those narrow streets, they’re so beautiful.
Jess gave tuna a try and almost threw up, bless her. She really doesn’t like seafood, but at least she was brave enough to try it again in Japan!
We also shared chicken and pork belly skewers, accidentally ordered a chicken skin skewer that turned out to be delicious, plus some chicken karaage and even “avocado sashimi.”
We are soon learning that ordering food in Japan is quite the experience, and you are never quite sure what you are going to get!
Ginza Itoya Stationary Store
One of the best stores we visited today was Ginza Itoya, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful stationery shop. It was filled with everything from writing paper and postcards to notepads and so much more.
If you are wanting to collect goshuin, they sold some gorgeous goshuincho, which if we didn't already have a book, we would definitely have got one.
We’ve put together a simple guide that explains how it all works if you’re curious about starting your own goshuin collection.
Jess picked out a calligraphy pen so she could write a few Japanese words for her friends back home to try and translate with Google Translate.
Post Trip Update: the pen leaked in our bag during the flight to Vietnam, so it never made it back to Canada, except for the stain on our bag that is!
Character Street in Tokyo Station
Beneath the station is a whole underground shopping area, and one section is called Character Street. It’s filled with shops selling all kinds of character-themed goods, including Mofusand, which Evelyn absolutely loves.
Many of the shops also have themed stamps, and this is where we found our very first Eki stamp.
If you want to learn more about eki stamps and the whole world of Japanese stamp collecting, our guide breaks it all down in one place.
Eki stamps are collectible station stamps found all over Japan, usually featuring local landmarks or characters. Once the girls discovered their first one at Character Street, they were hooked and from here on out, every station stop into a mini treasure hunt!
Zojo-ji Temple & Tokyo Tower
On the way back we stopped at Zojo-ji temple, which is a Buddhist temple close to Tokyo Tower with great views of the tower in the background.
This was the first temple where the girls had a chance to try the water‑cleansing ritual using the bamboo ladles before entering. They loved learning how to rinse their hands, but were a little freaked out when they realised you’re meant to rinse your mouth as well. These are all great moments for helping to introduce the girls to Japanese temple etiquette.
Zojo‑ji is the main temple of the Jodo‑shu Buddhist sect in the Kanto region, which dates back to the late 14th century. It's amazing how old all the temples are here!
We explored inside the temple and there were several monks praying inside, plus, from the balcony you get a fantastic view of the Tokyo Tower!
The girls added another goshuin to their book too, although this time there was no need for them to complete a sutra.
As they had been little troopers with so much walking today, we gave them a special treat of Subway for dinner, which I think they appreciated - although they still ended up eating some sushi with us later anyway!
Our First Sushi in Japan
For dinner we went to a really small sushi shop just around the corner from our hotel. It had quite a limited menu, so we ended up sharing one of the platters. I don’t think it's usually on the menu, but they made the girls some cucumber and tuna maki, which they absolutely wolfed down!
The platter was great, but I have to say that the salted herring roe was one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted. There isn’t much sushi I don’t like, but that one was nasty!
This journal entry is part of our 100‑day Round‑the‑World family sabbatical, where we’re sharing the real, everyday moments of long‑term travel with kids - the fun, the frustrations, and everything in between.
If you’d like to follow along from the beginning, jump ahead to another destination, or explore our full itinerary, the links are below.
Previous Day: Day #2: Takanawa & TeamLab Planets
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