Illustration by Archinect (background photo courtesy Louie Martinez/Unsplash)
For our first Archinect City Guide in Asia, we’re heading to Tokyo! To find out what’s worth exploring for architects and design fans visiting the Japanese capital, we connect with long-time Archinect friend and a true expert on the city, Will Galloway. The native Canadian founded his firm frontoffice tokyo there nearly twenty years ago, earned a PhD from the University of Tokyo, and has been active as an educator at Waseda University and Keio University (from where he ran a very popular Archinect School Blog) — and more recently also at Toronto Metropolitan University.
In this City Guide, he reveals his recommended Tokyo spots for eating & drinking, bookstores & museums, and, of course, plenty of architecture spotting.
Are you a Tokyo local with your own go-to spots? Or have a city you think we should cover next? Share your thoughts, suggestions, and favorite places in the comments.
Favorite restaurant?
So so many. Food in Tokyo is insane. It is hard to go wrong.
Usually, when I host people, I take them to Gonpachi in Shibuya. The one in Roppongi is more famous (Kill Bill mega-battle scene), but the one in Shibuya is just as good and less crowded. It is also a bit hard to find, which adds to the experience.
Image courtesy Gonpachi Shibuya on InstagramFavorite bar?
It is hard to beat the advice on the internet. Like food, there are so many bars and clubs in the city that any whim or hobby you have is catered to, from ultra-lux places (like VIRTÙ at the Four Seasons in Otemachi), to Jazz bars, to places with a dinner and a show.
For myself, I like to go to izakayas, out of an absurd fondness for chūhai (lemon sour) and Japanese food. Kind of like a British pub, there are so many good ones, my advice is to try one close to where you are staying.
Image courtesy VIRTÙ on InstagramFavorite café?
If I want to enjoy architecture with my coffee, then Starbucks Reserve in Meguro (by Kengo Kuma) is exceptional for its outdoor seating next to the canal.
Outdoor seating at Starbucks Reserve Meguro by Kengo Kuma and Associates. Photo: Will Galloway.
Blue Bottle in Sangenjaya (Schemata Architects) has an excellent vibe and great coffee. Designed by one of the more interesting offices in Tokyo right now, a pioneer of the rising trend to creatively inhabit old buildings instead of tearing them down.
Blue Bottle Coffee Sangenjaya cafe by Schemata Architects. Photo: Kenta Hasegawa.
If I am on the go, my go-to is the self-service coffee at 7-11. It is excellent (for the cost), fresh, and cheap. And really, you need to go to the convenience store in Japan anyway, because they are shockingly awesome.
Self-service coffee station at a 7-11 convenience store. Photo: Will Galloway.Favorite bookstore?
Tsutaya in Daikanyama (by Klein Dytham) is the best vibe, and connects so well to the street. It is one of the best examples of urban planning through architecture. It builds on the legacy of Fumihiko Maki, whose own office is in the area.
For the art/design book lover, the Aoyama Book Centre is still quite good. It can be hard to find, being below ground, but it is next to the United Nations University (by Kenzo Tange), so look out for that.
A more recent addition in Tokyo is the Tsutaya bookstore in the GINZA 6 Building (designed by Yoshio Taniguchi). Located in a high-end shopping mall in Ginza, I also recommend going to the public roof deck. It’s not the highest view of the city, but just high enough to get a feel for the character of Tokyo.
Tsutaya Daikanyama by Klein Dytham architecture. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Syced (Public Domain)Favorite museum?
The Museum of Western Art by Le Corbusier is always going to be a favorite. Quite good art, and the park where the building sits is special. Great zoo, an opera by Maekawa Kunio next door just to remember what modernism could have been, and a big pond for those who want to go row-boating in the middle of the city.
It is also very close to the museum of Horyuji treasures by Yoshio Taniguchi (an undisputed masterpiece), and the International Library of Children’s Literature by Tadao Ando (Ando at his peak, with a less impressive addition a few years later).
Roppongi Hills Mori Art Museum almost always has an excellent show going on and stunning views as well. Definitely worth the price of entry.
National Museum of Western Art by Le Corbusier. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons user 663highland (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Favorite public space?
A tricky question in Japan. Public space is not exactly built into the urban fabric in the form of plazas and large gathering spaces. A lot of the best public spaces are buildings.
My favorites, FWIW:
Shibaura House by Kazuyo Sejima. Multiple floors of rentable exhibition/activity space. Frequented by artists and architects, it is an amazing example of how to live vertically in the city. Unquestionably one of the best buildings in the city.
Shibaura House by Kazuyo Sejima & Associates. Image courtesy SHIBAURA HOUSE on Facebook
Harakado by Akihisa Hirata is a strange place in Omotesando, recently completed by one of Japan’s emerging leaders in architecture. It is built up around a rough exterior collection of stairs and passages that alternately compress and open up to the city. Great view of Omotesando Street and one of those buildings that makes you wonder how it was ever built because it feels like most of it is well beyond functional. The interior features shops scattered through the floors in a way that aims (apparently) at evoking the feeling of being on the street. Lots of excellent options for food and fashion, though the shops seem to change pretty quickly.
Streetview of Harakado by Akihisa Hirata. Photo: Will Galloway.
Tokyu Plaza across the street (by Hiroshi Nakamura) is equal in intent. When it was complete, it seemed like a wild child. Now it feels like an older brother (or sister). The roof deck is also impressive.
Tokyu Plaza by Hiroshi Nakamura. Photo: Daryan Shamkhali/Unsplash.
Miyashita Park, in front of Shibuya Station, is a much larger collection of inside/outside streets/floors, including a roof deck that is not quite living up to its promise, but still impressive. It features a skate park, beach volleyball, the obligatory coffee shop, and a hotel. Great views of classical Shibuya architecture and an amazing stairway built over a major street that is fun to sit on. The building used to be a park with a history of housing the homeless before it was turned into a skate park with a design by Atelier Bow-Wow, and now the park is enlarged and lifted into the sky, several stories in the air. It reads like the future, even as it is entirely banal and driven by consumerism. An impressive feat by Nikken Sekkei (with Takenaka).
Miyashita Park by Nikken Sekkei and Takenaka Corporation. Photo: Shin Shasin Kobo.
For more orthodox public spaces, Yoyogi Park is still a great place to gather for a picnic. Right next to it is Meiji Jingu Park, which is entirely man-made, but feels like an ancient, magical forest. If visiting Tokyo in the summer, the air temperature drops by several degrees in this wooded retreat. Stay long, soak up the energy. Visit all the side parks and resting places.
Most underrated building?
This might be the wrong question for Tokyo. It is a city of multiple points of view, with a place for everyone.
If I were to name a place that many would not agree with, it is the space below the elevated highway at Nihonbashi Bridge. In constant threat of being torn down, the spaces below the highway are cathedral-like, built over the original canal. The view from Nihonbashi (super important historical site) is fantastic. The rise and fall of the highway creates a space that is one of a kind.
Nihonbashi Bridge. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Aimaimyi (CC BY-SA 3.0)Favorite new architecture?
Akihisa Hirata’s Overlap House is small but spectacular.
Kiyoki Takeda’s Tsuruoka House is similar, if more restrained (Takeda is another up-and-coming star. So good).
Overlap House by Akihisa Hirata. Photo: Will Galloway.
The Shibuya Toilet Project is both absurd and fun. And mostly excellent.
Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park, part of THE TOKYO TOILET project in Shibuya, by Shigeru Ban. Photo: Satoshi Nagare, courtesy of The Nippon Foundation.
Will Galloway inside the Shigeru Ban-designed restroom. Photo: Will Galloway.
At the bigger scale:
OMA’s Toranomon Hills is powerful, especially if you walk across the bridge and head into the area designed by Ingenhoven.
The Toranomon Hills tower by OMA during construction. Photo: Will Galloway.New or upcoming projects by your firm in the city?
We are just beginning a new house that we are excited about, and a few projects underway, but nothing recently completed to point at.
On the other hand, we were local architects for the Spanish Pavilion and Czech Pavilion at the Osaka Expo. Both are really cool, for those looking outside Tokyo. The entire expo has a lot of impressive work, especially the wooden ring by Sou Fujimoto. Wow.
The Spanish Pavilion at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, designed by EXTUDIO, ENORME Studio, and Smart & Green Design. Will Galloway’s firm frontoffice tokyo was the local architect on the project, along with Frank La Riviere Architects. Photo: archexist.
Archinectors, what are your personal favorite picks for Tokyo? Let us know in the comments!
AloJapan.com