Tokyo / Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu / On the water

The Meguro River cherry trees

目黒川の桜 めぐろがわのさくら

Eight hundred cherry trees leaning over a canal for four kilometres — pink by day, lantern-lit by night, for ten days a year.

EssentialSeasonal · Nature · Photogenic · Walkable · Food

The Meguro river is a concrete channel for most of the year, and for ten days around the first of April it is the most beautiful street in Tokyo: the cherry trees on both banks meet over the water, petals cover the surface, and from Nakameguro station to Ikejiri the walk is lined with stalls selling sparkling wine in plastic cups and strawberries on sticks. At night the trees are lit with pink lanterns. The rest of the year the riverside is where Nakameguro's cafés, vintage shops and the Starbucks Reserve Roastery — a four-storey Kengo Kuma building around a copper cask — are, and it is a pleasant walk in any month.

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 Meguro River cherry trees
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
Walk upstream from Nakameguro toward Ikejiri-Ohashi; the crowd thins after the first kilometre and the trees do not.
Best time
Late March to early April, morning or after 8 pm.
Allow
90 min
Station
Nakameguro (Hibiya line, Tokyu Toyoko), 2 minutes
Official site — hours, prices, closures
www.city.meguro.tokyo.jp · Map

In this area: Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu

Shop Essential

Daikanyama T-Site代官山 蔦屋書店

Three pavilions of books, a lounge that serves cocktails among rare magazines, and a garden of small shops — the bookshop as a place to spend a day.

120 min · Daikanyama (Tokyu Toyoko), 5 minutes; Ebisu (JR), 12 minutes
District Worth it

Daikanyama's low-rise streets代官山の低層の街

Hillside Terrace, the Danish embassy's bricks, designers' own shops and the old Asakura house — a village Fumihiko Maki built over thirty years.

90 min · Daikanyama (Tokyu Toyoko), 3 minutes
District Worth it

Ebisu Garden Place and the Ebisu restaurant streets恵比寿ガーデンプレイスと恵比寿の飲食店街

A district named after a beer, with the brewery museum, a photography museum, and the densest streets of small good restaurants in Tokyo.

180 min · Ebisu (JR / Hibiya line); Garden Place by the Skywalk from the east exit

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