Another thing to see in Tokyo! I gotta go back soon!
$330 Million Omotoesando Hills Finally Opens
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From the New York Times
February 15, 2006
Letter From Tokyo
Attention Avid Shoppers: A High-End Complex Opens Its Doors
By MATTHEW RUSLING
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It is 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 11, the much anticipated opening day of Omotesando Hills, a sprawling, upscale Tokyo shopping development spanning the Harajuku and Aoyama neighborhoods and running along the historic tree-lined Omotesando Avenue, the Japanese equivalent of the Champs-Élysées.
The event has drawn everyone from tourists to the fashion-obsessed, and on this crisp, sunny Saturday morning, the line outside stretches down the long block. Many shoppers have been here for three or more hours to get a look at the object of so much recent media attention.
"We saw this place on the news and are really looking forward to going in," says Nozomi Onodera, 20, in a long, fur-lined white coat with a Louis Vuitton bag at her side. Rikiya Tsukada, 20, adds, "We have been planning to come here for a week."
At 10:45 a.m. the doors open, and about 100 shoppers are let in. Directed by an event staff in hooded blue jackets shouting through red megaphones, the line starts moving, excitement building fast.
Soon the entrance is throbbing with visitors, their knee-length boots and high heels clacking on granite floors amid a chorus of excited voices. Young women in black blazers and skirts greet visitors at the door with "irashaimasei" ("welcome"). Immediately visible to the right is the French chocolatier shop Jean-Paul Hévin, to the left Dolce & Gabbana and straight ahead, Yves Saint Laurent. The place is teaming with visitors snapping photos with cellphones and digital cameras, and with shoppers flocking to the first few stores within reach.
Once the crowd flows out into the corridors, there is finally room to walk. The place is designed in an upward slope. The halls, if stretched out of their zigzag shape, are the same length as the avenue outside. New Age music and sounds of waterfalls and birds are piped in, and what seems to be the shadows of trees graze the walls. The complex has six floors above ground and six below, with the shops located from the third underground floor to the third floor above ground; there are 38 apartments spread out over five floors on the east and west wings, and the three lowest levels are for parking). A look down over the railing reveals a widening staircase that runs through the center of the sublevels.
Omotesando Hills is a world away from urban Japan's bargain-hunting culture, where hundred-yen stores (the Japanese equivalent of the dollar store) seem to occupy every corner of the world's most expensive city. Most of the 93 shops, cafes and restaurants here reflect Japan's re-emerging interest in the high end as it perhaps starts to pull out of a decade-long economic slump.
The construction of Omotesando Hills, designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando and built at a cost of $330 million, has been marked by controversy. It sits on the site of the former Dojunkai Apartments, which were built in 1927 as part of the city's reconstruction after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. They later became home to several small galleries and boutiques; the buildings' Bauhaus-influenced facades were a scarce constant in Tokyo's ever-changing landscape.
Some longtime residents have expressed disappointment with the imposing structure. But to an observer with no attachment to the neighborhood and unacquainted with the finer points of architecture that the facade is said to have transgressed, the interior is a welcome departure from the overt showiness of the shopping districts in Shibuya or Roppongi.
Thoughts of controversy quickly melt away as even this somewhat jaded patron gets caught up in a whirlwind of brand names. Shoppers can find everything from Jimmy Choo, based in London, to Lupo, from Barcelona. There is even a Mercedes showroom, as well as a wine-tasting restaurant.
At the Italian boutique Patrizia Pepe, saleswomen are wearing sandals and sporting the store's spring line. At Dan Genten, a Japanese leather goods store, a man's leather backpack goes for around $900.
Contrary to Western stereotypes of incessantly bowing, starch-shirted Japanese businessmen, most shoppers and store employees here are cool and chic, urbane and brand-savvy. Catering to women in their late 20's to early 30's range, the dimly lighted Self Frame feels like a trendy New York night club. "We are casual with a twist of attitude," says the store director, Yasuko Osyuya, herself in her early 30's with hair colored a light brown and dressed in one of the store's signature looks: jeans hanging from the hips and a sharp white jacket over a black tank top.
Today was also the first day for Beyes, a shop aimed at men in the 30 to 40 range, which started as a Web site. "Our target is fashionable men who like fashionable things," says the owner, Yoshihiro Hidaka, 31. Indeed, one can find everything from $100 neckties to the latest Sony laptops.
Imaii Colore is a spa that specializes in hair coloring, and offers everything from massages to facials. The store is owned by Hideo Imai, founder of the Japan Hair Color Association, who says he regularly sends his stylists to the United States and Europe to learn the latest in coloring technology.
For most here today, the reaction is positive. "This place is much better to walk around than Roppongi Hills," says Nami Saito, 28, with a cheerful smile, who adds that she would like to come again.
But some are less than enthralled by the new development. "My first impression was that it was just like Europe — meaning it has very few bathrooms," says Kayoko Sato, 60, with a laugh. "And there are a lot of expensive things that only hillzoku can afford," referring to people who live in Roppongi Hills, an apartment complex for the wealthy.
Still, most are welcoming Omotesando Hills as the newest addition to Tokyo's long list of hot spots. And while the main draw this opening day seems not so much the shopping as the overall spectacle, Omotesando Hills is certainly poised to top the list of Tokyo's most avid — and well-heeled — shoppers.
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