Daikanyama T-Site is a bookshop built in 2011 as three white pavilions wrapped in a lattice of interlocking T shapes, designed by Klein Dytham and set among trees on the old Daikanyama hill. Inside, Tsutaya organizes books by passion rather than by format: travel, food, design, cars, each section with its own concierge, a wall of international magazines and, upstairs, the Anjin lounge, a bar and library of vintage magazines where you can read a 1970s Vogue over a glass of wine.
Come in the morning when the light is low through the lattice, pick up a coffee from the Starbucks inside and read in the garden. It is the model for every “lifestyle bookshop” built since, and still the best of them.
Tips
- The magazine archive on the second floor of the middle pavilion holds back issues going decades deep; you can read them at the Anjin lounge with a drink
- Weekend mornings bring a vintage car meet or a farmers' market to the forecourt
- Combine with Hillside Terrace across the street and Log Road, a converted railway strip of shops, five minutes away