Quick answer
Roppongi is a Tokyo entertainment district where samurai families kept their horses during the Edo period, now famous for Mori Tower''s 53rd-floor art museum and Tokyo''s best city view. A free audio sample is available at the top of the page.
Full transcript
INTRO
Roppongi means "six trees" — but the name is a mystery. Nobody knows for certain which six trees, or whether they even existed. What we do know is what the neighborhood was before the nightclubs: during the Edo period, this was where samurai families kept their stables. Several daimyo residences stood here, and the area served as a kind of suburban estate district for the warrior class. The nightlife came centuries later.
SECTION: The art museum on the 53rd floor
Look up at the Mori Tower behind you — two hundred thirty-eight meters tall. On the 53rd floor sits the Mori Art Museum, and above that, the Tokyo City View observation deck. Here's the detail most visitors miss: Roppongi Hills was built by one man, Minoru Mori, who spent seventeen years buying up roughly four hundred separate land parcels from five hundred individual owners — some plots were barely larger than a parking space. When it opened in two thousand three, it wasn't just a building; it was an experiment in whether an entire city block could be privately planned. About twenty thousand people now live and work here every day.
CLOSE
The neighborhood has a split personality worth knowing about. By day, it's galleries, embassies, and offices — some of the best contemporary art in Asia shows at the Mori and at the nearby the Mori Art Museum, designed by Tadao Ando. After dark, the bars and clubs open and the character changes completely. If you're here for the view, go up around sunset — Tokyo City View faces west, which means you get Mount Fuji on clear winter evenings. When you're ready, the Hibiya Line takes you back toward Ginza in about ten minutes. Find your way.