On Walkabout At: The Sony Building In Tokyo, Japan

Basic Information

• What: The Sony Building
• Where: Tokyo, Japan
• More Info: Sony Building website

Narrative

Being a big fan of electronics I did more than just visit Tokyo’s world famous Akihabara Electric Town to experience all the best technology that Japan has to offer.  I also made a point to visit the Sony Building located in the fashionable Ginza District of Tokyo:

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Something I was surprised about when I was walking to the Sony Building was how nondescript it was and really nothing fancy to look at from the outside despite probably occupying some of the most expensive real estate in the entire country:

However, it is what is on the inside that matters as I would soon find out as I walked into the building:

For techie and gadget guys like myself this place was just awesome.  It has every Sony product you can think of on display that you can enter the building for free to go and play with:

There is also sound and TV rooms in the building for people to test the various TV’s and audio devices manufactured by Sony.  For gamers there is an entire Playstation room where people can sit around and try out all the latest Sony games:

There is even a number of unusual products like robotic dogs on display that were actually pretty impressive to play around with:

If one of the items on display catches your eye the Sony Building has an entire floor dedicated to selling these Sony products tax free.  Despite the tax free rates I still thought many of the items were more expensive compared to just buying them online from a retailer like Amazon.com for example.  However, it is still fun to play around with all the various devices that I had never had the opportunity to try out before.

Conclusion

Not only am I a fan of technology and gadgets, but I am a Sony fan as well which is quite evident since I am currently typing this up using my Sony VAIO desktop computer that I love.  However, for people that are not into gadgets and technology the Sony Building would probably not be of much interest.  However, for those into luxury shopping the entire Ginza District to include inside the Sony Building has a number jewelry, boutique stores, fancy restaurants, etc. to check out.  So for anyone visiting Ginza to go shopping it is definitely worth taking sometime and checking out the Sony Building since unlike anything else in Ginza it is actually free to visit though you could find it very easy to spend a lot of money there on the various devices for sale.