Cafés in Shinagawa & Gotanda

Shinagawa Station, which is not in Shinagawa

Shinagawa Station sits in the Takanawa and Kōnan districts of Minato ward, not in Shinagawa ward. It serves the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the Yamanote line and the Keikyū Main Line.¹

Inside the station, Caffe Lat 25 is at 2-1-78 Kōnan. On the east side, COFFEE STAND OTTEN is at 1-8-35 Kōnan, and Good Morning Cafe is in Shinagawa Season Terrace. CANAL GATE CAFE, at 4-20-3 Shibaura, has Wi-Fi and outdoor seats and opens at 10:00 from Tuesday to Sunday, closing at 22:00 from Tuesday to Friday. West of the tracks, Lounge KOMYO is on the first floor of the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa.

Kita-Shinagawa and the old Tōkaidō

Shinagawa-juku was the first post town out of Edo on the Tōkaidō, running from about today's Kita-Shinagawa Station to Aomono-yokochō on the Keikyū line. The Meguro River split it into northern and southern halves, and the main inn is thought to have stood on the site of Seiseki Park.²

KAIDO books & coffee, at 2-3-7 Kita-Shinagawa, took over a former hardware store on that road. It holds more than 10,000 books and magazines, many about travel, and pours specialty coffee from roasters around Japan; the second floor is laid out like a library.³ North Star Beans is at 1-3-18 Kita-Shinagawa, and SNOW BEANS COFFEE at 5-3-1.

Tennōzu: warehouses and canals

Redevelopment of Tennōzu took shape in 1985, when 22 landowners on 22 hectares formed a private council. In return for approval they had to build quake-resistant seawalls and a boardwalk. Canal rules limited the water to logistics until about 2005, after which a floating restaurant was built on a new barge.⁴

テラダ アート コンプレックス カフェ is at 1-32-8 Higashi-Shinagawa, 瀧爪 TAKIZME at 1-28-7, Muc Coffee Roasters One at 2-3-10, and WHAT CAFE at 2-1-11.

Gotanda and Ōsaki

ゲンロンカフェ (Genron Café), at 1-11-9 Nishi-Gotanda, is an event space run by the company Genron.⁵ For coffee as such, Specialty Coffee AMAMERIA has a Gotanda shop at 8-4-13 Nishi-Gotanda, SUNAO COFFEE is at 7-19-3 and Day Coffee at 4-4-23.

Around Ōsaki, Mahiro Coffee Roastery at 1-20-8 Ōsaki sells takeaway, and マザーリーフ at 2-1-1 has outdoor seats and outlets. ハマーカフェ stays open daily from 10:30 until midnight.

Togoshi Ginza, Musashi-Koyama and Nakanobu

Togoshi Ginza runs about 1.3 km and is made up of three merchants' associations. Musashi-Koyama's Palm arcade, about 800 m with some 250 shops, is billed as Tokyo's longest.⁶ Caffe La Costa is at 2-16-5 Hiratsuka, and the Togoshi Ginza branch of ペドラブランカ at 2-14-8.

Amameria Espresso, at 3-6-15 Koyama near Musashi-Koyama Station, opened in summer 2010. Toshiaki Ishii, a certified cupping judge, founded it. It pulls espresso on a Synesso machine and serves a Gibraltar, essentially a condensed latte, in a small glass.⁷

隣町珈琲 (Tonarimachi Coffee), in a basement at 3-8-7 Nakanobu, is hosted by the critic Hirakawa Katsumi and calls itself a "city university", with talks by cultural figures and a small bookshop.⁸ Cove Coffee Roasters is at 5-13-14 Nakanobu.