Day 5 – Omote Sando Street
“Omotesandō (表参道?) is an avenue, subway station and neighborhood in the Minato and Shibuya wards in Tokyo stretching from Harajuku station, the foot of the famous Takeshita Street, to Aoyama-dori where Omotesandō station can be found. Zelkova trees line both sides of the avenue. Around 100,000 cars drive down the main street daily. It is known as an upscale shopping area featuring several international brand outlets, ranging from Louis Vuitton and Gucci to the more affordable Gap, The Body Shop, Zara, and others…It is sometimes referred to as “Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées”.”1
This is one of the beautiful areas of Tokyo, primarily because of the beautiful texture the towering trees afford. Against this, stores like Dior, Ralph Lauren, Prada and Gucci proliferate. Omote Sando Hills is a mixed-use development by Todao Ando which is monstly street side and indoor mall retail with a fair numberof residential units above. Other notable designer buildings on the street, the Christian Dior building by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (which is MAGNIFICENT at night), the Japanese Nursing association building by Kisho Kurokawa, and of course the Prada store by Herzog & de Meuron.
