Tokyo / Aoyama & Omotesando / District

The Aoyama and Minami-Aoyama back streets

青山・南青山の裏通り あおやま・みなみあおやまのうらどおり

Where the flagships end — designers' own shops, ceramics galleries, coffee roasters and the editors' lunch places.

Worth itShopping · Art · Craft · Food · Quiet · High-end · Local life

Behind the Omotesando flagships, the streets of Minami-Aoyama between Kotto-dori and the Nezu Museum are where the shops become small and personal: Issey Miyake's family of boutiques on one corner, Comme des Garçons' own building, Yohji Yamamoto's, and between them ceramics galleries, a kimono-fabric shop that sells by the bolt, bookshops, and the cafés — Blue Bottle's first Japan shop, coffee stands in converted garages — where the city's magazine editors and architects eat lunch. Kotto-dori, "antiques street", still has a few dealers in old lacquer and Edo furniture. Nothing is signposted; that is the point.

Don't miss

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi Kabukiza Theatre Chuo-dori and the Sunday promenade Ginza Six Ginza Itoya Hama-rikyu Gardens The Ginza gallery walk Tsukiji Hongwanji The Ginza bar streets Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building Imperial Palace East Gardens Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum Marunouchi Naka-dori KITTE and the rooftop garden Idemitsu Museum of Arts Nihonbashi Bridge Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store The old shops of Nihonbashi Artizon Museum Fukutoku Shrine and the Coredo lanes Nihonbashi river cruise Sensoji Temple Kappabashi kitchen street Sumida river water bus The craft and coffee streets west of the temple A kimono day in Asakusa Tokyo Skytree Asakusa Shrine and Sanja Matsuri Tokyo National Museum National Museum of Western Art Ueno Park and Shinobazu Pond Yanaka Ginza and the Yanesen lanes Nezu Shrine Ameyoko market street Asakura Museum of Sculpture Akihabara Electric Town Jimbocho book town Kanda Myojin Shrine Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do) Kanda's old noodle houses Yushima Seido and the Confucian hall Mori Art Museum and Tokyo City View The National Art Center, Tokyo Tokyo Midtown and the Suntory Museum of Art Azabu-Juban shopping street Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple Roppongi after dark Nezu Museum The Omotesando architecture walk Aoyama Cemetery Meiji Jingu Gaien ginkgo avenue The Aoyama and Minami-Aoyama back streets Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Park Takeshita Street and Cat Street Ota Memorial Museum of Art Togo Shrine Shibuya scramble crossing and Hachiko Shibuya Sky Nonbei Yokocho and the Shibuya alleys Udagawacho record shops and Shibuya vintage Tomigaya and Kamiyamacho Live music in Shibuya Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatories Golden Gai Omoide Yokocho The Isetan food hall Hanazono Shrine Tsukiji Outer Market Toyosu Market and the tuna auction teamLab Planets The Tsukiji-to-Ginza walk The Meguro River cherry trees Daikanyama T-Site Daikanyama's low-rise streets Ebisu Garden Place and the Ebisu restaurant streets Nakameguro's back streets Kagurazaka's stone lanes Akagi Shrine Dining in Kagurazaka Zenkokuji Bishamonten Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo Edo-Tokyo Museum Kiyosumi Garden Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) The Kiyosumi-Shirakawa roasters The Aoyama and Minami-Aoyama back streets
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
Weekday afternoons; most small shops open at eleven or noon.
Best time
Weekday from noon.
Allow
120 min
Station
Omotesando (Ginza / Chiyoda / Hanzomon lines), exit B1
Official site — hours, prices, closures
omotesando.or.jp · Map

Appears in

In this area: Aoyama & Omotesando

Museum Essential

Nezu Museum根津美術館

A bamboo-lined approach by Kengo Kuma, tea ceramics and Chinese bronzes inside, and a hillside garden of tea houses behind.

120 min · Omotesando (Ginza / Chiyoda / Hanzomon lines), exit A5, 8 minutes
Street Essential

The Omotesando architecture walk表参道の建築散歩

A kilometre of zelkova trees and buildings by Ando, Ito, Sejima, Herzog & de Meuron and MVRDV — free, and best walked twice.

60 min · Omotesando (Ginza / Chiyoda / Hanzomon lines) to Meiji-jingumae (Chiyoda / Fukutoshin lines)
Park For a second visit

Aoyama Cemetery青山霊園

Tokyo's grandest cemetery, a hillside of Meiji statesmen, foreign teachers and a cherry avenue the city walks in April.

45 min · Gaienmae (Ginza line) or Nogizaka (Chiyoda line), 5 minutes

All places — Aoyama & Omotesando →