Ariake Garden Area Guide

What Ariake Garden is

Ariake Garden is the largest complex in Ariake: a shopping mall of around 170 shops, a restaurant floor and food hall, the 8,000-capacity Tokyo Garden Theater, the Ariake Shiki Theatre running Disney's The Lion King, a 24-hour natural hot spring and a hotel, all in one block. For most visitors to the area it is the practical centre of gravity, the place to eat before a show and wait out the crowds afterwards.

What is inside

The mall covers everyday shopping, fashion, a supermarket and a large food court, with a cinema-scale theatre complex attached. Izumi Tenku no Yu on the fifth floor has open-air baths, saunas and heated stone beds and stays open around the clock. Families use the indoor play areas and the park on the north side, and the complex is fully covered, which matters on a rainy day in a district with long walks between buildings.

Getting there

Ariake-tennis-no-mori Station on the Yurikamome is a three minute walk and Ariake Station is four minutes. Kokusai-tenjijo Station on the Rinkai Line is about six minutes. Tokyo Big Sight is roughly ten minutes on foot, and Ariake Arena is a few minutes in the other direction.

Using it around an event

If you are going to a concert at Ariake Arena or Tokyo Garden Theater, eat here first: restaurants fill from about two hours before showtime. Afterwards, staying for 30 minutes rather than heading straight for the station is the standard way to skip the worst of the queue.