We all know where this is, yes? As you're exiting the back door of Mitsukoshi, near the food section, just before the little alcove with the samurai on horseback statues, you pass this moat around the castle. If you look to your right, toward the far end of the pavilion, you see this sheer stone wall stretching up to the sky over the water with a stone bed and the reflection of the trees around it. I love the simple lines and blocks of color here.
We spend so much time in this area. Mitsukoshi, the shop at the Japan pavilion, is the kids' favorite stop in all of Disney and their most requested destination by far. We were once shopping there and the boys were commenting to each other that a katana in the display had changed, prompting a passerby who overheard them to say, "how often are you here???"
A lot, ma'am. We are here A LOT.
Mitsukoshi has longstanding roots in Japan, first opening as a kimono and textile shop founded by Mitsui Takatoshi in the Nihonbashi district of Edo (today’s Tokyo) in 1673. Takatoshi's retail practices: cash-only sales and fixed prices clearly labeled on goods — were revolutionary in Japan at the time. The store evolved with the times over hundreds of years, becoming Japan's first modern department store and adopting the Mitsukoshi moniker in 1904.
We have walked out its doors and past this view laden with ramen noodles, mochi, and incense more times than I could count. Our happy place for sure.