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Tokyo is Japan's showcase. The crazy clothing styles, obscure electronics, and new games found here are capable of setting trends for the rest of the country—and perhaps the rest of Asia, and even Europe and America.
Part of the Tokyo shopping experience is simply to observe, and on Saturday especially, in districts like the Ginza and Shinjuku, you will notice that the Japanese approach to shopping can be nothing short of feverish. You’ll probably want to resist the urge to join in the fray, especially since many of the wildly trendy clothes and accessories for sale will already be "uncool" by the time you get home. But shopping in Tokyo can also be an exercise in elegance and refinement, especially if you shop for items that are Japanese-made for Japanese people and sold in stores that don't cater to tourists. With brilliantly applied color, balance of form, and superb workmanship, crafts items can be exquisite and well worth the price you'll pay—and some can be quite expensive.
Note the care taken with items after you purchase them, especially in department stores and boutiques. Goods will be wrapped, wrapped again, bagged, and sealed. Sure, the packaging can be excessive—does anybody really need three plastic bags for one croissant?—but such a focus on presentation has deep roots in Japanese culture.
This focus on presentation also influences salespeople who are invariably helpful and polite. In the larger stores they greet you with a bow when you arrive, and many of them speak at least enough English to help you find what you're looking for. There's a saying in Japan: o-kyaku-sama wa kami-sama, "the customer is a god"—and since the competition for your business is fierce, people do take it to heart.
Horror stories abound about prices in Japan—and some of them are true. Yes, European labels can cost a fortune here, but did you really travel all the way to Tokyo to buy an outfit that would be cheaper in the designer mall at home? True, a gift-wrapped melon from a department-store gourmet counter can cost $150. But you can enjoy gawking even if you don’t want to spend like that. And if you shop around, you can find plenty of gifts and souvenirs at fair prices.
Japan has finally embraced the use of credit cards, although some smaller mom-and-pop shops may still take cash only. So when you go souvenir hunting, be prepared with a decent amount of cash; Tokyo's low crime rates make this a low-risk proposition. The dishonor associated with theft is so strong, in fact, that it's considered bad form to conspicuously count change in front of cashiers.
Japan has an across-the-board 8% value-added tax (V.A.T.) imposed on luxury goods. This tax can be avoided at some duty-free shops in the city (don't forget to bring your passport). It's also waived in the duty-free shops at the international airports, but because these places tend to have higher profit margins, your tax savings there are likely to be offset by the higher markups.
Stores in Tokyo generally open at 10 or 11 am and close at 8 or 9 pm.
Shopping at Beams ensures that you or your kids will be properly stocked with the city's coolest wares. Indeed, there's such a variety of merchandise—ranging from street wear to high-end imports—that it won't fit into just one store. In Harajuku, you'll find a cluster of shops, including Beams T for T-shirts, Beams Plus for casual wear, a record store, a funky "from Tokyo" souvenir shop that sells anime figurines, and more.
Sinuous low walls snake through Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo's flagship store, a minimalist labyrinth that is one of Tokyo's funkiest retail spaces. Here you can shop for the designer's signature clothes, as well as shoes and accessories.
This multistory fashion playhouse is a shrine to exclusives, one-offs, and other hard-to-find pieces from luxury brands all over the world. Curated by Comme des Garçons, the selection may leave all but the most dedicated fashion fans scratching their heads, but the unique interior sculptures alone warrant a visit.
The otherworldly creations of internationally renowned brand Issey Miyake are on display at his Tokyo flagship store, which carries the full Paris line. Just a stone's throw away are other Miyake stores, among them Issey Miyake Men, Pleats Please, and Reality Lab. The latter showcases Miyake's most experimental creations including incredible origami-like clothing and BaoBao totes.
This fashion landmark, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is one of the city's most buzzed-about architectural wonders in the city. Its facade is a mosaic of green glass "bubble" windows with alternating convex and concave panels that create distorted reflections of the surrounding area. Many world-renowned, nearby boutiques have tried to replicate the significant impact the Prada building has had on the area, but none have been unable to match this tower. Don't miss the cavelike entrance that leads into the basement shoe floor.
Kawaii (cute) Harajuku fashion lives on at this pastel, dollhouse-like shop on the second floor of a nondescript building. Browsing the colorful items and glittery accessories—part of a style called "kawaii anarchy"—might be one of Tokyo's most unique shopping experiences. Even the shop clerks dress the part.
Traditional costumes for the neighborhood's May Sanja Festival are sold here. Best buys include sashiko hanten, thick, woven firemen's jackets, and happi coats, cotton tunics printed in bright colors with Japanese characters. Some items are available in children's sizes.
Since the late 1990s, no brand has been more coveted by young scenesters than the BATHING APE label (shortened to BAPE) founded by DJ–fashion designer NIGO. At the height of the craze, hopefuls would line up outside NIGO's well-hidden boutiques and pay ¥7,000 for a T-shirt festooned with a simian visage or Planet of the Apes quote. BAPE has since gone aboveground, with the brand expanding across the globe. You can see what the fuss is all about in this spacious two-story shop or in other locations around the city.
Cool and quirky tops and T-shirts are the main focus of this store, but you can find other items (umbrellas, mugs, hats, bags, socks) in the frequently changing lineup of designs that feature anything from cartoon characters and abstract graphic images to odd quotes. There's also a café upstairs.
The half-Japanese, half-French duo who make this brand are former DJs and music producers, which may explain why the funky clothes have such a cool edge to them. The Kitsuné Café, which is just up the street and around a corner, serves some great coffee and sells some Kitsuné-branded goods.
Next to the Midtown Tokyo complex, this fashion-forward boutique brings together a cluster of stores, with three floors of cutting-edge clothing, some of which looks like it came straight from a Tokyo or Paris catwalk, and accessories for men and women.
Tabi are the traditional cloth boots with a cleft-toe shape requiring special socks, which are sold here among other cloth goods and clothing. This Kyoto-based brand creates graphic, cute, and funky patterns that are so of this era that you'd never know they based on traditional things. Across the street is its sister shop, which sells Westernized items made with the same fabrics.
Here, racks of Jun Takahashi's cult clothing sit under a ceiling adorned with thousands of hanging lightbulbs.
Here's your chance to stock up on the company's own brand of simple, low-priced clothing staples. This 12-story location is the world's largest Uniqlo, and sells men's, women's, and children's clothing right on the main Ginza drag.
