Looking for a day of relaxation? Then head to Hiroo, arguably the swankiest residential neighborhood in central Tokyo. Just one stop from Ebisu Station on the Hibiya Line, Hiroo is an enclave on the border of Shibuya and Minato wards known for its international consulates and chic expat lifestyle. But is everything as effortless and glamorous as it seems? Try this itinerary to see if Hiroo lives up to its reputation.
Bread and breakfast: 9 a.m.
The perfect day in Hiroo starts with freshly baked bread. There are few neighborhoods in Japan that do bread as well as Hiroo does, to the point where you can catch an alluring whiff of baked goods on certain streets: sweet and dry, all flax and rye and powdered sugar.
Boulangerie Burdigala specializes in southwestern French goods, with impeccable cream puffs piled up like Mount Fuji. Truffle Bakery serves white truffle salt bread and hearty egg salad sandwiches, and intimate Brod has Scandinavian loaves with nuts and seeds that offer a slice of Nordic coziness.
“On Sunday mornings, people are strolling up and down the shops, a little music playing in the background, very typical and cute,” says Kristina Ganea, 50, owner of Brod and a Hiroo resident herself. “You have your shopping, housing, kids’ activities, sports, anything you need. And that can easily become, for the foreign community, a little bubble which you almost never leave — like floating in your own soup.”
Not a miso soup, mind you, but a nice French onion or maybe a bouillabaisse.
Hiroo might be the most attractive neighborhood for expatriates in all of Japan, especially because of the widespread availability of international ingredients and products. The historic Meidi-ya and import-hub National Azabu grocery stores are loaded with everything from heaps of tortillas, Weetabix and Lucky Charms to imported raspberries and Ehime mikan (Japanese mandarin).
But can you really spend a whole day in a bubble of foreignness? As you ponder the dream of an idyllic international life over a morning bite, the question comes to mind: Just how segregated from the rest of Japan is this expat paradise?
A spot of history: 12 p.m.
Once you’ve had your European-style bread and perhaps an artisanal roast from Bondi Cafe or Nem Coffee & Espresso (artfully decorated with earthy ceramics, elaborately spiced avocado toast available on weekdays only), the sun has risen high into the sky and you need a retreat.
Leafy Arisugawa Memorial Park with its ponds and arched stone bridges speaks to the vaunted history of the neighborhood. In the Edo Period (1603-1868), the park was the urban villa of the daimyo of Morioka. Back in those days, the whole area belonged to wealthy samurai while peddlers carried rice from distant farms into central Edo.
After the Meiji Restoration, land found a new purpose: embassy grounds for the nations Japan began to wheel and deal with in its era of modernization. With lower humidity than other areas of Tokyo due to its slight elevation, Hiroo became a favored place to live for the rich and powerful, as well as the waves of foreigners arriving in Tokyo.
The United States and France established embassies within a stone’s throw of each other. The U.S. military’s GHQ also set up shop in the area following World War II. Over the decades, the presence of diplomats and soldiers fueled a boom in restaurants, bars and supermarkets that catered to international tastes.
A quick stroll down residential streets in any direction reveals hulking mansions lacking typical hyōsatsu (nameplates), likely for celebrities or politicians to maintain anonymity. Recent constructions like the lofted white Arisugawa Duplex, a box of pale bubbles floating over a fragile tree, have added a modern flair to the neighborhood’s design sensibility. But new buildings often rise at the expense of older middle-class homes.
Alex Shapiro at Tokyo Portfolio, a boutique real-estate firm servicing primarily expats, says that the neighborhood has never before been so financially inaccessible.
“There’s a shortage of desirable expat properties,” he says. “Ones that have multiple bathrooms, ovens, fully equipped kitchens. That’s a big reason why prices for these properties are shooting up.”
The population of Minato Ward has increased 10% in the past decade, but the population of foreign residents is up 20%. The numbers of Americans, British and French have actually decreased, while primarily Chinese and South Asians have entered the neighborhood. It’s a subtle change more than a palpable one — Hiroo hasn’t wavered from its focus on Western delights. Old-school Cuban bar Havana 1950 is still a hot spot; local food and drink standouts include Middle Eastern feasts at Zenobia and a remarkable tequila selection at Ferri’s.
On this particular day, lunch means a luscious Gorgonzola bacon burger at second-floor terrace joint Burger Mania. Afterwards, you decide to go on a mid-afternoon jaunt to the Teien Art Museum, which has an exhibit on German graphic design. The museum, designed by French architect Henri Lapin, is one of the premier sites for European art in Japan. Looking out the bus window on your way back, you see more families than businessmen, and plenty of tourists — or are they locals?
Dinner and drinks: 6:30 p.m.
It’s easy to forget you’re in Japan while spending the day in Hiroo. Orders for breakfast, coffee and lunch were all conducted in English. But now, office workers and creatives in their mid-30s are out for a bite and a drink, and a part of you registers a different side to the area — a strangely ordinary one.
One long-term American resident, who asks to remain anonymous, says he mostly strolls with his wife up to Omotesando for food and drinks. “It’s a cookie-cutter place, in some ways,” says the 60-year-old who works in real estate. The main shopping street in Hiroo is almost remarkable for its mundanity, with its drug stores, ramen and yakitori joints alongside splashes of traditional culture: the century-old bathhouse Hiroo-yu, the scent of fresh incense from the temples of Kyoto at Kousaido.
The resident observes that high-class expat life centers around business and careers: socializing at embassies and at the Tokyo American Club (with a ¥3 million initiation fee to get in the door), or among the parents of international schoolchildren.
Even the ultimate expat bubble can’t insulate a place from “real” Japan leaking in from all sides, apparently.
“Because of tourists, now you need a reservation to go anywhere, so that sucks,” the resident says with a sigh. The influx of Chinese residents into the neighborhood is part of a Tokyo-wide trend, as are traditional houses with bonsai gardens toppled to make way for a parking lot or a four-story concrete block of high-end apartments.
Ganea’s biggest complaint is the lack of bicycle parking. “We tried to live in a very Japanese neighborhood at the beginning of our time here and make friends with the people around us,” she says, “but we eventually decided to go back to the international Hiroo situation.”
As the final shreds of blue sky fade into dusk, the flow of the neighborhood shifts north. If the area around Hiroo Station represents the neighborhood by day, Shapiro says, the charming Italian restaurants, upscale izakaya (Japanese pubs) and amber-lit bars of Nishiazabu are Hiroo by night.
“This is one of the few areas of Tokyo where you can barely know Japanese for 20, 30, 40 years and still get around,” Shapiro says. “But those kinds of people are getting rarer and rarer.” Old-school overseas job postings are decreasing, and the families of today’s international entrepreneurs and diplomats tend to be more invested in Japanese language and culture.
Heading home: 10 p.m.
The road at night is quiet but for a floodlight-bright 7-Eleven, an old man shuttering his ramen shop and a stylish young couple headed for post-dinner drinks.
Taking a hard look at Hiroo at this hour reveals something more ordinary, and also more enduring. While its unique history, fashionable lifestyle, and lofty reputation precede it, the neighborhood is still subject to the same forces reshaping the rest of Japan.
The dream of a perfect expat day has come to an end. Time to board the Hibiya Line and go back to your own Tokyo neighborhood — less prestigious, but yours all the same.
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