Perhaps most startling, take the Hibiya subway line to Roppongi Hills, the fancy new shopping and dining complex (Claudio Sadler has his restaurant there) and enter the obligatory, fabulous Estnation. It's usually called the Barneys of Japan, but Estnation is quite intentionally Japan-oriented (est means ''east'' in French), which is why, if you can afford it, Estnation is so much fun; you find exclusively Japanese superluxury brands like the weirdly named Via'Picky-Am and the astonishing Japanese company Antianti.

Makoto Miyazaki -- 6 feet 1 inch, big, barrel-chested and friendly -- runs Antianti from his perfume factory in the depths of Toyama Prefecture, where his Elite of Parfum collection is made by hand. He showed me his bottles like tiny jewels -- at 32,000 yen, or $302, for 18 milliliters, on average, they are three times as expensive as Chanel No. 5 -- and named the countries he visits year after year (India, Bulgaria and Turkey), obsessively tracking down the highest-quality ingredients. The results are scents unlike any others. Extremely earthy, if earth were clean, not on the same planet as the Calvin Kleins and Ralph Laurens, they could be described as French, but in a distant dream; their Japaneseness is obvious in that they don't read ''perfume.'' Elite of Lotus has a slight unwashed richness; it has the quality of making you lean forward to inhale it in spite of yourself. (Makoto's Rose Shampoo is equally startling, a dark rose saturated in a half-smoked cigar.) Elite of Narcissus is Papeete -- in an instant, Tahiti's humidity, light mold, dirt, flowers, lush vegetation. Elite of Plumeria is Hanoi plus white flowers; Elite of Lily is a soft, hip Christina Aguilera enveloped in a cloud; and in Elite of Gardenia, the musk leads and the gardenia's mint angles have been strangled. Very strong, very clean animal. Then the mint comes back. Weighty, opinionated, full of character. And utterly Japanese.

Chandler Burr is the author of ''The Emperor of Scent'' and writes frequently about fragrance.