There’s a chic display window on Hiroo shopping street in Tokyo. No wonder – it is Junichi Nakahara’s boutique in Hiroo. The store is small (isn’t everything in Japan relatively small compared to the Super-sized US?) but the bright red color scheme is rather eye catching. It’s right across from Starbucks – a very Showa retro feel…is quite a novelty in this neighborhood – but oddly fits right in with the rest of the street scene.
Hiroo area is known to be a rather international district because many embassies are all over this part of town. As a result spotting foreigners “gaijin” is not all that unusual. There are Chinese, Korean, French, German, Croatia, Czech Republic, and Burkina Faso (where?) Embassies. I am sure I have missed few others in this exercise of naming embassies … but the point being, it is an interesting town with great deal of young students in the streets due to prestigous schools such as Sacred Heart University (both International and Japanese that Empress Michiko attended) and Keio campus being nearby. Yet like many parts of Japan, there’s the old – that vintage Showa retro feel, mixed with the modern international feel pervading the streets.
It might be of interest that there’s actually still an old style Japanese public bath surviving on this street. A real throwback to see a 広尾銭湯 = “Hiroo Public Bath” sign just few doors down from this chic boutique and next door to a very popular ramen shop. Walk a bit more towards the Hiroo JR subway station and at the corner will be a wine shop and then cross the street and there’s Hiramatsu Tei, quite an exclusive and fancy looking French restaurant, that is right next door to McDonalds! The juxtaposition of elements is amusing to someone returning after so many years . All within 3 minute walk, you get the old and the new, the very Japanese to the Western… More you look at the place from a perspective of someone coming back after years of blank time… more you can appreciate the charm of this town.
Suggested places of interest:
1. Yamafuji restaurant: Organic restaurants where every ingredients are sourced from farmers/producers with a face and a name.
2. Meiji-ya: Grocery store – rather expensive but quality is there.
3. National supermarket – Grocery store catering to the westerners. Again, a bit expensive.
4. Vinos Yamazaki – wine shop at the corner. Good selection.
5. Priya Indian restaurant – lovely. Good food at good value.
6. Taro Ramen – They always give you a coupon for free side of gyoza after you have a bowl of ramen. So when you return, you give them this coupon, they will get you a small plate of 3 gyozas to go with your bowl. Good value.
7. J Cafe – appeared to have closed… How sad. Was Organic, macrobiotics and raw foods…
8. Sawamura Bakery – the best selection of breads; Cafe upstairs. Fresh & tasty. Off shoot of Sawamura in Karuizawa, a resort for the Tokyo city folks.
There’s actually my favorite “GO TO” Japanese lunch place in Hiroo but I cannot share that information… it would get too crowded and as it is, they seem to sell out on their daily specials if you don’t get there early…:( Not a fancy place but again, rather retro – Showa ambiance pervades this cozy place.
広尾に夢見る乙女のヴィンテージが…ホームページからその他、日本のヴィンテージを代表する名匠の雑貨店のリンクがあり、昭和レトロのアーテイストが紹介されていて、面白い http://www.junichi-nakahara.com/
