Tokyo Shopping Guide

In Tokyo, the future is now. Glass-skinned towers pierce the sky and city-dwellers head indoors to giant biosphere-like domes to surf and ski. Architecture, whether framed in stainless steel or pine, seemingly defies gravity here, bulging out like popcorn or narrowing to pencil slimness. Digital billboards pour out a constant stream of advertising, bullet trains glide in and out of Tokyo Station, and you can buy every accoutrement of life from a vending machine, without ever exchanging a word with a human life form.

Yet alongside the impersonal and vast modernity that engulfs 12 million lives and 23 residential wards, Tokyo also has touches of the ancient medieval town it once was. Only a couple stops away from the neon lights of Shibuya and Ginza, less frantic neighborhoods await, brimming with artisanal goodies. For those willing to spend the time to explore, behind every blaring commercial strip, narrow streets wind crookedly, with small quiet shops tucked between homes, harkening back to a slower-paced life. A forest of high-rises often shades peaceful temple grounds. An overpass might shelter a café. Somewhere in the city’s hidden nooks and crannies, you might find a shop specializing in hand-finished denim or Brazilian bikinis or gold-leaf lacquerware—merchandise and shops where the human touch still lingers.

Tokyo never ceases to amaze and surprise, whether with the tiniest digital recording device to soaring architecture to Murakami’s amusing, anime-infused Vuitton bags, it offers some of the world’s best designs and man-made wonders. At some point, every visitor and resident alike lose themselves hopelessly in the tangle of streets which often bear no signs and no logical pattern. When it happens to you, if you can, luxuriate in the adventure of it. You may find a treasure—a secret garden, a temple, a shop, a friendly face—that shows you the true heart of this 21st century metropolis.

Contributors: Research Editor, Sumiko Kokobu, Editorial Director, Julia Lee

We would love to get your feedback on our Tokyo Shopping Guide: retailmaven@stylemaven.com

..DESTINATIONS

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Tokyo
...Aoyama/Omotesando
...Daikanyama
...Harajuku
...More Shops
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Aoyama/Omotesando
While teens love Harajuku and fashionistas love Daikanyama, urban professionals looking to fill their wardrobes with precisely cut black suits, money no object, beeline to Aoyama and Omotesando.
>Go to Aoyama

Daikanyama
Tourists flock to the big-name glitz of the Ginza strip and the teenage circus of Harajuku. Locals head to the quieter streets of Daikanyama. A low-rise neighborhood chock-full of quirky boutiques and sidewalk cafes, Daikanyama often encloses leafy hidden courtyards within its clusters of shops and homes. But low-rise doesn’t mean low end.
>Go to Daikanyama

Harajuku
A lot of train stations in Tokyo look like strip malls—utilitarian blocks crammed with dry cleaners, pharmacists and convenience stores. Not Harajuku. From when you exit the Swiss chalet-style Harajuku train station which looks like a giant cuckoo clock, you’ll know you’re in for a surreal treat in this neck of the woods.
>Go to Harajuku

More Shops
>Go to More Tokyo + Kyoto Shops