As an Italian living in Tokyo, my eyes always drop on everything written in the Italian language, and a few walks in Shirokane made me realize how Italian this area is.

Name

Shirokane is a central and rich district in Tokyo where it is easy to find Italian restaurants and shops. A thing that I find funny is that a popular name for ladies in Shirokane is “Shirokanese” , sounding like “Milanese”. And where the latter is the Italian word for the inhabitants of Milan, the first one becomes the Italian word for the inhabitants of Shirokane.

It first appeared in a magazine and now indicates wealthy businesswomen or housewives with conspicuous use of expensive Italian designer brands.

Restaurants

There is a really high number of Italian restaurants in Shirokane and I don’t think I will ever be able to try them all, but I can swear for breakfast in Drogheria Sancricca.

“Drogeria” is the ancient name for a shop and “Sancricca” is the Owner’s surname. Here you can have Italian coffee and sweets, but you can also eat lunch, have aperitivo, and buy some premium Italian ingredients.

We had lunch at Il Batticuore, the Italian chef was talented and friendly, like the rest of the staff.

Unfortunately the pizza shop “A rega’” is closed, I was so sad when I found out because it was truly authentic.

We crossed other Italian restaurants like “Trattoria dal Birbante” and “La Goccia Tokyo” which looked good as well.

Shops

There are two clothes shops that are part of the same group and they are named “MONO Ca’TALY” and “OSCALITO”. There you can find clothes but , especially in the bigger one, Mono Ca’taly, also accessories and home decor.

A mention goes to Erica, a Japanese chocolate shop with an Italian name and selling, in the second floor Italian present ideas. The name of the shop is “oggetti” which in Italian translates as “objects”.

Curiosity

The big street where nearly all the mentioned shops are situated is called Via Platino, which means Platinum (shirokane) street, or at least there is a plaque with this name, exactly how you can find in the Italian cities

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