Daikanyama 代官山

Daikanyama Area Guide

Located between Shibuya, Ebisu and Nakameguro three areas in which it is nice to walk, Daikanyama appears as the perfect balance between casual elegance and a bit ostentatious luxury.

The district is a quiet counterpoint to the Shibuya station area's noise and brash consumerism.

Daikanyama is one of Tokyo's hippest neighborhoods with its high-priced boutiques and some of the best cafe culture in Japan.

Daikanyama is a favorite area for creative types: Japanese designer boutiques, futuristic hairdressers on every street corner, jewelry and accessory stores like bijou residences, alongside major brands such as APC, Paul Smith, Nenets, Adolfo Dominguez and B Jirushi Yoshida.

Daikanyama is a fascinating mixture of the cute, the cutting edge and the retrospective.

Daikanyama

Daikanyama is the slope from Daikanyama station following the Tokyu Toyoko railway up to the giant chimney of the incineration plant near the JR Yamanote railway line.

Between the station and the Yamanote line tracks are numerous tiny cafes, crepe shops, art spaces, skateboarder stores, clothing stores, hairdressers, shoe shops, boutiques, and accessory stores that give Daikanyama it's often cutsie, but always mod, often retro, reputation.

Daikanyama Address

Daikanyama Address is the area's biggest shopping complex. It is accessible from the West Exit of Daikanyama Station.

Daikanyama Address is distinguished by a large green flower sculpture on Hachiman-dori Avenue, but any originality about the place stops there. Daikanyama Address is big but, like its name, uninspiring. You are much better off exploring the pedestrian-only part of Daikanyama right in front of the station, and Hillside Terrace a little further west.

Sarugakucho

The area just west of Daikanyama Station and Hachiman-dori Avenue is not Daikanyama proper, but Sarugakucho, which goes down as far as Kyu-Yamate-dori Avenue. From the traffic-lighted intersection "Daikanyama-koban-mae," go along Kyu-Yamate-dori Avenue into a world of elegance and good taste, which makes the rest of Daikanyama suddenly seem rather adolescent and precious. Be sure to have a look at the Old Asakura House, a preserved century-old Japanese-style mansion that belonged to a Tokyo merchant and politician and is set amid beautiful, serene gardened grounds. Only 100 yen to enter.

Hillside Terrace

Hillside Terrace is a laid back art, shopping, dining, cafe complex built on both sides of the street.

Hillside Terrace features much the same kind of shops as in Daikanyama proper: restaurants, cafes, boutiques, hairdressers, art spaces - plus a design library - with a decent English collection (membership required) - but on a larger, cleaner, and more sophisticated scale.

Hillside Terrace is an urban project by architect Fumihiko Maki. He also designed the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Sendagaya and the striking Spiral Building near Omotesando. It was built in seven stages between 1967 and 1992. Two of them, Hillside West, are a few hundred meters further down Kyu-Yamate-dori Avenue.

Access to Daikanyama

Daikanyama is where Kyu-Yamate-dori and Komazawa-dori avenues converge. Daikanyama Station is on the Tokyu Toyoko line from Shibuya (bound for Yokohama). The area can also be accessed from Ebisu Station on the JR Yamanote Line.