Chic shopping complex with a focus on Japanese aesthetics and cuisine
Exit JR Tokyo Station's Marunouchi South Gate and face the clean, straight lines of the KITTE building, a retail and office facility operated by Japan Post. Boasting a wide variety of shopping and dining establishments, KITTE is also home to one of the museums with unusual exhibits in Tokyo, a multilingual tourist information center, Tokyo Central Post Office and a rooftop garden perfect for trainspotting.
Tips
- Visit the rooftop KITTE Garden overlooking the Tokyo Station Marunouchi building
- INTERMEDIATHEQUE, a museum with free admission operated by Japan Post Co. and the University Museum, the University of Tokyo (UMUT)
- Food retailers offering specialties from all over Japan
From the sophisticated stark white exterior to the building's light-filled triangular atrium, by the environmental interiors designed by 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium architect Kengo Kuma, the KITTE complex exudes style. View the atrium as you shop from the five shopping floors that surround the space on three sides. While there, you may catch one of the sponsored or seasonal events often held in the atrium's courtyard space on the 1st floor.
KITTE is a play on the Japanese words kitte (postage stamp) and kite (come on over). The concept of the building is to bring together traditional Japan and the new. Each of the seven floors contain a wide variety of shops dedicated to Japanese crafts and popular local food from across the country. The basement has a whole slew of ramen shops fighting for room in your stomach.
Of special note are a couple of venues allowing a respite from eating and shopping. Venture to the second and third floors to enter a free museum, INTERMEDIATHEQUE, operated by Japan Post Co. and the University Museum, the University of Tokyo (UMUT). Item descriptions are written in English as well as Japanese and photography inside the museum is strictly prohibited.
The fourth floor is home to a restoration of part of the former postmaster's office, allowing you to see what it looked like the time when it founded. The rooftop KITTE Garden on the sixth floor overlooks Tokyo Station, providing a one-of-a-kind angle for trainspotting and photography.