Where Tokyo's trains began, and its workday runs on rice bowls.

This exact spot is where Japan's first railway departed on 14 October 1872, carrying Emperor Meiji on the inaugural 53-minute run to Yokohama. The original station building burned down in the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake; a faithful reconstruction now stands on the site, housing a small railway history exhibit you'll step inside.

SL Square was built in 1972 to mark the railway's 100th anniversary, its steam locomotive a real C11-292 that ran from 1945 to 1972 and still blows its whistle three times a day. Confusingly, this wasn't originally "Shimbashi" at all — the station here was first called Karasumori, while the original Shimbashi Station (today's Shiodome) became a freight yard in 1914, and the name simply moved down the tracks.

A few steps away, wedged between office towers, sits Karasumori Shrine — founded in 940 after a local warlord reportedly received a vision from a white fox. The area was once pine forest thick with nesting crows, or karasu, which gave the shrine its name. It's easy to walk past without noticing; that's rather the point.

The walk continues into the Shimbashi-Yurakucho underpass, the gado-shita, built beneath one of Japan's oldest elevated rail lines, completed in 1910. Postwar, the low rents under the tracks drew in eateries, and the alley has stayed a salaryman's sanctuary ever since — by day, its narrow lanes fill with the lunchtime rush rather than the evening's red lanterns.

The walk ends around 11:30, just ahead of the midday stampede, when your guide takes you inside one of the neighbourhood's legendary business lunch spots. Watch Tokyo's workforce descend as you eat. This isn't a food tour — it's a window into how Japan's economic engine actually runs.

Pricing note: This is a private tour priced per person, including the business lunch. Solo travellers: ¥18,000. Groups of 2–6: ¥15,000 per person.