Sfera Archive/Sfera Shop

The Sfera Building, designed by Swedish group Claesson Koivisto Rune in 2003, is an oasis of good taste on a street which is loaded with hostess clubs and borderline brothels. It’s cloaked in titanium, with holes punched out to depict cherry tree leaves. Inside, there’s a five-storey ‘culture centre’, incorporating a gallery, Japanese and Italian restaurants, and Sfera Bar Satonaka. Shoppers will find plenty to keep themselves amused, including the Archive, selling CDs and design books in English and Japanese, and the Shop, stocked with modern Japanese interior goods.