Following the publication of NEW YORK TIMES’s Nakameguro style map (”Hip Nippon”), Marxy goes out and says what a lot of us know to be true: Nakameguro simply isn’t the hip neighborhood everyone wants it to be (not anymore at least).
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Jean Snow lives and breathes design and pop culture in Tokyo -- sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for the following online/offline publications: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Game|Life, and The Japan Times. He also manages the gallery space at Cafe Pause.
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Claska is not in Nakameguro. The New York Times is dumb. They also just printed something about the new Marunouchi revival, and talk about the new Marunouchi Building as if it’s new. They didn’t even mention the new complex at Tokyo Station in the article. I lived in Nakameguro, and they are tearing down all the cool stuff. All the tiny bars under the tracks are gone. And they are building some monster of an apartment building where there used to be some abandoned buildings. And are Nakameguro’s streets any leafier than other areas? Maybe along the river its kind of nice. . . But I wouldn’t describe it as leafy to NY Times readers. It makes it sound like some paradise. But then again, NY Times doesn’t usually want to print the reality of Japan, just the fantasy. . . or what they think their readers want to read.
I don’t think I’ve seen that piece on Marunouchi, but yeah, sounds rather dated: the Shin-Maru Biru is at least a year old, and the even that GranTokyo building has been open for a few months now.
I assumed that the NYT would have writers based in Tokyo for these kind of pieces, but it would seem not.
Yeah, I saw the article on Marunouchi and thought it was a little dated too. Its here http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/travel/02dayout.html
I get the feeling they are generally just behind the curve when it comes to covering “trendy” stuff in big cities. I mean, of course most of the places they list in both the Nakame and Marunouchi piece aren’t anything new they are still kind of just trickling down to the mainstream. Which is what NYtimes audience is, and what they cover. I remember when they did that “hidden spots” in Tokyo and basically talked about a handful of places that everyone here already knew about. You just have to take the articles at face value I think.
I mean, its not like they are some underground or edgy publication. Its a media giant and the T Magazine is a part of it, just super design-ey and extra shiny.
ah it’s a good thing.
call me a selfish bastard, but i wouldn’t want hordes of ny times readers coming on the ‘trendy’ places i like.
someone should really let the ny times in on the tip that the saizeriya in atsugi is the place to be.
@ nobody: Bullshit. There are plenty of little nomiya, yakitoriya and so forth along the tracks. And the leafy area around the river makes up a large part of the Naka-meguro proper (i.e., the area that has Naka-meguro in the address), so it sounds like a reasonably justified description to me. Even if you include Higashiyama and Aobadai the back streets are fairly well served for parks and so forth. And whatever your reservations about the large station-front apartment block, it’ll be no worse than the hole in the ground that’s there at the moment.
I find the NYT’s choice of shops hopelessly irrelevant, but as an area that combines the quiet residential with a broad range of cafes and restaurants, I think Naka-meguro achieves a far better balance than most areas of Tokyo (note for example that it excels in making use of riverside locations, something at which Tokyo in general is terrible at). I agree with Marxy that *on the criteria we use to assess Ginza and elsewhere* — hip shops and so forth–it may not be the buzzing location it’s been feted to be, but I find the dismissal of the area in general terms as a bit snobbish.
Hmmm…has it changed a lot then since you did that video piece on it a little over a year ago?
Uh, aragato. . . I was talking about the bars and shops directly under the tracks across from the station. All of which are closed and currently being demolished. And the big hole in the ground wouldn’t be there if they didn’t tear down the buildings that used to be there, especially the one that used to house that organic cafe that gave me the runs once. Maybe if they put a Saizeriya under the tracks, Naka-meguro can regain its hip status. And maybe a Tully’s along the river. . .
In defense of the TOKYO EYE video, the idea there was to showcase shops that combine different ideas (bookstore/cafe, bakery/restaurant/cafe/zakkaya, hair salon/gallery).
so Nakameguro was the best place you could have chosen to showcase shops that combine different ideas? I remember thinking that Nakameguro was overrated by foreigners when I watched Jean’s Tokyo Eye piece.
I too agree that Nakameguro has been wishfully exaggerated by foreigners who are new, and then dissed by the same neophyte elitists when it gets “discovered” by others.
Ever notice its almost always hipster foreigners who
are first to eagerly call something unhip?
I still enjoy Nakameguro. I live in Koenji and love it here, but am looking forward to cherry blossom season in nakame.
But on second thought……
Maybe nakame is as passe as Jean’s Faux hawk, and Marx’s hipster beard/ skinny jean combo.
-B
Hahaha… If you think attacking my hair is going to score you any points, man… I am the most unfashionable person I know, and make no bones about it.
For TOKYO EYE, all research and writing of the script is done by them, and we as hosts are hired to on-air guides only.
Also, I think everyone is misinterpreting my feelings on Nakameguro. It’s still a part of town I really like, and I think it’s a great place to hang out, but you can’t continue saying that it’s the city’s center of hipness. It’s just that for what seems like forever, people kept referring to the area as an up-and-coming area, that would be the new Daikanyama, but I don’t think it ever really achieved that, not in terms of commercial success at least (as Marxy explained, in terms of shops opening, etc.)
some people are saying Sendagaya is the new Meijiro. Like, why ?!
Naka Meguro is so last April.
With Tokyo, there’s lots of room for personal choice. Some people like the Eastern part with its concrete, uniform design and bright lights. Others prefer the Northen area, with its concrete, uniform design and bright lights. Others prefer the southern part, replete with concrete everywhere and extra-pollution wafting over from Kawasaki. Nakameguro has a river !! Well, that’s one way of looking at it. I’ve always preferred to call a spade a spade.
Boonis - spot on.
some people are saying Sendagaya is the new Meijiro. Like, why ?!
Naka Meguro is so last April.
With Tokyo, there’s lots of room for personal choice. Some people like the Eastern part with its concrete, uniform design and bright lights. Others prefer the Northen area, with its concrete, uniform design and bright lights. Others prefer the southern part, replete with concrete everywhere and extra-pollution wafting over from Kawasaki. Nakameguro has a river !! Well, that’s one way of looking at it. I’ve always preferred to call a spade a spade.
Boomis - spot on.
Is this where the Jeans are?
Yes, I believe so.
I love Nakameguro. It’s a nice chill-out area and the walk along the river is just great in this concrete jungle. It’s also so easy to combo with Daikanyama (stopping a bit on the way at the park with the pond at bottom and for the nice view on top). It’s also full of cool-kids, nice restaurant and trendy shops. It’s easy a Hip part of Tokyo in my heart.
Sephil, I agree. I also agree with Jean that his feelings have been misinterpreted… and yes… the NY Times article may be a bit tardy (John hit the nail on the head). They probably just picked up the Spring 2005 back issue of Kateigaho at the new Kinokuniya in NYC.
Love this discussion. Everyone has their own Tokyo and take on trendy… cool… tasty… etc. and where it exists at the moment. I don’t know… does “hip” mean “most likely to change”? No Tully’s along the river please.
That’s a good way of putting it: what defines hip? I think it would something that people are talking about lots, that gets coverage, that people want to experience, that’s new, etc. So Nakameguro is still something that people want/like to experience, but here at least, it doesn’t get coverage anymore, doesn’t attract attention anymore, and is not new anymore.
Boomis wrote:
>Maybe nakame is as passe as Jean’s Faux hawk, and Marx’s hipster beard/ skinny jean combo.
wtf? LOL. Boomis, do you like your men clean shaven with a buzz cut and baggy pants?
We can’t argue with you anymore man. Your ad hominem jedi tricks are too powerful for us. Congratulation! YOU WIN! Damn! Why didn’t I think of attacking the way people look and dress first! Anyone have a picture of Boomis so I can prepare for the next debate?
Nakamegu & Jean’s hair still sure still raise passion around here. :)
Nice debate mate!
Hip means following the latest fashions.
It was funny to hear Jean proclaim Nakameguro as not as hip as it used to be while sporting such an “unhip” hair style.
If you are going to ” live and breathe design and pop culture in Tokyo” I would expect this to reflect in keeping up with the fashions.
And yes, if you look hard there are pics of me in the background of Jean’s Celine party pics.
:)
also:
I actually do not dislike Jean. I like his site. Just thought the negativity evoked marxy a bit.
-B
Don’t complain if NYT says a neighborhood is not hip. That means we can avoid our nice bars and restaurants being spoiled by a bunch of loud, rude New Yorkers. Yes, its a horrible place. I recommend you all stay away and go somewhere lovely like Marunouchi or Ginza or Omotesando.
Its like the complaints about the Michelin Tokyo Guide. I think its great. Send everyone to these awful, overpriced French restaurants where style and cloying service mean more than good food and a good vibe.
Keep the good places good by keeping quiet about them.