Simply put, Ginza is a shopper’s paradise. With seven department stores and countless pricey designer boutiques, it is Japan’s most famous shopping district. Ginza is home to the (in)famous $15 cup of coffee, the ultra-exclusive Wako department store (where it is seemingly impossible to find anything costing less than a few hundred dollars), and real estate worth well over $100,000 per square meter.

Ginza is often recommended as a “must-see” area of Tokyo. Its stratospheric prices and enormous stores and boutiques are certainly awe-inspiring. However, as someone not in the market for Prada handbags or $50,000 wristwatches, I found myself becoming quickly bored by the endless onslaught of expensive brand-name goods.

Until I walked into the Sony Building. Yes, it was another building filled with expensive, brand-name merchandise. However, at least for a gadget freak like me, the type of pricey items contained within this particular Ginza building were far more interesting than the thousand dollar scarves available next door. Here, you can get a glimpse into the future of computers, televisions, digital cameras, cell phones, and a variety of other electronics. Or, at least the future if you don’t live in Japan. Almost everything in the showroom is already available for sale in Japan, but most items are not available elsewhere.

The Sony showroom fills four of the building’s eleven floors (the rest are shops, restaurants, and other businesses). Digital cameras barely longer than my thumb, giant HDTVs, computers with folding keyboards that seem more like pieces of art than productivity tools, finger-sized MP3 players, ultra-high-tech boomboxes, and a dizzying array of other electronics are presented. Cell phones as thick as a few credit cards with built-in cameras better than the one I bought for $300 last year and high-definition camcorders that fit in the palm of your hand are also among the items on display. Unfortunately (or is it fortunately for my wallet?), almost nothing is available for sale within the building itself, with the exception of some very overpriced “overseas models” aimed at tourists which include English-language manuals and some headphones, batteries, and other small items.

Everything is very nicely presented, making the showroom seem more like a musuem than just a display of products. It makes a very nice place to spend an hour or so admiring the latest technology. The only downside is that you feel entirely depressed when you realize that the majority of these products won’t be available in your home country for another year or so.

If you’re a gadget nut, it’s also worthwhile to check out the five-story Apple store while in the area. While everything inside is also available elsewhere and therefore lacks the wow factor that the Sony showroom does, Apple’s Ginza location is perhaps the company’s best. The store’s 27-foot-long Genius Bar, 84 seat demonstration theater, and employees proficient in 10 languages make the Ginza store stand out from Apple’s other retail outlets.