Showing 1-14 of 14 results
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Don Quixote
The Roppongi branch of this jam-packed, bargain castle is where Japanese kids of all ages come to stock up for fun. Don Quixote sells everything from household goods to French maid costumes, usually at cut-rate prices. You'll need to hack your way through cluttered aisles, but it's possible to find funky gifts here.
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Marui Young
You can't swing a coat hanger in Shinjuku without hitting a Marui (look for the Marui logo: OIOI), as there's a passel of its speciality branches here. Marui Young is the place to start if you want to buy Goth-Lolita garb with the local whitest-shade-of-pale girls.
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Matsuzakaya
For 300 years Matsuzakaya has been selling traditional garments and crafts. Today the range is broader, though the store still has a first-rate kimono shop. Matsuzakaya is one of those grand department stores with a fabulous depachika in the basement. Find other branches in Ueno and Ebisu.
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Mitsukoshi - Chūō-ku
Tokyo's oldest department store was originally modelled on that London bastion of commerce, Harrods. Mitsukoshi is a posh, polished leviathan filled to the gills with tempting wares. Look for the Mitsukoshi lion at the corner entrance, a popular local meeting spot. There's also the original store in Nihombashi.
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Muji
Tokyo's famously understated no-name brand is one of the hippest names in Paris. But Muji still sells simple, unadorned clothing and accessories for men and women. It also carries hard-to-find M and L sizes (though these, too, are small). This large outlet in Yurakuchō also has a great cafeteria.
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Odakyū
The 16-floor behemoth of a department store that sits atop Shinjuku Station, Odakyū contains several restaurant floors, high-end boutiques and low-budget accessories shops, as well as just about anything you'd need to live inside the station for the next ten years.
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Parco 1, 2 & 3
If you see it strutting across Shibuya Crossing, you'll find some version of it at Parco parts 1, 2 and 3. These interconnected department stores are mostly targeted toward fans of Vivienne Westwood and other designers geared toward those favouring the schoolgirl look. They also have art galleries that feature multimedia installations, avant-garde painting and fashion-oriented exhibitions.
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Sunshine City
Billed as a 'city in a building', Sunshine City is another sprawling shopping centre where, for a small fee, you can get catapulted in a speeding elevator to the 60th-floor observatory to peer out across the Tokyo skyline. If you're lucky, you might catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji beyond the haze.
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Takashimaya
In Nihombashi Takashimaya is one of the more venerable old establishments with palatial architecture. Primly-dressed, white-gloved attendants operate the old-fashioned lifts and bow demurely as you arrive and depart; take the lift to the rooftop patio, where you can bring your bentō (boxed meal). There's another branch in Ginza and the enormous Takashimaya Times Square complex in Shinjuku.
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Tōbu
This is one of Ikebukuro's two big department stores, with a whopping 15 floors. Of particular note are the larger-than-average-sized togs (by Tokyo standards) to be found in the central building. This doesn't mean an availability of plus sizes, but that some items will be larger than a typical small.
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Tōkyū Hands
This is Tokyo's favourite DIY store, with hardware and materials for home projects. What defines it is the sheer diversity of eccentric goodies: clocks that tick backwards, hand-blown glass pens and vibrating reflexology slippers. This is eight floors of oddball, functional stuff you never realised you needed. If you hit one store during your stay, let this be it. There's another huge store in Shinjuku's Takashimaya Times Square.
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Uniqlo - Shibuya
Like Muji, Uniqlo has made a name for itself by sticking to the basics. Offering inexpensive, quality clothing with clean, simple style, this chain has taken Tokyo by typhoon. You'll find the original outpost in Omote-sandō, and you'll stumble over dozens more all over town. Sizes run small.
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Venus Fort - Kōtō-ku
Venus Fort embodies a Japanese vision of a young woman's shopping paradise, in a building that mimics 17th-century Rome where the ceilings simulate the sky turning from day to night. With around 170 boutiques and restaurants all aimed at young women, this kitschy shopping centre also boasts the distinction of having Japan's biggest lavatory (64 stalls).
Showing 1-14 of 14 results
