Meguro-dori, the street that runs west from Meguro Station, was once home to numerous imported-car showrooms, and not much else. Over the past few years though, it has gained fame as Tokyo's No. 1 interior shopping drag, lined with around 50 stores selling new and used furniture and assorted home wares catering to almost every imaginable taste.
On weekends, the 4 km of the strip from the intersection with Yamate-dori to the upscale Jiyugaoka district, as well as nearby Komazawa-dori, on which another 20 or so home furnishing stores are located, teem with increasingly youthful crowds of shoppers looking to spruce up their living spaces.
While business seems to be booming for many, in an effort to bring even more design enthusiasts to the area, 32 of the stores have teamed up with the Meguro City government and Hachette Fujingaho, the publishing firm behind Japan's two most prestigious interior style magazines, Elle Deco and Modern Living, to create MIST, a nine-day event whereby participating stores hold major sales, some offering discounts of as much as 80 percent.