Shinkansen area (platform 20 to 23 for shinkansen to the north and 14 to 19 for the shinkansen to the south) is situated on the East side, called Yaesu Side. JR trains including the Yamanote Line is on the West side (our circle line), called Marunouchi side and known for its historical western façade. At the very beginning, in 1924, the station had only  four docks: two for electric cars and two for diesel and steam.

    

In 1921, Prime Minister Hara Takashi was assassinated at the south gates, stabbed to death by an ultra-rightist in front of the south wing as he arrived to board a train for Kyoto. In 1930, Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi was shot by a rightist, he died of the wounds in August the following year.

Relatively untouched by the earthquake in 1923, Much of the station was destroyed in B-29 firebombing on the 25th of May 1945. The bombing shattered the impressive rooftop domes. The station was quickly rebuilt within the year, but simple angular roofs were built in place of the domes, and the restored building was only two stories tall instead of three. These post-war alterations are blamed for creating the mistaken impression that the building is based on the central station in Amsterdam.

The Yaesu side was also rebuilt following the war, but the rebuilt structure was damaged by fire in 1949, and the Yaesu side was then significantly upgraded with a contemporary exterior and large Daimaru department store. The new Yaesu side facilities opened in 1953, including two new platforms for Tōkaidō Main Line services (now used by Shinkansen trains). Plans in the 1980’s to demolish the building and to replace it with a larger structure were derailed by a preservation movement.

 

In 1964, it welcomed the Tokaido Shinkansen, in 1991 the Tohoku line, in 2015 the Hokuriku Line and in 2016 the Hokkaido Line. The Marunouchi building was recently renovated with the reconstruction of the missing floor and the two domes as originally built. The Yaesu side became a more modern architecture glass facade in front of which there is a large bus station. In fiscal 2013, the JR East station was used by an average of 415,908 passengers daily (boarding passengers only), making it the third busiest station on the JR East network.Two more platforms opened in 1964 to accommodate the first Shinkansen services. The Yaesu side was partially rebuilt again in 1991 to accommodate the Shinkansen extension from Ueno.

We bimbled around the station until it was time for our first Japanese date night.

After search two floors of Kitchen Street, eateries of every nationality that produces so much as a piece of toast, we settled in a Chinese. Flushed with the success of getting through the order, our server looked querulous as she offered me a set of chopsticks. She must have thought I had done well as I had a milk pudding as a prize. Bear didn’t. Nuh, nuh, nuh-nuh.

The corridor from the food court back to our line was fun, covered in crabs.

One final look at the bullet train ticket office (we ride our first proper one on the way to Otaru in a few days times. How excited am I, me too). Time to head back to our hotel for a cup of tea, actually en route, we stopped off at the local supermarket and bought a box of cappochinno packets – hope we got the right thing, there’s always a risk when we are trying to read spaghetti – or not and going for the picture........