Tokyo, Japan — Shopping
Shopping in Tokyo, Japan
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.
Markets
In a country that thrives on fish, the auctions at Tsukiji Ichiba, 5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, the world's largest fish market, prove that it's worth getting up at 0500 after all.
Shopping centers
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 Aomi Koto-ku. For wacky, kitsch shopping 24 hours a day, check out Don Quijote (locally known as Donki) across the city, but particularly at 3-14-10 Roppongi Minato-ku. 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.
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; and Akihabara for a vast selection of cut-price electronic goods and computers.
Shopping hours
Standard shopping hours in Tokyo are 1000-2000, although some shops are open 24 hours a day.
Tax information
A 5% consumption tax is added to most goods, although some shops will refund this if you have your passport with you and spend over a certain amount.
