DISTANCE: 8km (5 miles)
TIME: A leisurely day
START: Roppongi Station
END: Akasaka Station
POINTS TO NOTE: Don’t do this walk on Tuesday if you want to visit the art galleries on the route.
To the southwest of the Imperial Palace, the area of Roppongi, meaning ‘six trees’, was once a garrison town for the Meiji government. After World War II the American occupation forces established barracks here, giving it its start as the hub of Tokyo’s international nightlife. Still infamous for its pick-up and strip bars, the area is undergoing a cultural makeover to become a focus for the city’s contemporary art and design scenes, following the success of the upscale Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown complexes, which combine luxury shopping, hotels and restaurants with offices and galleries.
Down the hill, nearby Akasaka is as busy with office workers and politicians by day as it is with restaurant- and bar-goers by night. It’s also home to one of the city’s most important shrines, as well as the TBS Broadcasting Centre.
High-end shopping in Tokyo Midtown
Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications
Roppongi
Emerging from Roppongi Station at exit 4, find your bearings at Roppongi Crossing 1 [map] (Roppongi kosaten). On the other side of the road, under the raised expressway, you will see the pink and white stripes of the Almond Coffee Shop, while to your left along Gaien-Higashi-dori is the Hotel Ibis – head in this direction towards the 248m (813ft) Midtown Tower, anchor of the vast Tokyo Midtown development.
Tokyo Midtown
Covering nearly 70,000 sq m (753,470 sq ft), Tokyo Midtown 2 [map] (www.tokyo-midtown.com) is its own elegant world of offices, shops, apartments, a convention centre, two museum-galleries and other public facilities. Behind Midtown Tower you will find the small traditional garden of Hinokicho Park (Hinokicho-koen), while throughout the complex are interesting pieces of contemporary sculpture. There’s a bewildering array of restaurants and cafés here – for something upmarket try Botanica, see 1.
Apart from indulging in some shopping or dining, you may wish to spend some time exploring the complex’s two museum-galleries.
Roppongi Hills shopping centre
Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications
The focus is on traditional Japanese arts, such as lacquerware, ceramics and textiles, at the small but classy Suntory Museum of Art 3 [map] (www.suntory.co.jp/sma; Sun–Mon 10am–6pm, Wed–Sat 10am–8pm; charge), in the northern corner of the complex. The building, designed by Kengo Kuma, also has a traditional tea-ceremony room.
The angular construction jutting out of the lawn to the rear of Tokyo Midtown is the 21_21 Design Sight 4 [map] (www.2121designsight.jp; Wed-Mon 10am–7pm; charge), the result of a collaboration between architect Ando Tadao and fashion designer Issey Miyake. The main gallery, which is below ground, holds exhibitions on specific themes from a range of designers.
For those with a yen to splurge on a bit of nightlife, Tokyo Midtown is also host to one of Japan’s poshest dinner clubs in the form of Billboard Live (http://billboard-live.com/; charge). The Tokyo outpost of a nationwide chain, Billboard Live offers acts like jazz great Herbie Hancock against the backdrop of a giant, panoramic window looking out over the night-time downtown skyline.
Suntory Museum of Art
Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications
Nogi-jinja
A five-minute walk north of Tokyo Midtown along Gaien-Higashi-dori, across the road from Nogizaka subway station, is Nogi-jinja 5 [map] (www.nogijinja.or.jp; daily 8.30am–5pm). The shrine is named after General Nogi Maresuke, a hero of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, who is buried with his wife—they disembowelled themselves with a sword in solidarity with the death of Emperor Meiji and thus helped to revive ritual suicide in Japan—in nearby Aoyama Cemetery. On the second Sunday of every month an antiques flea market is held in the shrine’s grounds.
Gallery Ma
Across the main road, check out what’s showing at Gallery Ma 6 [map] (www.toto.co.jp/gallerma; Tue–Sat 11am–6pm, Fri until 7pm; free), which mounts exhibitions on interior design and architecture from both Japan and overseas; past subjects have included the likes of Ando Tadao. The gallery is on the third floor of a showroom for Toto, Japan’s largest toilet manufacturer, so you can also check out the latest in bathroom design while you are here.
Tokyo Tower
iStock
National Art Centre, Tokyo
Retrace your steps along Gaien-Higashi-dori back towards Tokyo Midtown, where you should turn right to reach the wavy glass-wall façade of the National Art Centre, Tokyo 7 [map] (NACT; www.nact.jp; Wed–Mon 10am–6pm; charge). Designed by Kurokawa Kisha, this 48,000-sq m (516,600-sq ft) building is Japan’s largest such gallery, staging everything from blockbuster exhibitions of major artists to small-scale shows for local art groups. The atrium foyer is studded with three-storey-tall conical pods – on the top of one you will find Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musée, see 2. For unusual souvenirs, look in the shop in the National Art Centre’s basement.
Roppongi Hills
Return to Roppongi Crossing, turn right and follow Roppongi-dori towards Roppongi Hills 8 [map] (www.roppongihills.com), a complex that is among the brashest of Tokyo’s mini-cities. Its 54-storey tower, de-luxe Grand Hyatt hotel, nine-screen cinema and over 200 shops form one of the largest developments in Japan. In the plaza outside the entrance to the Mori Tower you will see Louise Bourgeois’s Maman, an iconic sculpture of a giant spider that has become to Roppongi Hills what Hachiko is to Shibuya.
The top floors of the Mori Tower are occupied by the Mori Art Museum 9 [map] (MAM, Mori Bijutsukan; www.mori.art.museum; Tue 10am–5pm, Wed–Mon 10am–10pm; charge), which aspires – and is judged by many to have achieved the goal – to be Japan’s leading contemporary art museum. Under the curation of Director Nanjo Fumio, the museum hosts exhibitions of works mainly from Japan and Asia, with a focus on Asia’s booming contemporary art market. The Mori underwent an extensive renovation in 2015 and now boasts a number of technological advancements that enable it to better accommodate the growing movement toward multimedia forms of artistic expression. You can combine a visit to the museum with the Tokyo City View (daily 9am–11pm; charge) observation deck, which in recent years hosts unusual Sky Aquarium exhibitions and all-night club events. Weather permitting, it’s also fun to go out on the tower’s roof to take in the panorama from the Sky Deck (daily 10am–8pm; charge).
Return to ground level, exit onto boutique-lined Keyakizaka-dori and take the side road behind the Tsutaya book, CD and DVD store to find the Singaporean restaurant Hainan Jeefan Shokudo, see 3.
Across the road from Tsutaya, turn left then right to follow Imoarai-zaka uphill back towards Roppongi Crossing. Just before reaching there, branch right to emerge on Gaien-Higashi-dori and the heart of Roppongi’s main drag of bars and nightclubs.
Art atop the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills
Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications
Tokyo Tower
Keep on walking east along Gaien-Higashi-dori, passing under the raised expressway towards the orange-and-white-painted Tokyo Tower ) [map] (www.tokyotower.co.jp; daily 9am–11pm; charge). Even though it no longer offers the highest vantage point over the city, it’s still worth getting close up to this Tokyo icon to admire its Eiffel Tower-like structure. A gaggle of restaurants and kitchy amusements like haunted house exhibitions and a second-rate aquarium can be found in the Foot Town at the base of the tower, where you can also fuel up at Tokyo Curry Lab, see 4.
Zojo-ji
Adjacent to Tokyo Tower in Shiba Park (Shiba-koen) sits one of Tokyo’s most impressive temples – Zojo-ji ! [map] (http://www.zojoji.or.jp/; daily 6am–5.30pm). Founded in 1393, the site was chosen by the Tokugawa clan in the late 1600s as their ancestral temple; six of the Tokugawa shoguns are buried here. Close to the bay and the Tokaido (East Sea Road), it also served as a post station for travellers. Most of the temple buildings, once numbering over 100, have not survived the ravages of time, but its main entrance, the 1612 red-lacquered San-mon, is original. The Main Hall (Taiden) contains ancient sutras and statuary.
Shakaden
Return to Tokyo Tower and turn right on Sakurada-dori to walk towards Kamiyacho subway station, passing the striking Shakaden @ [map]. With its enormous, wedge-like black roof it may look like an alien spaceship, but this is the Tokyo headquarters of the Reiyukai Buddhist movement (www.reiyukaiindia.org/shakaden.asp).
Musée Tomo
Walk past the entrances to Kamiyacho Station and turn left, heading uphill towards the Toranomon Tower complex. Walk through this towards the Okura Hotel to encounter the Musée Tomo £ [map] (Tomo Bijutsukan; 4-1-35 Toranomon, Minato-ku; www.musee-tomo.or.jp; Tue–Sun 11am–6pm; charge), a small but highly elegant museum housing the contemporary Japanese ceramics collection of Tomo Kikuchi.
Head west from the Okura Hotel to arrive at the rear of the Ark Hills $ [map] complex, a precursor of Roppongi Hills. Located here is the ANA Intercontinental Hotel and the classical-music venue Suntory Hall (www.suntory.com/culture-sports/suntoryhall). You will emerge back on Roppongi-dori facing the raised expressway.
Statues of the bodhisattva Jizo at Zojo-ji – each is for the soul of a departed child
Getty Images
High-rise Tokyo
The 333m (1,092ft) tall Tokyo Tower, built in 1958, is still one of the city’s tallest structures, even if its top-most observation deck only lets you get up to 250m (820ft). The Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills allows visitors access to its rooftop observation deck at 270m (885ft), while nearby you can sip cocktails and look out of the 248m (814ft) tall Midtown Tower from the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. As of 2011, however, all this was dwarfed by the 610m (2001ft) Tokyo Sky Tree (www.tokyo-skytree.jp) in the Narihirabashi/Oshiage area, east across the Sumida River from Asakusa; the building’s topmost observation point is at the giddy height of 450m (1,475ft).
Akasaka
Kantei
Cross Roppongi-dori to enter Akasaka. Walk towards Tameike-Sanno subway station, near to which you can see the Sanno Park Tower and the handsome residence of Japan’s prime minister, known as the Kantei % [map]. You can’t go inside, but you can take a virtual tour (see www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/vt/index.html). A short distance to the north, Japan’s parliament sits in the National Diet Building (Kokkai Gijido), a handsome blend of Japanese and Western styles that opened in 1936. Those with an interest in Japanese politics can tour the House of Councillors (www.sangiin.go.jp/eng/info/dbt), the upper house of the nation’s bicameral parliament.
Hie-jinja
Next to Sanno Park Tower, steps lead up to one of Tokyo’s premier shrines – Hie-jinja ^ [map] (www.hiejinja.net; daily Apr–Sept 5am–6pm, Oct–Mar 6am–5pm). Transplanted to the borders of the Akasaka and Nagatacho districts in the 17th century in the belief that it would help to deflect evil from Edo Castle, the shrine’s current buildings were erected in 1967. Its role as protector is still evident today; look carefully at a carving to the left of the main shrine and you will see a monkey cradling its baby. Pregnant women come here to pay homage to the image. Downhill from the shrine, away from the main road, you will find the restaurant Kurosawa, see 5.
Leave the shrine the way you entered, cross the street and head southwest for a couple of blocks to reach the Akasaka Biz Tower & [map], another of the area’s new dining, shopping and business complexes. Nearby is Akasaka Station.
Food and drink
1 Botanica
4F Garden Terrace, Tokyo
Midtown, 9-7-4 Akasaka, Minato-ku; tel: 5413 3282; www.danddlondon.jp/eng/botanica; Mon–Fri 11am–9pm, Sat–Sun 11am–8:30pm; station: Roppongi; ¥¥¥
Enjoy garden views from the terrace of this stylishly British restaurant, part of Sir Terence Conran’s portfolio, either over lunch or afternoon tea. A cheaper alternative is Midtown’s basement food court, Okawari.jp.
2 Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musée
National Art Centre, 7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku; tel: 5770 8161; www.paulbocuse.jp/eng/musee; Wed–Mon 11am–7:30pm (L.O) Fri 11am 8:30pm (L.O); station: Roppongi; ¥¥¥
Make a booking if you want to avoid queuing up for lunch at this classy French operation, notable for its location atop one of the giant concrete cones in the Art Centre’s lobby.
3 Hainan Jeefan Shokudo
6-11-16 Roppongi, Minato-ku; tel: 5474 3200; http://www.route9g.com/; Mon–Fri 11.30am–2pm and 6pm–11pm, Sat–Sun 11.30am–3pm and 6–11pm; station: Roppongi; ¥¥
Tasty Singaporean street-food, such as chicken rice and spicy noodles, are served up at this cute place near Roppongi Hills.
4 Tokyo Curry Lab
2F Tokyo Tower, 4-2-8 Shiba-koen, Minato-ku; tel: 5425 2900; http://tokyocurrylab.jp/; daily 11am–9pm; station: Kamiyacho; ¥¥
Tokyo’s Tower’s dining options are far from chic, but design fans will enjoy the clean lines and concept of this simple eatery celebrating Japan’s unique take on curry and rice.
5 Kurosawa
2-7-9 Nagatacho, Chiyoda-ku; tel: 3580 9638; Mon–Fri 11.30am–2:30pm and 5–10pm, Sat noon–9pm; station: Tameike-sanno; ¥¥
Enjoy gourmet soba noodle-and-pork dishes in this atmospheric restaurant that takes its design cues from Akira Kurosawa’s movies.