Tokyo Shopping Guide
I have visited Japan twice now and for our most recent visit to Tokyo, we made up an exhaustive itinerary of shops and places to visit, mainly for craft supplies and kawaii (and cake…). I spent a good few months researching the best shops to visit and I figured I should share this info for anyone else lucky to be visiting Tokyo. I tell you where to find them (with proper ‘next to the bookstore’ directions and not just ‘a short walk from exit 4 of the subway’ since directions like that drove us mental, especially when we were knackered and not in the mood for random wandering), what they look like, what they sell, what the prices are like and illustrated them with photos of my purchases. Can’t say fairer than that!
You can view the whole set of posts in backwards order (i.e. most recent post back to the first post) via the Tokyo Shopping Guide category or you can jump directly to the posts you’re most interested in, using the links below.
Fabric and Sewing Supplies
- Lucky Star
- Okadaya
- Tomato (and Fabric Town/Nippori)
Washi and Origami Paper
- Itoya
- Loft
- Nakamise Dori
- Tokyu Hands
Stationery and Print Gocco
- Daiso
- Loft
- Kiddyland
- Tokyu Hands
Kawaii and toys
- Akihabara
- Aranzi Aronzo
- Kiddyland
- Lemmon
- Sanrio Gift Gate
- Sunshine City
- Tama Depa
Homewares
- Daiso
- Lemmon
- Loft
- Sunshine City
- Tokyu Hands
Tokyo Extras
- Ghibli Museum
- Mori Art Museum
- Souvenir stampers
Photos and info
- My photos from Tokyo, October 2007 and Japan, March 2006
- Tokyo Shopping Guide Flickr Group
- Guide books and resources
- TripAdvisor Tokyo forum (info on everything)
Other Tokyo Shopping Guides
- Little Tokyo Shops zine (printable PDF of independent shops)
- A Continuous Lean (general)
- A Dress A Day (fabric)
- Design*Sponge (design)
- Floating World (fabric)
- Goat in a Coat (fabric)
- Japan Craft Journal (collaborative crafty Japan blog)
- The Lark (fabric, crafts, books, bento)
- NY Star Cards (crafts/washi)
- Paula’s OriHouse (origami/washi)
- Pictures, Thoughts and Comments (Fabric Town, Nippori)
- Retro Mummy (fabric/crafts)
- Superbuzzy (fabric/crafts plus tips on wholesale and Osaka shopping)
- Travelknitter (yarn/crafts)
- Tutti Frutti (fabric/crafts)
Tokyo Links
- Leeanne’s Travel Blog (great foodie trip report from Tokyo)
- Katie Does Japan (lovely, day by day trip report of Tokyo/Kyoto/Nara)
- Katie’s Google Map of Tokyo (brilliant resource, especially for vegetarians)
- Travelling to Japan (nice overview guide from JapanCentre in London)
- Blobbes’ Tokyo Traipse-Around (excellent day by day trip report)
- Nut and Bee (lovely day by day trip reports with lots of photos)
- Top Ten Tokyo Shops (by The Guardian)
- Top Ten Tokyo Hotels (by The Guardian)
- Top Ten Cheap Eats in Tokyo (by The Guardian)
- Omotesando architecture walk, Harajuku (by PingMag)
- Ginza architecutre walk (by PingMag)
Online shops
- Felt Cafe (craft books)
- FromJapanWithLove (stationery, paper, fabric, notions)
- Giant Robot (art, clothes, stationery, toys)
- Janet Store (stationery, toys, homewares, fabric)
- JapanCentre (food, homewares, kitchenware, stationery, books)
- Matatabi (fabric, notions)
- Mwendas (fabric, notions, craft books)
- Nuno Plus (fabric)
- Phoophie Kawaii Shop (toys, stationery)
- Print Addict Japan (gocco)
- re:makeables (fabric, notions)
- Sakura Fabric (fabric, notions)
- ShopPingMag (cool stuff)
- Superbuzzy (fabric, notions, stationery, books)
- Super Cute Kawaii (stationery, toys, accessories, handmade)
- Tokyo Jazz Panda (stationery, homewares, toys)
