Tokyo / Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu / District

Nakameguro's back streets

中目黒の裏通り なかめぐろのうらどおり

Under the railway arches and along the side streets — coffee, vintage, small galleries and the restaurants that made the district's name.

For a second visitLocal life · Food · Shopping · Walkable · Quiet

Nakameguro Koukashita, the seven-hundred-metre run of shops under the Toyoko line viaduct, holds a Tsutaya bookshop, a ramen counter, a sake bar and the kind of restaurants that open at five and turn their tables three times; the streets between the station and the river hold vintage shops, a bakery with a queue on Saturdays, ceramics galleries and the coffee stands where the neighbourhood queues in the morning. Nothing needs a ticket. It is the district for an afternoon of wandering that ends, naturally, at a counter by the river at seven.

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 Nakameguro's back streets
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
Pair with Daikanyama in the afternoon and Ebisu for dinner — the three are a triangle of fifteen-minute walks.
Best time
Weekday afternoon into evening.
Allow
120 min
Station
Nakameguro (Hibiya line, Tokyu Toyoko)
Official site — hours, prices, closures
www.nakamegurokoukashita.jp · Map

Appears in

In this area: Nakameguro, Daikanyama & Ebisu

On the water Essential

The Meguro River cherry trees目黒川の桜

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

90 min · Nakameguro (Hibiya line, Tokyu Toyoko), 2 minutes
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

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