Tokyo Shopping Guide: Daiso
By Marceline | December 6, 2007
The one shop we didn’t manage to find on our first visit to Japan was, inexplicably, a 100 Yen store. We were told these were everywhere but we didn’t spot any. Even doing my research for our next trip, everyone just said they were everywhere which wasn’t a lot of help.
Luckily my brain does retain lots of random information and when I spotted Daiso in Harajuku I remembered it being mentioned on bento sites as a 100 Yen shop. We eagerly entered and found it just okay – some sweets, cosmetics, cute tissue packs and a wall of quite cute appliques. And then we realised there were 3 more floors!
Once we’d explored fully we had baskets of great stuff and all for under £1! The homewares basement was probably the best floor, stacked full of bento accessories and silly but cute stuff. I got an elastic bento band for keeping boxes shut tightly, panda coasters and a hilarious crochet panda bowl as well as a monkey washglove for Claire. The top floor was also fantastic with aisles of cute stationery and packaging and some hilarious foodstuffs including a microwaveable Hello Kitty cake mix complete with a mould of her head! We also found another smaller branch in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro where I got the great fruit animals notebooks.
There are branches of Daiso all around Tokyo (and worldwide now too!) so keep an eye out for the logo – you can get lots of great gifts here and for practically nothing! Daiso has also just opened its first UK branch, as part of the new expanded JapanCentre in London. Looking forward to visiting that soon!
Notepads – orange kitty and watermelon pig!
Hello Kitty cake!
‘Fancy paper’ and bunny letter set
Cute appliques
Silly crochet panda bowl
How to get there
The Harajuku branch is on Takeshita Dori, the teenage fashion street of Harajuku. It’s very easy to find – just take the main exit from JR Harajuku Station (on the Yamanote Line) and the entrance to Takeshita Dori is directly opposite. If in doubt, just follow the teenagers! Daiso is a few hundred yards along on the left. See my Sunshine City post for how to get to that branch.
What else to see in Takeshita Dori?
Takeshita Dori is lined with cute shops so just have a wander. We particularly like Cola Connections, a Coca-Cola themed shop that also sells lots of cute things. The main floor has cute charms and the tiny basement is crammed with character goods. There are more Harajuku ideas in my post on Kiddyland.
[Daiso photo by trulicami on Flickr]
Topics: Tokyo Shopping Guide |
2 Comments »
June 9th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
oh no! I missed this one! I’ve been wanting to go to Daiso since I read about it on biggirlfeet’s blog. I’ve been to Takeshita Dori TWICE and I missed it both times!
November 21st, 2009 at 5:01 pm
nice !
i really would like to visit it once :)