Shopping in Japan: what, where and at what price

🛍️ Shopping · 136 destinations · 349 activities

Shopping in Japan is district-specific: one street for knives, another for instruments, another for secondhand clothing in remarkable condition. One dated warning: the tax free system changes on 1 November 2026 to a refund-on-departure model at the airport, so if you travel after that keep your receipts and leave purchases unopened.

The destinations, by real weight

What to do exactly

Tokyo — 36 activities

• Akihabara: Anime, Manga, and Electronics 3 h must-see

  A neighbourhood devoted to otaku culture, with shops selling figures, manga and electronics. Practical warning: Tokyo police have raided illegal maid cafés in the area, and there is a documented pattern of touts on the street whose venues then add hidden charges, a table fee and a compulsory photo. If you go into one, make it a specific venue with published prices, and never one reached by following someone who approaches you in the street.

• Ameya-Yokocho, the market under the Ueno tracks 1.5 h must-see

  Around four hundred stalls crammed under and beside the Yamanote viaduct between Ueno and Okachimachi, descended from the postwar black market that sold sugar and American army surplus (hence 'Ame'). Today it mixes fishmongers shouting prices, mountains of spices, trainers, a whole basement of Asian groceries in the Ameyoko Center Building, and izakayas that open at lunchtime. Most shops run 10am-8pm and many close on selected Wednesdays; the week before New Year is the loudest moment of the year.

• Harajuku: Takeshita-dori, Cat Street and Ura-Harajuku 3 h must-see

  Takeshita-dori has been the teenage fashion street since the 1980s: 350 metres of cheap clothes, second-hand shops, crepes and candy floss where weekends mean shuffling one way in a crowd. Two blocks away the register changes entirely: Cat Street and the Ura-Harajuku alleys are independent Japanese labels, sneakers and single-floor shops. The only way to see it without the crush is a weekday morning, bearing in mind almost nothing opens before 11am.

• Isetan Shinjuku food hall 1.5 h

  Japan's most ambitious department-store food basement: French patisserie, wagashi from century-old houses, haute-cuisine bento and pickle counters across two underground floors. The cheap way to taste produce that would cost ten times as much in a restaurant.

• Nakano Broadway and its Mandarake shops 3 h

  A labyrinthine 1960s mall with around twenty Mandarake stores selling second-hand manga, figures and toys. It is Akihabara for the veteran collector: cheaper and far less touristy.

• Boro-ichi in Setagaya 3 h only 15-16 December and 15-16 January

  A market licensed since 1578 and an Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Tokyo, set up on only four days a year: 15 and 16 December and 15 and 16 January, from nine to eight. 700 stalls of cloth, plants and tools, and freshly pounded daikan mochi.

Osaka — 14 activities

• Denden Town: Electronics and Otaku Culture 2 h

  Osaka's answer to Akihabara: shops selling figures, manga, retro video games, and electronics in the Nipponbashi district.

• Nakazaki-cho: row houses turned into cafés 2.5 h

  One subway stop north of Umeda, a handful of streets of wooden row houses (nagaya) that escaped the 1945 firebombing and are now cafés, secondhand clothing shops and studios. It is still a lived-in neighbourhood: many doors are private homes, the lanes are narrow, and several shops close on weekdays without notice.

• Doguyasuji, the kitchenware street 1 h

  About 150 metres of covered arcade in Sennichimae where the city's restaurants buy their gear: cast-iron takoyaki plates, knives, noren curtains, single pieces of tableware and the plastic food replicas you see in shop windows. Most shops open 10:00-18:00 and a fair few close one Wednesday a month.

• Grand Green Osaka, Umeda's new park 2 h

  Built over the old rail yards north of Osaka Station, an urban park of some 4.5 hectares ringed by towers, with lawn, a water sheet and a timber pavilion by Tadao Ando. The first phase opened in 2024 and the complex is still being completed in stages, so expect hoardings and cranes in places.

• Ikuno Koreatown (Miyukimori) 2 h

  Fifteen minutes' walk south of Tsuruhashi, Miyukimori street is the heart of Ikuno's Korean quarter, settled from the 1920s by workers who came from Jeju to dig the Hirano canal. The ward describes it as half a kilometre of street with around 140 Korean grocers, restaurants and traditional clothing shops between Tsuruhashi and Momotani stations, and calls it the area with the greatest concentration of Koreans in Japan, though it publishes no figure. Tteokbokki and hotteok stalls and K-pop shops; at weekends it is full of Japanese teenagers. And there is something you would walk straight past: the neighbourhood set up an NGO that receives school groups on their year-end trips with kimchi-making workshops, Hangul classes and guided walks of the street.

• Karahori: shopping arcade and old row houses 2 h

  On the Uemachi ridge south of the castle, the Karahori arcade still has neighbourhood greengrocers and fishmongers, and the side streets hold restored nagaya complexes full of craft shops and cafés. Take the subway to Matsuyamachi; it combines well with a wander through Tanimachi and its antique dealers.

Fukuoka — 13 activities

• Buying mentaiko where it was invented 0.75 h

  Karashi mentaiko was invented in 1949 in a shop in Nakasu: Kawahara Toshio adapted the spicy roe he had eaten in Busan and chose not to patent it, explaining the recipe to anyone who asked, which is why there are now dozens of local brands. The original house is still open on the same street and sells boxes from about 1,500 yen; raw mentaiko must be kept cold and lasts only days, so for taking home go for the vacuum-packed version or a jar of the paste.

• Daimyo and the school turned into a square 2 h

  Ten minutes' walk from Tenjin, this is the district of small shops: second-hand clothes, trainers, local designers and cafes in low houses. In 2023 Daimyo Garden City opened on the site of the old primary school, closed in 2014, keeping the school building's facade and leaving the square and yard open to the neighbourhood. It is the best place in the city to buy something that is not a chain, and most of it opens from eleven.

• Kawabata Shotengai 1 h

  The oldest shopping arcade in Hakata, 400 metres and about 130 businesses, connected to Canal City. A Yamakasa float is displayed here all year round and this is where you eat Kawabata zenzai.

• Koishiwara pottery in the valley of kilns 5 h

  More than forty kilns scattered through a mountain village that has made everyday stoneware since 1682, recognisable by tobikanna, the fan of chattered marks left by a springing blade on the turning wheel. It was the first pottery designated a traditional craft of Japan and the one the mingei movement fell for. The potters' fair is held twice a year, in May and October (the 10th to the 12th in 2026), with workshop prices. An hour and twenty by car from Fukuoka; by public transport it is a bad idea.

• Nintendo FUKUOKA 1 h

  Opened in November 2025 in Amu Plaza Hakata, it is Nintendo's fourth official store in Japan and the first in Kyushu, with exclusive merchandise. At weekends entry may be capped and ticketed.

• Pokémon Center Fukuoka 0.75 h

  Reopened and enlarged in June 2025 in Hakata Marui, with three times the floor space. It is the only Pokémon Center in Kyushu and stocks regional items and holds card tournaments.

Kawagoe — 8 activities

• Daruma market on 3 January at Kita-in 2 h only 3 Jan

  The Hatsu-Daishi on 3 January fills the Kita-in grounds with daruma stalls and with people coming to return last year's and buy a bigger one. Kawagoe draws more people that day than on 1 January.

• Pedestrianised Ichibangai 2 h only 3-5 May and 1-3 November

  From 3 to 5 May and from 1 to 3 November, 11am to 5pm, Kawagoe closes 400 metres of Ichibangai to traffic. The rest of the year it is a street with bus routes that 85 percent of residents consider dangerous to walk along. On those days the buses are rerouted and bicycles must be walked.

• Sake tasting from 32 breweries at Koedo Kurari 1.5 h

  The 120-year-old former Kagamiyama distillery, converted into an industrial tourism centre, whose Showa warehouse offers tastings of sake from 32 Saitama breweries, plus miso and soy sauce. Open 11am to 7pm.

• Coedo, the craft beer born from sweet potato 1.5 h

  Coedo started out using rejected Kawagoe sweet potato and today is one of the most internationally awarded Japanese craft breweries. It is served in several places in the historic centre.

• Naritasan Kawagoe Betsuin and its market on the 28th 1.5 h

  A Fudo Myoo temple next door to Kita-in that holds an antiques and flea market on the 28th of every month. This is where locals shop, not tourists.

• Tea houses and galleries of the Taisho alley 1.5 h

  The side streets running off Taisho Roman are packed with pottery studios, washi paper shops and small galleries, without the flood of people on the main street. This is where people who come back to Kawagoe a second time do their shopping.

Kurashiki — 7 activities

• Annual tour of the mt washi tape factory 2 h booking lottery

  Kamoi Kakoshi, the Kurashiki company that invented decorative washi tape, opens its factory just once a year, for two weeks in March or April, turned into an art installation. Advance registration and a lottery.

• Kurashiki Hampu cotton canvas 0.75 h

  Bags and backpacks in canvas woven on old shuttle looms, a fabric that began as material for sails and tents. The Bikan shop will stamp the strap by hand.

• Make or customise your own jeans in Kojima 2 h booking

  In the birthplace of Japanese denim several workshops let you sew, rivet or distress your own garment on the original machines. There are options suitable for children. It is in Kojima, half an hour by train from the Bikan.

• Betty Smith denim museum and school uniform museum 1.5 h

  Japan's first denim museum, opened in 2003, with sewing machines from the 1960s; next door you can try on the school and sailor uniforms the city manufactures. Both are in Kojima.

• Kojima Jeans Street 2 h

  A street in the Kojima district, the birthplace of Japanese denim, lined with shops and artisan jeans workshops. It is in Kojima, about twenty-five to thirty minutes by train from Kurashiki station, not in the Bikan quarter. The shops are genuine local factories, and buying here sustains a textile sector in decline.

• Kurashiki Denim Street 0.75 h

  An alley in the Bikan devoted entirely to Okayama denim, with the famous indigo-blue ice cream and the dyed buns. Not to be confused with Kojima's Jeans Street, half an hour away by train.

Matsue-Izumo — 7 activities

• Day trip to Sakaiminato's Mizuki Shigeru Road 5 h

  A street almost a kilometre long with more than 100 bronze yokai sculptures in the home town of Mizuki Shigeru, creator of Gegege no Kitaro, with the museum refurbished in April 2024. It is in Tottori, not Shimane: count on the trip to Yonago and the transfer, a little over an hour each way.

• Matsue wagashi route with matcha 1.5 h

  Matsue ranks among the three great cities of Japanese sweets thanks to Lord Matsudaira Fumai, a tea master. Historic houses such as Saiundo and Furyudo still make the emblematic sweets, among them wakakusa and yamakawa.

• Shussai-gama, the mingei kiln of Izumo 1.5 h

  A pottery founded in 1947 and blessed by Yanagi Soetsu, Kawai Kanjiro and Bernard Leach, famous for its Shussai blue. You can see the workshop, buy in the Mujishokan room, and there is a bakery and cafe on the same site.

• Magatama workshop at Izumo Magatama no Sato 1.5 h booking

  Tamatsukuri has carved magatama from blue agate since antiquity, and here you polish your own by hand. There is an open artisans' workshop and an exhibition room.

• Karakoro Kobo and Matsue's craft workshops 1.5 h

  The former Matsue branch of the Bank of Japan, now a Registered Cultural Property, converted into workshops for yakumo-nuri lacquer, glass and sweets. It stands beside the moat, between the castle and the centre.

• Shimane Winery in Izumo 1.5 h

  A winery with self-guided visit, free tasting of several wines from local Delaware grapes and juice for drivers and children, plus a Shimane beef grill. It sits between Izumo Taisha and the city.

Karuizawa — 5 activities

• Harunire Terrace and the Hoshino area 2 h

  Nine wooden buildings linked by walkways through an elm forest, with design shops and restaurants; entry is free and it is the modern heart of the town.

• Kyu-Karuizawa Ginza street 1.5 h

  The town's original shopping street, with century-old shops selling pickles, bread, and crafts that have survived since Karuizawa was a retreat for missionaries and diplomats.

• Karuizawa jams, bread and cured meats 1.5 h

  Japanese jam was born here with the Western missionaries; several historic jam houses remain, along with a bakery from 1933 and a tradition of smoked hams and sausages.

• Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza 2 h

  One of Japan's largest open-air outlet malls, right next to the station, with Japanese and international brands.

• The summer residents' supermarket 1 h

  It sounds odd as a sight, but it is a local ritual: the gourmet supermarket where villa-owning families do their shopping, with own-brand products sold nowhere else.

Nagoya — 8 activities

• Osu Kannon antiques market 2 h

  On the 18th and 28th of every month the courtyard of Osu Kannon temple fills with antique dealers from six in the morning until four in the afternoon: used kimono, mismatched ceramics, tin toys, costume jewellery and Asian bric-a-brac. It is free and goes ahead whatever the weather. The 18th coincides with the temple fair, so there are more people and amazake is handed out; if you want peace and quiet for haggling, go on the 28th and go early.

• Seto, the town that gave crockery its name 4 h

  In Japanese, tableware is called setomono, things from Seto, and this is the town: a thousand years of pottery half an hour from Nagoya on the Meitetsu Seto line. You can walk the Kamagaki no Komichi, an alley whose walls are built from used kiln moulds, the Setogura museum housed in the old station, and the Maneki-neko Museum, the largest devoted to the lucky cat, open 10:00 to 17:00 for around 300 yen, closed Tuesdays and with a workshop where you can paint your own.

• Setomono Matsuri, the crockery fair 5 h only the second weekend of September

  On the second weekend of September, some two hundred potters' stalls line the Seto river selling both first-quality and seconds at factory prices: Japan's great ceramics market since 1932. On the Saturday night around a thousand fireworks are packed into twenty minutes, between 18:25 and 18:45. Entry is free with no paid seating; take the Meitetsu Seto line to Owari-Seto.

• The 21st-of-the-month fair at Kakuozan 2 h

  On the 21st of every month, the anniversary of Kobo Daishi's death, the slope up to Nittaiji temple fills with stalls: vegetables, pickles, plants, second-hand clothes, kushikatsu, shaved ice in summer and the odd stand selling parts from scrapped trains. This is the neighbourhood fair Nagoya still has, not a market laid on for visitors, and it runs from morning to mid-afternoon, rain or shine. Metro Higashiyama line, Kakuozan station.

• The geek and vintage side of Osu 2 h

  Beyond its shopping role, Osu concentrates second-hand manga and figure shops, old electronics and vintage clothing at prices well below Tokyo.

• Tokoname pottery walk 3 h

  One of Japan's six ancient kiln towns, half an hour from Nagoya on the way to Centrair airport. The signposted route climbs through lanes whose walls are built from reused drainage pipes and shochu bottles, passes the chimney of the 1887 Noborigama kiln and comes down the street of lucky cats, presided over by a cat's head almost four metres tall. Walking it is free, the red-teapot shops close around 17:00 and several also close on Wednesdays.

What only happens on specific dates

• Boro-ichi in Setagaya Tokyo 15-16 December and 15-16 January
• Daruma market on 3 January at Kita-in Kawagoe 3 Jan
• White Illumination and the Munich market Sapporo 20 Nov - 14 Mar
• Tatehana quay morning market, Sundays at dawn Hachinohe Sundays from mid-March to December
• Arita Ceramic Fair Imari-Arita 29 Apr - 5 May
• Pedestrianised Ichibangai Kawagoe 3-5 May and 1-3 November
• Kimono Festival Tokamachi (Echigo-Tsumari) 3 May
• Toukasan, the yukata festival Hiroshima early June
• Hozuki-ichi and the day of 46,000 Tokyo 9-10 Jul
• Gojozaka pottery fair Kyoto 7-10 Aug
• Setomono Matsuri, the crockery fair Nagoya the second weekend of September
• Onta pottery fair Hita the second Saturday and Sunday of October
• Tori-no-ichi: the fair of lucky rakes Tokyo the Rooster days of November
• Tokyo Christmas Market Tokyo from late November to 25 December
• Umeda and Tennoji Christmas markets Osaka from mid-November to 25 December
• Hakata Station Christmas Market Fukuoka from early November to 25 December
• The Tenjin Christmas market walk Fukuoka from mid-November to 26 December
• Arita Autumn Pottery Festival Imari-Arita late November
• Christmas Market at the Red Brick Warehouses Yokohama late November to 25 December
• Hagoita-ichi, the fair of decorated paddles Tokyo 17-19 Dec

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