Department Store shopping in Tokyo
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A
Isetan
In addition to its stunning food hall in the basement, Isetan boasts an entire separate building for men’s fashions in addition to several floors of homewares and ladies’ designer goods. Check out the store’s I-club, a free service that provides English-speaking staff for visiting shoppers. The membership desk for this service is located on the 6th floor near the entrance to the Isetan Men’s building.
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B
Matsuya
Ginza is the poshest shopping district in Tokyo. The quintessential Ginza experience is a department store; Mitsukoshi has pride of place, but Matsuya is a long-standing favourites, too. Tucked in between some of the more imposing facades are more simple pleasures such as fine papers and shelves stacked full of ingenious toys. Shopping options here really do reflect the breadth and depth of the city’s consumer culture, equal parts high fashion glitz and down-to-earth dedication to craft.
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C
Takashimaya
Step into the luxe marble entrance and you'll feel like you've walked onto the set of Mad Men. Uniformed docents operate the old-fashioned lifts and bow demurely with a geisha grin as you arrive and depart on each level. You'll find the ultimate pantheon of high-end brands upstairs, and a bustling depachika in the basement.
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D
Tōkyū Hands
Ostensibly a do-it-yourself store, Tōkyū Hands carries a comprehensive collection of everything you didn't know you needed, from blown-glass pens and chainsaws to tofu tongs and party supplies. There are a few branches all over town – browsing through the Takashimaya Times Square location is probably the least maddening.
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E
Mitsukoshi
One of Ginza's grande dames, Mitsukoshi embodies the essence of the Tokyo department store, and it gleams after a recent renovation. You'll find a variety of exciting treasures tucked inside, such as the 2nd-floor's outpost of Ladurée – the Parisian macaron monolith – decked out like a giant pastel Easter egg. A crown of restaurants are lofted on the building's top floors, ensuring you get some heady views of pulsing neon signs. The original Mitsukoshi department store is located north of Ginza's main drag near Mitsukoshimae Station.
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F
Loft
Insert expendable income here. Loft offers an enormous range of goodies, from colourful kitchenware to sleek furnishings – but the best merchandise is the goofier stuff, like wigs, psychedelic stationery and animal-shaped soap.
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G
Don Quijote
This fluorescent-lit, trashy cousin of Tōkyū Hands is filled to the gills with weird loot: knock-off designer goods, packaged snacks, gimmicky seasonal rubbish and sex toys. There are branches of 'the donkey' all over Tokyo – the one in Roppongi has a weird horseshoe-shaped roller-coaster track on the roof (a clear zoning violation – it's not in use).
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H
Laforet
Laforet is to Harajuku as 109 is to Shibuya. Gentlemen beware: this is where the colour pink was invented, and ambient giggles confirm the patrons' predilections for anything frilly, furry, fuzzy or cutesy.
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I
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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J
Tobu
Although most of Tokyo's depāto are located in and around Ginza, you'll find a few shopping behemoths in Ikebukuro, including Tobu. In general, the prices here are noticeably lower than in Ginza since the real estate is cheaper. Tobu's worth a visit for its vast basement depachika, boasting the cheapest sashimi in town (come at 7pm when prices are halved).
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K
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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L
Parco
Parco, divided into several stores located in the middle of Shibuya, carries contemporary designs for a very young crowd. In Parco I, you’ll find a good magazine and bookstore on the 7th floor and edgy shops on floors three to six. There’s another Parco in Ikebukuro.
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M
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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N
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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O
Matsuzakaya
How many department stores besides this one can say they've been around for almost 400 years?
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