First built in the 1870s as an experiment and testimony to modern urban development amid Edo-period wooden buildings, "Ginza Bricktown" became "The Ginza," a popular center of cosmopolitan culture and consumerism by the early twentieth century (see PopSite 4). Alongside high-class boutiques, posh bars, beer halls, and smoky cafes, the main branches of Japan's flagship department stores--such as Matsuya, Matsuzakaya, Mitsukoshi, and Wakô--proudly line Chûô Dôri ("Main Street", Tokyo's 5th Avenue). Ginza also boasts Tokyo's main modern Kabuki theatre, the Kabuki-za. Take a look at it in the mid-1920s, and then click on Chûô Dôri for a view of "Pedestrian's Heaven" on a Sunday afternoon when the street is closed to auto traffic. (Ignore the circle around the Japanese Sake Center.)