Tuesday, September 7, 2010



I stopped into the Tokyo flagship Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi. In the central atrium is something you can see only at this store. It is a huge, elaborately carved statue of a kind of 'goddess' called Magokoro. Some people might suspect it is something Buddhist, but I am not sure. Perhaps it is not directly related to any religion; I think it is a symbol of the store management's desire to serve customers well and succeed in business. It actually feels a bit Chinese in its elaborate decoration. But that is not the only interesting thing here. There is also a pipe organ. It is a Wurlitzer pipe organ, which was very popular in movie theaters in the old days. Mitsukoshi purchased the instrument in 1930. It is played three times a day, at 10:00AM, 12:00 noon and 3:00PM--I heard this one. A young lady played for about 15 minutes: a Bach chorale, Elgar's Greeting of Love, something from an opera (I didn't hear the announcement so clearly) and the theme from Gone with the Wind. A nice place to go if you have had too much rap, drum&bass, heavy metal, etc.