Tokyu Plaza Shibuya is one of several developments in the Shibuya area that opened in late 2019. Designed around the concept of ‘fashion theme park for grown ups’, it aims to offer a more mature shopping experience in Shibuya, an area famous for its thriving youth-fashion culture. The ‘novelty’ aspects of the mall include a…
Category: Shopping
lammfromm
If you’re a fan of Japanese contemporary artists Yoshitomo Nara or Yayoi Kusama, head to the lammfromm store in Tokyu Plaza Ginza, which stocks an extensive collection of official merchandise from these artists. The range includes everything from homewares, stationary, key rings, soft toys and t-shirts to design objects and collectibles, all featuring the artists’…
Tokyo Midtown
Tokyo Midtown is a huge commercial and entertainment development in Roppongi that houses a large luxury shopping mall, office towers, hotels, museums and gardens. Opened in 2007, hot on the heels of Roppongi Hills, it helped clean up the Roppongi district’s reputation as a seedy nightlife district and reposition it as a high-end destination. The…
Shibuya Parco
Shibuya Parco is a mainstay of the Shibuya shopping scene that relaunched in 2019 after a 2 year renovation. While a large portion of the store is given over to luxury goods departments, it’s the other quirky aspects of the building that make it worthy of a browse. The basement level is a rabbit-warren of…
Shibuya Scramble Square
Shibuya Scramble Square, which opened in 2019, is a monolithic skyscraper adjoining Shibuya Station. It houses the Shibuya Sky observation deck on its rooftop, plus over 200 stores and restaurants across its lower 14 levels. The ground floor features a large ‘market style’ space offering a wide array of cakes, bakery goods and souvenirs to…
Shibuya Sky
As of 2019, Shibuya Sky was the newest of Tokyo’s sky-high observation decks. It sits atop the Shibuya Scramble Square building, 230 metres above ground and features a 360-degree rooftop observation deck plus a couple of internal floors featuring digital art displays and a café and bar. The rooftop features hammocks you can lie in…
Shibuya Hikarie
Shibuya Hikarie is a huge commercial and entertainment building directly connected to Shibuya Station. It was the first of several new developments in the Shibuya Station area to complete when it opened in 2012. Shibuya Hikarie is notable for its 200 stores which cater mainly to a female clientele, its basement food halls, 30 eateries…
UNIQLO Ginza
UNIQLO Ginza is the global flagship store for the Japanese fashion retailer that has become a worldwide phenomenon. It’s also its largest store on the planet. Across 12 floors and almost 5000 square metres, you can experience everything UNIQLO has to offer. This includes its extensive range of casual lifestyle fashion, which includes jeans, t-shirts,…
Flying Tiger Copenhagen Omotesando
The Flying Tiger Copenhagen store, nestled in behind Omotesando Hills, provides one of the most unique and fun shopping experiences in the area. Hailing from Copenhagen, the store is packed full of colourful and humorous takes on everyday items, most at reasonable prices. It’s a great place to grab a few fun things to take…
Tokyu Hands
Tokyu Hands is one of the must-see department stores in the Shinjuku area. It’s housed in the massive Takashimaya Times Square building that sits alongside the tracks on the south-eastern side of Shinjuku Station. Tokyu Hands is renowned for its high quality, functional lifestyle goods, including bags and travel accessories, stationary, kitchenware, toys and games,…
Ameyoko Market
Ameyoko Market in the Ueno district is a lively strip of shops and market stalls that runs alongside the JR Yamanote Line tracks between Ueno and Okachimachi Stations. With a long history, it was originally an area known for its cluster of candy stores. In the post-war era, it was the place to go to for…
Roppongi Hills
Roppongi Hills is a massive commercial and entertainment precinct in Roppongi that opened in 2003. Centred around the 54-story Mori Tower office building, it’s multiple levels of plazas and buildings house shops, bars, restaurants, cinemas and gardens. The Grand Hyatt Hotel is part of the complex and directly connects to the shopping and dining precincts….
MUJI GINZA
If you’re a fan of the simple and clean aesthetic of Japan’s world-famous ‘no brand’ retailer Muji, don’t miss visiting MUJI GINZA, which opened in 2019. It houses both the brand’s global flagship store and Japan’s first MUJI Hotel across it’s 11 floors. At street level there’s a working bakery churning out fresh bread and…
PePe Mall
PePe Mall, which sits atop the Seibu Shinjuku Station and adjacent to the Shinjuku Prince Hotel near the edge of Kabukicho, is one of the best kept secrets of the area. For a relatively small shopping mall, it punches way above its weight in terms of what it has to offer. The basement level houses…
Isetan
If you’re in the Shinjuku area, be sure to spend some time in the historic Isetan Department Store. You won’t miss the heritage façade of the building which stands grand on the corner of two the district’s busy streets. It dates back to the mid 1930’s, when a company that had its origins as a…
Meguro River
The Meguro River, particularly the stretches of it intersected by Nakameguro Station, is one of the most popular cherry blossom viewing areas in Tokyo each year. While the river itself isn’t particularly beautiful, with the water metres down in a concrete canal that resembles a stormwater drain, it’s the heavy plantings of cherry trees either…
Yebisu Garden Place
Yebisu Garden Place is an expansive raised commercial and entertainment precinct. It’s connected to Ebisu Station via a series of travelators that carry you across the streets below and into a large paved plaza featuring a number of notable attractions. Built on the former site of the Yebisu brewery, which was established in 1890, the…
Ron Herman Sendagaya
If you’re looking to while away some time browsing fashion and homewares or grabbing a bite to eat, visit the Ron Herman store in Sendagaya. This outpost of the Californian lifestyle brand, which has over 10 stores in Japan, is like a mini department store, complete with its own café. Featuring multiple ‘department’ zones, the store…
GU
If you’re a fan of Uniqlo, check out a GU store while you’re in Tokyo. It’s Uniqlo’s cheaper cousin, owned by the same retail company, selling a similar product range at lower prices (and to a degree quality). The brand gets its name from the Japanese word ‘jiyū’ (free), which is used to represent ‘free from…
Cat Street
Cat Street, which cuts through Harajuku and across Omotesando to Shibuya, is a 1.5km long walking street lined with shops, restaurants, cafes and galleries. Cat Street is decidedly low-rise, with architecturally interesting buildings and residential properties sitting amid the stores. So it’s great for a pleasant and interesting stroll. Notable stores include the American multi-brand…
Ginza Six
Ginza Six is a luxury shopping mall in Ginza. Aside from the 240 high-end stores and food hall on offer, its notable for the multiple contemporary art installations positioned throughout its multiple levels and its pleasant rooftop garden. The atrium of Ginza Six plays host to a changing display of contemporary art hanging from the…
Tokyu Plaza Ginza
Tokyu Plaza Ginza is one of the Ginza shopping district’s newest malls. It’s an excellent destination for both shopping and dining, housing over 125 stores in all. Aside from the shopping on offer, including Tokyo’s largest duty-free store, Tokyu Plaza Ginza offers some unique spaces to explore. The cavernous Kiriko Lounge on the 6thfloor, featuring…
2k540 Aki-Oka Artisan
If you’re in the Akihabara area, a wander through 2k540 Aki-Oka Artisan is worth your time. It’s an artisanal goods market snuggled under the railway tracks between JR Akihabara and JR Okachimachi stations. Around fifty shops, cafes and workshops are nestled among the lofty white columns that line the space, each offering a unique take on handmade and…
Kiddyland
Kiddlyland is one of the landmark stores on Omotesando and a Tokyo institution. If you’re travelling with kids, know kids back home or a big kid yourself, this multi-level toy store is a must-visit. Its five floors are stacked full of Japanese and international branded toys, merchandise and collectibles. There’s everything from Hello Kitty, Pikachu,…
Don Quijote
A trip to Tokyo isn’t complete without a browse through a Don Quijote store. While there are outlets across the city, the 24-hour store on the edge of Kabukicho in Shinjuku is the one to experience. ‘Donki’ as it’s known by the locals, is a multi-level discount store, with narrow, labyrinthine aisles packed to the…
Takeshita Street
Takeshita Street in Harajuku is one of the most visited tourist sites in Tokyo. Famous as the birthplace of ‘kawaii’(cute) youth culture in Japan, it’s a narrow shopping street running downhill from Harajuku Station. Its short length is filled with shops and cafes selling ‘cute’ fashion and accessories, idol merchandise and novelty foods. While spotting…
BEAMS Japan
BEAMS is a fashion retailer that has been serving up on-trend fashion and goods in Japan for more than 40 years. Their flagship store BEAMS Japan, in the heart of the Shinjuku shopping district, is well worth a browse through. It has a wide, eclectic range of goods on offer across multiple floors, which are…
Omotesando Hills
A stroll along Omotesando, Tokyo’s answer to the Champs-Elysees, isn’t complete without a look through Omotesando Hills. It’s an upscale shopping mall that stretches 250 metres along the boulevard. The mall was designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and utilises brutal formed concrete in his signature style. It’s low-rise and angular and totally worth visiting…
La Kagu
La Kagu is a massive lifestyle goods store and cafe in Kagurazaka, the ‘French’ district of Tokyo. It’s housed in an old book storage warehouse that has been revamped and ringed in scalloped wooden terraces by Olympic Stadium architect Kengo Kuma. The ground floor features a cafe serving meals, coffee and sweets plus a women’s…
Bicqlo
Bicqlo in Shinjuku is a huge collaboration store that puts the best of two of Japan’s biggest retailers under one roof. Electronics chain Bic Camera (the ‘Bic’ in the store name) and fast fashion brand Uniqlo (the ‘qlo’) have joined forces to create a one-stop shop that is geared to tourists. Spread over 9 buzzing…
Spiral
Great architecture, art, food and shopping all under the one roof? You’ll find that at the Spiral building in Aoyama. Spiral has been a lifestyle destination since it was built in the 1980’s. It gets its name from a huge spiralling ramp within its atrium that takes visitors from an art gallery and café on…
Dover Street Market Ginza
Dover Street Market Ginza is the Tokyo incarnation of fashion conglomerate Comme des Garcons’ multi-brand ‘department’ store concept that originated in London. It features several levels of luxury Japanese and international fashion brands, all housed in unique and inventive ‘concept’ zones. Across the floors you’ll find departments housing Comme des Garcons’ multiple labels, Louis Vuitton,…
Maach Ecute
Tokyo has become really good lately at repurposing old, disused buildings and bringing them back to life. Maach Ecute, close to Akihabara, is a perfect example of this. A heritage railways station that trains stopped running to in 1943, has been redeveloped into a design-savvy shopping and dining precinct. Maach Ecute contains bars, restaurants, design…