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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.
Aqua City is almost indistinguishable from its next-door neighbor, Decks Tokyo Beach. What does set it apart from a regular shopping mall is the variety of food options: a food court in the basement, a barbeque spot on the roof, and a ramen theme park—as well as its own shrine. It also boasts a cinema and a wide selection of Japanese and international brands.
Opened in June 2020, Ariake Garden is a large-scale shopping mall with more than 200 stores, a hotel, spa with hot spring access, theater, rooftop terrace, and garden.
Classy and cutting-edge furniture, electronics, fabrics, ceramics, and books are sold at this multistory design center on the main Roppongi drag of Gaien-Higashi-dori. Savoir Vivre has an excellent selection of ceramics; Le Garage has accessories for high-end cars. On the fourth floor, the JIDA Design Museum shows the best of what's current in Japanese industrial design.
Unlike other big stores in the Nihonbashi area, this sparkling mall feels contemporary thanks to an open layout and extensive use of glass. Neighboring it are three more new glittery towers: Coredo Muromachi 1, 2, and 3, which fuse traditional housewares stores with modern fashion boutiques. The in-house Nihonbashi Tourist Center runs workshops on everything from dressing like a Geisha to cooking food.
Diver City gets a lot of foot traffic, mainly due to the life-sized Gundam robot statue welcoming shoppers in at the door. It also boasts a wide selection of stores and a food court with many dining options.
Near the Harajuku end of Omotesando, this mall houses luxury-brand shops such as Chanel and Maison Martin Margiela, three concept shops by Comme des Garçons, and one of only three Museum of Modern Art Design Stores outside New York City.
The 140 or so stores at this Harajuku mall are where teen trends are born. Although shop genres vary from Gothic Lolita to bohemian chic, they all target fashion-conscious teenagers. Rumor has it that many of the West's top fashion designers still come here to look for inspiration for their next collections.
These vertical malls filled with small retail shops and boutiques are all within walking distance of one another in the commercial heart of Shibuya. Shops range from a collections of designer brands to an entire floor focused on game and anime goods. The rooftop food garden offers a break from shopping and views over Shibuya.
This nine-floor outlet is a teenage girl's dream, especially if they follow the gyaru tribe, a particularly gaudy and brash fashion genre born in Shibuya. The place is filled with small stores whose merchandise screams kitsch and trend. Here, the fashionable sales assistants are the stars, and their popularity in this mall can make them media superstars. On weekends, dance concerts and fashion shows are often staged at the front entrance.
Right at the intersection of Omotesando (don't miss the lanterns leading you to Meiji Shrine) and Meiji-dori is a hard-to-miss shopping center seemingly cascading with greenery and designed by award-winning Hiroshi Nakamura's NAP architectural firm. The building houses numerous shops and eateries, but the biggest draw might be the shady roof garden.
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