Tokyo / Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu

Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu中目黒・代官山・恵比寿

The canal of cherry trees, the bookshop that started a movement, and the low-rise streets where Tokyo's taste is set — three villages joined by a walk.

This is where Tokyo goes when it wants to be neither a business district nor a tourist one. Nakameguro's Meguro river is lined for four kilometres with cherry trees that turn the canal pink at the start of April and glow with lanterns at night. Daikanyama, up the hill, is a village of designers' shops and the T-Site bookshop complex that redefined what a bookshop could be. Ebisu, over the ridge, has the beer museum, a photography museum, and the densest concentration of small, excellent restaurants in the city. None of it is essential and all of it is what visitors remember.

One-day itineraries

One day · The whole loop

Around the Yamanote line in a day of eating: soba in Kanda, unagi in Ueno, a tea house in a garden, tempura in Shinjuku, tonkatsu in Meguro and oden in Ebisu

The Yamanote loop takes an hour to ride and a lifetime to eat. This day rides it clockwise from Tokyo Station and gets off six times, once for each meal a body can reasonably hold: soba, unagi, tea, tempura, tonkatsu, oden. Every stop is from our station-by-station guide, verified on the date shown; walk times are from the station gates. Buy a day ticket and eat small.

Akihabara & Kanda · Ueno & Yanaka · Shinjuku · Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu · Ginza · 7 stops

One day · Daikanyama, Nakameguro, Ebisu

The three villages: Daikanyama's bookshop, Nakameguro's canal, and dinner in Ebisu — the day Tokyo takes when it is not working

Nothing on this day is a sight and nobody who takes it regrets it. Three low-rise neighbourhoods joined by fifteen-minute walks, in the order the ground slopes: Daikanyama's designed village and its bookshop in the morning, the canal and back streets of Nakameguro after lunch, and Ebisu's dense streets of small restaurants when the light goes. In the first week of April, the canal is the most beautiful place in Tokyo; the rest of the year it is merely the most pleasant.

Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu · 5 stops

Guide · Anywhere in the centre

A rainy day in Tokyo, done well: a national collection, a depachika lunch, a coffee house, an art-book lounge and a bath

Tokyo in the rain is not a lesser city; it is one that moves indoors, into museums, food halls, coffee houses and baths that were built for exactly this. The rule is to choose one district and stay under its roofs — every large station is a covered city — rather than to cross town. Here is a day assembled from the best of them, with the alternatives by area so you can build your own.

Ueno & Yanaka · Shinjuku · Marunouchi & Tokyo Station · Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu · Roppongi & Azabu · 5 stops

Places (5)

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi 1 1. The Meguro River cherry trees 2 2. Daikanyama T-Site 3 3. Daikanyama's low-rise streets 4 4. Ebisu Garden Place and the Ebisu restaurant streets 5 5. Nakameguro's back streets
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
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