Daikanyama & Nakameguro: the grown-up west
The Tsutaya bookshop, the Maki terraces, and the canal of cherry trees down the hill. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Daikanyama T-Site (Tsutaya Books)
Three glass pavilions of books, magazines and a *Anjin* lounge upstairs — the bookshop everyone means when they say *Daikanyama*. Come for the art and architecture shelves; stay for the magazine wall, which is the best in the city. Open late, which is the point of an afternoon start.

2. Hillside Terrace
Fumihiko Maki's low white complex along *Kyu-Yamate-dori*, built and rebuilt over thirty years — shops, galleries, a Danish embassy tucked in. You don't have to go in anywhere. Just walk the set-backs and courtyards; the whole thing is a lesson in how a street can breathe.

3. The Daikanyama boutiques
The lanes off *Hachiman-dori* and *Kyu-Yamate-dori* — small fashion, homeware, a coffee or two. Window-shopping more than shopping, unless your wallet is braver than mine. Wander without a map; the grid is small enough to get pleasantly lost in.

4. Saigoyama Park (the descent)
The hill edge where *Daikanyama* drops toward the river — a small park on a former estate, a lawn that looks west toward Fuji on the clearest winter days. This is the hinge of the walk: behind you the boutiques, below you the water.

5. Meguro-gawa, the cherry walk
Down to the *Meguro-gawa* (river) — a narrow canal lined both banks with cherry trees that lean right across the water. In early April it's a tunnel of blossom and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds; the rest of the year it's a calm green corridor of cafes and small shops, which is when I'd rather walk it.

6. Nakameguro Station
Follow the water southwest, browsing the riverside shops, until the railway bridge marks *Nakameguro*. Tokyu Toyoko and the Metro Hibiya line both run from here. The arches under the tracks have been filled with small bars and shops if you want a last drink before the train.

Daikanyama & Nakameguro: the grown-up west