Tokyo Shopping Guide: Okadaya
By Marceline | November 9, 2007
Okadaya wasn’t on my MUST GO list but we ended up with a bit of time on our last day so we managed to make it there (after getting hideously lost in Shinjuku Station). It’s about 6 or 7 floors high and didn’t initially look very good as the ground floor has some mediocre jewellery. Head upstairs though and there’s acres of awesome sewing, knitting and crafting stuff. Each of the higher floors is split into two big areas so make sure you have a good look around if you don’t want to miss anything. Despite their bags being almost entirely in English, there are no English signs or floor maps so you just have to explore yourself. I remember a floor of ribbons and hundreds of cute appliques, a floor of yarn with a table of old Japanese ladies knitting away and the most adorable crochet kits you’ll ever see, a floor of buttons, a floor of beads, a floor of patchwork fabric and a top floor of those cute crafting books. There were also embroidery kits, knitting patterns and all the other things you would expect in such a store.
After 9 days in Tokyo, I wasn’t blown away by Okadaya but it does have lots of cute and cool stuff and is very central in Shinjuku. If you don’t have much time in Tokyo, then this is a good one-stop option. I ended up with a stack of appliques and three packs of amazing embroidered buttons. The button packs were about £3 each and the appliques were £1.50-£2 each. Not bad. My sister bought an adorable crochet kit and I will try and get a photo to add.
Cute appliques. There were hundreds!
Embroidered snowman buttons by Kurumi Button
How to get there
Okadaya is right across from the main East Exit of JR Shinjuku Station (on the Yamanote Line). As you come out of the exit you’ll see the Studio Alta video screen and the Okadaya sign is visible just behind it. If you walk round the side of Studio Alta on either side you’ll soon spot Okadaya. There’s a map somewhere on the Okadaya website but it’s all in Japanese so probably not much help. One word of warning - if you arrive at Shinjuku Station by any other means - subway, private railway - DON’T just take any exit. Follow the signs to the JR East Exit even if it means a 15 minute trek through the shopping mall. Otherwise, you will get mightily lost! Shinjuku Station has about 400 exits (I am only exaggerating slightly) and you can be wandering for ages.
What else to see in Shinjuku?
Everything really! Shinjuku is probably the most popular area in Tokyo for shoppers, nightlife etc. and you can find just about anything there (including the red light district). We didn’t actually do much in Shinjuku as we’d previously been to branches of the main shops in other areas. However, if you go to Shinjuku first, there is a Tokyu Hands, Kinokinuya (book store, behind Tokyu Hands) and lots of shopping malls. Studio Alta seems to be a fashion haven for teenage girls but we didn’t explore much. We did find a great convenience store in the basement which sold amazing ice creams, tiny cheesecakes and many exciting flavours of KitKat (including kiwi, green tea, chestnut and caramel!). There’s also the Metropolitan Government Building which has a tourist office and free observation floor. It’s signposted within Shinjuku Station.
Our Japanese friends took us to lunch at Okonomi-yaki, which was great fun. It specialises in okonomiyaki (kind of shredded vegetable pancakes) and yakisoba noodles which you cook yourself on a hotplate in the table. I don’t think we would have been confident enough to go on our own but they do have an English menu and the instruction card is in pictures so you might get away with it. I’m not sure exactly where it is - somewhere near Studio Alta.
Okonomi-yaki restaurant
Our vegetable okonomiyaki cooking on the hotplate
Topics: Tokyo Shopping Guide |
May 28th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Thank u so much
I will be in tokyo with my son and daughter for about 15 days on sightseeing visit in september 2008.
Since a very long time I was searching for a shopping guide , particularly fabric shops in tokyo .
finally I got this very very useful exhaustive itinerary of shops with detailed locations .
Now I can travel for shopping with confidence at tokyo with the help of your tokyo shopping guide.
I’ll get the printout of the exhaustive shopping guide and take it to tokyo.
Thank you many many times
srinivas (mysore, India)