The best restaurants, cafes and shops in Sendagaya

The curiously named #FFFFFFT (it’s pronounced shiro-tii, meaning ‘white tee’) says it’s the world’s first store dedicated to the classic white T-shirt. The shop gets its name from the hexadecimal colour code for – you guessed it – white, and offers a curated selection of white T-shirts from different brands around the globe.

Just some of the labels you'll find here include Fruit of the Loom, J Crew, Splendid, Gildan, Secondskin, American Apparel, Shichi-Sun and more. The shop’s official Instagram highlights individual T-shirts with details on fabric, fit and a little background information on each brand. 

This Sendagaya shop is only open on Saturdays and Sundays, so if you really want to get a feel for the shirts, you’ll want to stop by over the weekend. If white is not your colour, #FFFFFFT also has a sister shop known as #000T, which specialises in black T-shirts.

This lifestyle shop-meets-café in Sendagaya seeks to 'straddle the boundary between work and life'. We hope that means a better work-life balance, but you can never be sure in this city; it might just mean 'turning your office into your apartment'. Indeed, they focus on items that are supposed to be useful for both your working and private life, such as beautifully designed stationery, furniture and decor items. The café is on the ground floor, where you'll find coffee made with Obscura beans, as well as sandwiches with freshly fried croquettes. Maybe work and life can get along after all.

This must-see store playfully brings a touch of ‘Black Mirror’ to the experience of shopping for jewellery and accessories. Jam Home Made, a hip brand popular with younger women and men, here gives physical form to the notion of online shopping, thus blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual. Outside, starkly unbranded white vending machines, recessed into the shop’s equally spartan walls, dispense the brand’s bestsellers (including rings) 24 hours a day: potential here for spontaneous proposals, we feel!

Inside is where the online/offline distinction is riffed upon with great imagination: onto the walls are projected moving avatars that visitors to Jam Home Made’s homepage have uploaded. The concept is to make it possible to ‘visit’ the brand’s flagship store regardless of your physical location, but of course there’s no substitute for experiencing this innovative space IRL.

Jam Home Made has been kitting out fashion-forward Japanese designs since the late 1990s, along the way collaborating with the likes of Converse, Stussy and BAPE. Alongside Rolex-inspired watches (around ¥30,000) and leather wallets (from around ¥11,000), the current lineup includes jewellery adorned with household fixtures: a silver necklace featuring a sink plug (!) will set you back ¥37,800.

If there is one gure, and one company, behind the emergence of Sendagaya as a hip destination to rival larger neighbour Harajuku, it is Shin Nakahara and his Landscape Products interior design firm. As well as designing popular venues across Tokyo, Landscape Products conceived hip Sendagaya eateries Pho 321 Noodle Bar and Tas Yard. Thanks to this Landscape Products-run furniture and interiors store, you can now bring a touch of Nakahara’s contemporary yet natural world-informed aesthetic to your own home.

Playmountain was originally opened to showcase the work of Japanese artisans, and has since grown to also offer its own collection which ranges from ceramic jam pots to leather sofas, and includes lighting, tableware and home office items. Recommended are the elegantly simple ceramic bowls, as used over at the Pho 321 noodle bar.

Cult label Loopwheeler is single-mindedly focused on perfecting a deceptively simple garment: the humble sweatshirt. Disappointed with the quality of modern mass production, founder Satoshi Suzuki tracked down an original, decades-old Tsuriami loopwheel knitting machine. The result is a supremely soft and comfortable garment that has garnered a cult following. Moreover, Loopwheeler is a longstanding favourite of fashion industry insiders, regularly collaborating with brands such as Supreme, Nike and Margaret Howell.

Interior design fans too will want to check out this compact flagship store, tucked away on a side street off Meiji-dori: it’s one of the lesser-known projects by design maestro Masamichi Katayama and his Wonderwall agency. Grey tones dominate the cleanly minimal basement space, in homage to the heather grey colour associated with the classic retro sweatshirt. One of those vintage knitting machines meanwhile, from which the label gets its name, slowly turns inside a museum-like display case. Loopwheeler’s unisex sweats and hoodies are not cheap (a basic crew-neck sweatshirt costs around ¥16,500), but they’re proven to last and age beautifully.

Cycling wear doesn’t get any hipper than that from Japanese label Narifuri. More than the skin-tight lycra that might come to mind, the focus here is on super-stylish men’s clothing that functions superbly for those who like to get around the city by bike. Several different collections will kit you out for everything from office commutes through to chilled-out, freewheeling weekends, and there’s also the Narifuri Active line for those serious about cycling as a sport.

This flagship store is styled as a series of zones, variously resembling a cyclist’s dream city bachelor/bachelorette pad; the office of a hip creative start-up; and of course a fashion boutique. Our picks here include an insulated men’s check shirt with the usual button-front replaced by a zip to keep out the wind (¥29,700), and a bike-friendly polo shirt (from ¥15,400) made in collaboration with iconic British brand Fred Perry. The first floor of the building is home to sister shop Charifuri, dedicated to selling and maintaining high-quality cycles; along with Easy Ride Tokyo, a bike rental service offering rides for ¥1,500 per four hours, or ¥2,500 for the day.