Shopping in Tokyo

With impeccable service, overwhelming choice, fantasy-land buildings, tradition, technology and lashings of kitsch, it’s easy to be bitten by the shopping bug in Tokyo.

Key areas

The main shopping areas in Tokyo are:
• Stylish Ginza, with its ritzy department stores, designer boutiques and chic galleries
• Young, trendy Shibuya for clothes and accessories
• The 'youth mecca' of Harajuku for teenage fashions and kitsch
• Akihabara for a vast selection of cut-price electronic goods and computers

Markets

There are several flea markets in Tokyo which you can bag a bargain. Top choices include the Tokyo City Flea Market (1 Chome 6-26 Katsushima, Shinagawa) for an assortment of knick-knacks, Mottainai Flea Market (4 Chrome 14-1 Sotokanda, Chiyoda) for vintage goods, and Shinjuku Chuo Park Flea Market (Chome 11, Nishishinjuku) for anything from household items to vintage items.

Shopping centres

For traditional department store shopping in Tokyo, visit Mitsukoshi on Chuo-dori, or the newer Roppongi Hills complex, Minato-ku, where food and entertainment are also thrown in. If shopping in a reconstructed Italian villa is your idea of heaven, visit Venus Fort (1-3-15 Aomi Koto-ku). For wacky, kitsch shopping 24 hours a day, check out Don Quijote, locally known as Donki, across the city, but particularly the largest 'Mega' Don Quijote in Shibuya (28-6, Udagawa-cho). Oriental Bazaar (5-9-13 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku) sells yukatas, kimonos, lacquered boxes, wooden sake cups, tea serving sets and any other Japanese handicraft you can think of to take home.

Opening hours

Standard shopping hours in Tokyo are 1000-2000, although some shops are open 24 hours a day.

Souvenirs

Delightful snacks, homegrown fashion, traditional handicrafts like kiriko (Japanese cut-glass art), and quirky knick-knacks make good gifts.

Tax information

Japan's consumption tax is 10% on all items except food, non-alcoholic drinks and newspaper subscriptions. Many stores offer duty-free shopping, provided you show your passport on purchase.

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Featured Hotels

Hotel Gracery Shinjuku

Set only a few minutes' walk from Shinjuku train station and in easy walking distance of a dizzying array of shops and restaurants, Gracery Shinjuku is something of a landmark - it's set in a modern high rise building that's 30 stories high, and there's a giant replica godzilla head peering out the side. If you're willing to pay extra, you can stay in a godzilla-themed room too. Though the rooms are compact, the bathrooms are larger than the norm and the higher rooms have scenic city views; there's also a convenient Italian restaurant on-site and a cinema on the ground floor.

Park Hyatt Tokyo

The Park Hyatt Tokyo's role as muse and backdrop to Coppola's Lost in Translation pushed it onto the world stage in 2003. Towering over fashionable Shinjuku, guests enter on the 41st floor and gaze across the neon-lit Tokyo sky. Art blends with sleek architecture and spacious rooms, and even the spa combines tradition and modernisation with impressive success. Plus, there's something to be said for working out in the gym that tormented Bill Murray.

Hotel Asia Center of Japan

Quite possibly offering the cheapest double rooms in central Tokyo, this hotel is ideal as as a central base for a short visit. Within walking distance of the ex-pat haven of Roppongi, and the restaurants and bars of Aoyama Itchome, guests are well placed for sightseeing.

Imperial Hotel

This 5-star luxury hotel in Vilnius and is set in a historic 16th-century building. Its great Old Town location, super helpful staff and 55 spotless rooms combine to make this a deservedly popular choice with business and leisure travellers alike.

Claska Hotel

Modern minimalist design and classic Japanese aesthetics brush shoulders in this hip hotel, just outside of the city centre. There’s the chance to choose between a western–style room or traditional tatami space. Each option comes with plenty of home comforts, including beautiful toiletries and access to a huge CD and DVD collection. There’s even an in–house gallery, plus a French/Japanese fusion restaurant.

Hoshinoya Tokyo

Opened in the summer of 2016, Hoshinoya is a unique urban offering for Tokyo, a hotel with a contemporary take on Japan’s legendary omotenashi hospitality, set right at the heart of the city's Otemachi district. Leave your shoes at the door and unwind into spacious quarters, designed with a tasteful nod to the traditional Japenese aesthetic. The 19-floor hotel with stylish lattice exterior forms a bijou enclave in this bustling business district, just a 10 minute walk from Tokyo Station. You won't want to leave your ochanoma lounge area, allocated exclusively to guests staying on each floor and decked in traditional tatami mats, it has a library, sofas and kitchen space. But if you do the rooftop onsen spa is a truly unique Tokyo experience. The hot spring waters are the perfect cure for urban fatigue and will help you revitalise your body and mind, all the while staring up at the open Tokyo skies above.

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