Azabudai Hills opened its first phase in November 2023 and has quickly become one of the most photographed new corners of Tokyo — a cluster of glass towers, sloping lawns, and high-end shops built on a genuinely hilly site in Minato Ward. If you’re trying to figure out whether it’s worth the detour from Shibuya or Asakusa, whether you need to book anything in advance, and what it actually costs to spend a few hours there, here’s what to know before you go.
What Azabudai Hills Actually Is
Developed by Mori Building — the same company behind Roppongi Hills and Toranomon Hills — Azabudai Hills is a mixed-use “vertical garden city” sitting between Roppongi, Toranomon, and Azabu-juban. The complex is made up of three towers: Mori JP Tower (offices, a hotel, and residences), and two residential towers known as Residence A and Residence B, plus a series of low-rise “Garden Plaza” buildings that hold most of the shops, restaurants, and a relocated campus of the British School in Tokyo. The whole site is built on a slope, so you’ll be walking up and down ramps, staircases, and terraced gardens rather than across flat plazas — wear shoes you can actually walk in.
The centerpiece for most visitors isn’t a building at all: it’s the Central Green, a large sloped lawn in the middle of the complex with unobstructed views up at Mori JP Tower on one side and across to Tokyo Tower on the other. It’s free to walk through, there’s no gate or ticket, and it’s genuinely one of the better free photo spots to open in Tokyo in years.
Mori JP Tower: Japan’s Tallest Building
Mori JP Tower rises roughly 330 meters over 64 floors, which made it Japan’s tallest building when it opened, overtaking Osaka’s Abeno Harukas (300 meters). One thing that trips up visitors: unlike Shibuya Sky or Roppongi Hills’ Mori Tower, there is no public observation deck here. The tower is almost entirely office space, residences, and the Janu Tokyo hotel, so you can’t buy a ticket to ride to the top for a view. If a rooftop view is the main reason you’re coming to this part of Tokyo, Tokyo Tower is a 10–15 minute walk away and remains your best bet in the immediate area.
Janu Tokyo, Aman’s newer and slightly more relaxed sister brand, occupies several floors of the tower and opened in March 2024. It’s a legitimate splurge option if you want to stay inside the development itself, with rates that run well into six figures of yen per night — but you don’t need to be a guest to window-shop the lobby level or eat at one of its restaurants, which are open to walk-ins subject to availability.
teamLab Borderless: Book This Before You Arrive
The single biggest draw at Azabudai Hills for most foreign visitors is teamLab Borderless, which relocated here from Odaiba and reopened in February 2024. This is the immersive digital-art museum with the mirrored infinity rooms and projection-mapped flower fields that regularly sells out its timed entry slots, especially on weekends and during school holidays. Adult tickets run around ¥3,800–4,000 depending on the day, with discounts for students and young children, and entry is strictly timed — you book a specific slot through the official teamLab website, not at the door. Plan on 1.5–2.5 hours inside, wear flat shoes (some rooms require bare feet or provided socks), and avoid loose skirts or anything you don’t want reflected back at you a hundred times in the mirror rooms.
Don’t assume you can walk up and buy a ticket same-day, particularly if you’re visiting on a Saturday or during Golden Week or New Year — slots for popular time windows disappear days or even weeks ahead. Check the official site for the current closure schedule before building your day around it, since teamLab occasionally closes for maintenance on weekdays.
Shopping and Dining Across the Garden Plaza
The Garden Plaza buildings (A, B, and C) house around 150 shops and restaurants, skewed toward international luxury and lifestyle brands rather than specifically Japanese labels — think flagship boutiques and imported design goods more than streetwear or craft shops. If you’re hoping for cult Japanese fashion instead, it’s worth detouring to a dedicated destination like the one covered in Visvim’s flagship, since Azabudai Hills’ retail mix doesn’t really cover that niche.
For food, there’s a market-style food hall on the lower level of Garden Plaza with casual options from roughly ¥1,000–2,500 a meal, alongside sit-down restaurants in the ¥3,000–8,000 range for dinner, and a handful of higher-end spots inside the towers for special-occasion meals. It’s a reasonable spot to grab lunch between sightseeing stops, though it’s not a destination for food in its own right the way, say, a dedicated food district would be — don’t plan your whole Tokyo food itinerary around it.
Getting There and Best Time to Visit
The most convenient station is Kamiyacho on the Hibiya Line, which connects directly underground into the complex. Roppongi-itchome Station (Namboku Line) and Azabu-juban Station (Namboku and Toei Oedo Lines) are both about a 5–10 minute walk away, and Toranomon Station on the Ginza Line is a bit farther on foot. From Haneda Airport, figure roughly 30–40 minutes by monorail and subway, or a direct taxi for convenience; from Narita, you’re looking at closer to 90 minutes via the Skyliner or Narita Express plus a transfer.
Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons to linger on the Central Green lawn, since it has very little shade and summer midday heat makes it unpleasant to sit on for long. Weekday mornings are noticeably quieter than weekend afternoons, and the towers are lit for evening photography after dark, so a late-afternoon-into-evening visit tends to give you both comfortable temperatures and good light.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Expecting a tourist observation deck. Mori JP Tower doesn’t have one — go to Tokyo Tower nearby if that’s what you want.
- Showing up without a teamLab ticket. Book online in advance, especially for weekends.
- Confusing it with Roppongi Hills or Toranomon Hills. All three are Mori Building projects within a short walk of each other, and taxi drivers occasionally need the specific address, Azabudai Hills, 1-chome, Minato Ward, to avoid confusion.
- Wearing the wrong shoes. The site is built on a real slope with stairs and ramps throughout — not a flat mall floor.
Budget, Mid-Range, and Splurge
On a tight budget, you can spend a few free hours walking the Central Green, browsing Garden Plaza storefronts, and grabbing a food-hall snack for under ¥1,500 total. Mid-range visitors should budget around ¥4,000–5,000 per person for a teamLab Borderless ticket plus a casual lunch. For a splurge, pair dinner at one of the tower restaurants with a drink at Janu Tokyo’s lobby bar, or extend the day with a nearby stop — if you’re already building out a longer Tokyo itinerary with offbeat day trips, Sarushima’s uninhabited island is a very different, low-key contrast to spend a second day on.
Azabudai Hills is still settling in as a neighborhood — some shops and restaurants are still opening their doors well over a year after launch — but between the Central Green views, teamLab Borderless, and the sheer novelty of standing at the base of Japan’s tallest building, it earns a half-day on a Tokyo itinerary, particularly if you can pair it with a walk to Tokyo Tower or Roppongi afterward.