Markets, Malls, and More

Where do the Japanese do their shopping? The short answer is: in all sorts of different venues, from traditional outdoor markets, to modern malls and convenience stores, in department store basements, in train stations. 

Very basic, narrow stalls jam-packed side by side lining market streets, huge modern department stores with several spacious floors offering anything from food to all types of merchandise - we experienced them all on this trip. 

Each city and town we visited had its own outdoor fresh market area, and all were bustling and crowded, not only with tourists but also locals who were shopping for their local fresh produce and freshly caught fish and seafood. These markets also have food stalls and small restuarants featuring their fish or meat. You could see the kitchen area at the back of the narrow stall where cooks were busy cooking.

Tsukiji Outer Market

Our first Japanese fresh market experience was in Tokyo. We jostled our way through the famous Tsukiji Outer Market throngs, marveling at the beautifully arranged displays: seafood, meat, poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruits, dry and processed foods, kitchenware (a lot of knives), and also cooked food tantalizingly displayed. 

Seattle has its downtown Pike Place Market with fresh fruit and vegetables as well as fish and seafood, but it's nothing along this scale and variety, including different and unfamiliar spices, herbs and deyhdrated food items as well. 

One of the first things I noticed was the size of the fruit. In Japanese terms, where everything seems to be so delicate and small, these were enormous and also perfect in shape and color, almost as if willed into perfect cultural conformity.

perfect fruit and vegetables

spices and condiments by the pound or ready packaged

spices and deydrated ingredients I have never seen

mushrooms of all types, most I would not recognize

The Tsukiji district in Tokyo is located near the Sumida River on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay in the 16th century. The name 'Tsukiji' means reclaimed land. During the Edo Period, this was a samurai area. 

The origins of the Tsukiji Market date back to the 17th century. What began as a simple fish market grew to the point when it became internationally famous for its daily tuna auctions. Over time, small shops and food stalls sprouted, attracting visitors and customers to sample fresh sushi and buy various ingredients. 

In 2018, the inner fish market relocated to Toyosu so what we experienced was the Outer Market which remains and still attracts locals as well as tourists to its crowded and busy venue. This is Tokyo's outdoor food town. 

We ate lunch at one of the small fish stalls with its tiny restaurant alcove in the back, basically a set of stools around a narrow bar counter-top overlooking the cooking area. I had the salmon and Michael the sushi which came with rice and miso soup, a taste of pickled vegetable, and green tea. 

Another notable market we visited is in the 

Asakusa district in Tokyo. 

It starts at the Temple Gates and stretches approximately two and a half city blocks to the Senso-ji Temple at the opposite end. Nakamise-Dori shopping street is over 1,000 years old. The 89 stalls and shops along Nakamise-Dori street are on temple property, hence Nakamise, the traditional name given to shopping streets on the grounds of temples or shrines, this one being the oldest and most famous. 

In the late 17th and in the 18th centuries, locals were given permission by the temple priests to open shops on temple grounds in exchange for cleaning services to keep the temple grounds clean and tidy. Senso-ji Temple was already a popular center of pilgrimage, so it became a win-win for the shopkeepers providing food and drink to the pilgrims. Today there are many souvenir and gift shops as well that cater to today's "pilgrims" who come to the temple by way of the market street.

market stalls providing goods for today's "pilgrims"

Nakamise shopping street, stretching from the temple gates to the main temple grounds as seen
 from a viewing platform across the street 

From the Senso-Ji Temple located at the end of the Nakamise-Dori shopping street, we continued on to the adajacent market area, to join the wall-to-wall throngs along the quarter-mile long Shin Nakamise shopping street arcade with its stalls of fresh produce and seafood, souvenirs, and restaurants, thankful to be under cover because it began to pour. It was an almost overwhelming experience, the eyes and brain on overload with all the sights, sounds, and shoulder-to-shoulder mass of bodies inching their way along. 

Here we learned the etiquette that food and beverages bought at the market need to be eaten around the corner from the stall while standing at a small shelf-like ledge to rest the plate or cup. Eating in public and walking while eating and drinking is not polite or a practice that goes over well in Japan. We had our first matcha ice-cream here, and like the locals, walked around the corner off the main thoroughfare to eat it. The noodles are made of matcha and bean curd as is the faux cherry on top. It was an interesting flavor and quite tasty.

matcha Mt Blanc icecream

When a small group of us continued to the Asakusa-Hamarikyu boat ride along the Sumida River, Osamu stopped at a stall making ninjo-jaki pastry filled with red bean paste. Again, we were obliged to step around the corner away from the main street crowds to eat the treat he bought us. 

ninjo-yaki pastries freshly made and coming off the conveyor belt

the pastries come in various shapes and are quite
tasty without being overly sweet

When we were in Kanazawa, we visited Omicho Market, a top seafood market for over 300 years, with over 200 shops and stalls along two covered streets and various small alleyways. Fresh fish and seafood is delivered daily here too and the produce is local. 

Here, Osamu divided us into teams, gave each team 1,000 yen, and sent us on a scavenger hunt.  The object was to buy produce that is new to us that we have never seen before and find out its Japanese name. My group bought nagaimo (the Japanese long potato tuber that looks a lot like daikon), kinjiso (a purple leaf type salad for cooking or eating raw that is native to here), and hozuki (an orange ornamental pod with a berry inside used for flower arrangements). Communicating with the stall owners was its own challenge! We soon found out that one couldn't touch or handle the produce without irate reactions. Making ourselves understood involved hand actions, pointing, and showing our money. At one stall, a teen grandson who spoke a little English was able to write the name of the kinjiso for us in both kanji and English. We spent all but 20 yen. And thankfully did not get lost in the never-ending maze of avenues with its never-ending stalls of produce and fish.

nagaimo

kinjiso 

hozuki or Chinese lantern 

In Kyoto, we briefly poked our heads in at the Nishiki Market, known as Kyoto's Kitchen. Over 130 shops and stalls sell fruit, vegetables, seafood, dry goods, and more. It was characteristically packed with wall-to-wall people. We joined the moving masses, gawking in wonderment at the variety of goods and beautifully presented food displays before catching a taxi back to the hotel after yet another very full day. 

Markets offer not only fresh food but also dining opportunities, either as take-away stands or small restaurants serving a specific speciality.  Just like the stalls, these restaurants are tiny serving only a few people at a time. 

One particular feature about Japanese restaurants I find very sensible and practical is the way they advertise their menu items on offer.  Some display colorful graphic photos of each dish while others display the actual plastic meals served up on plates in a front window. Literally, what you see is what you get as you stroll past the numerous market restaurants. Restaurants on the top floors of malls and department stores display the actual written menu outside each restaurant, many of them with English translations. 

Miyajima has its Ometasando Shopping Street, an almost quarter-mile-long arcade street which leads up to the grand torii gate of the Itsukushima Shrine. Once again there were thick crowds browsing the souvenir shops, local crafts, and foods like local oysters and eel. The famous local craft of the area is the Miyajima wooden rice paddle that was first created here by a monk around 1800, and has also become a good luck charm. 

On this humid and hot day, we enjoyed an ice cream at one of the snack shops, and true to custom, ate it inside before continuing on, this time we sat on a long bench that was provided against the wall of the narrow shop. 

this chef hard at work and visible
in a window at the entrance to the restaurant

Miyajima grilled eel and fish

typical souvenir shop

On our daily excursions, Osamu always led us along well-known shopping streets, typically lined with narrow stall-fronts offering various merchandise and also food and drink.

In Kamakura Kanagawa we walked along their famous Komachi Street shopping market district. Komachi Street market was notably less crowded, compared to Tokyo, yet still well-attended along this long shopping street with its trendy boutiques and gourmet restaurants, cafes, and other smaller shops. 

Yanaka Ginza shopping street likewise offers stalls with local goods, clothing, restaurants and take-away foods. I bought a Sudoku Puzzle book along the way, the numbers game refined and popularized by Japanese in the 20th century.  Yanaka is the area along and east of the Sumida River in Tokyo spared from the Allied fire-bombings during WWII and also survived the 1923 Kanto Earthquake. It retains the traditional atmosphere and charm of the Shitamachi area once inhabited by a merchant class. 

stairway leading to the entrance to Yanaka Ginza

typical stalls and shop fronts

On our excursion to Kaisei Village and Seto House, we stopped at a small local supermarket to use the bathroom and stretch our legs. The supermarket, small by our standards, was a visual delight and it was interesting to see the produce. It seemed to me that all goods came packaged in smaller quantities and the displays were artistically and neatly arranged. Everything looked impeccable and clean, a daily refrain about the land and its culture.

eggs on shelves, not refrigerated

greens used in typical Japanese cuisine

various dehydrated ingredients

mushrooms of all types

Outside, in front of the supermarket there were some plants and also goldfish in various sizes for sale. I found that intriguing because we certainly would not see live fish at a supermarket. I later read that once considered a luxury affordable only by lords, goldfish are considered to bring good luck, are kept as pets, and a part of the culture. 

A couple was setting up a table under a canopy across the parking lot. They were selling beetles, Japanese Rhinoceros beetles! Apparently, these are also purchased as pets for kids, I suppose much like hamsters or lizards. 

Besides the street markets and shops, there are other places to buy food and merchandise. 

Train stations are an important feature in the daily lives of the Japanese. Millions use trains and commute long hours to work in city centers. So, it's perhaps not surprising that the main and larger train stations provide shopping and restaurant facilities. The Tokyo station has an entire area devoted to fast food ekiben, which are special bento boxes sold at train stations (eki means station and bento means lunch box), as well as numerous bakeries, sweet, and sandwich shops. 

In the Kanazawa and Kyoto Train Stations, there were numerous restaurants as well as other souvenir and gift shops with merchandise beautifully displayed like in an upscale department store. 

Likewise, many large department stores and malls have market areas in their basements carrying a variety of fresh foods and other grocery items. There are also restaurants here.  In other words, it is never difficult to shop for food or something to eat en route to work, home, or during travels. And as is characteristic of the culture, everything is fresh, clean, and beautifully presented. 

food shopping in one of the many mall basements

In one of the basement markets, I noticed that Halloween seems to have taken hold in Japan. There was Halloween candy available with its own Japanese twist - 

cute Hello Kitty Halloween chocolates

And to make life even easier, there are also convenience and drug stores located on just about every corner. 

I was surprised to see 

7-Eleven stores here  - apparently as of 2024 there are 22,000 in Japan. However, Japanese 7-Elevens are in a completely different league from ours (which incidentally are owned by a Japanese holding company that is attempting to introduce the same quality and higher standard found in Japan to the US)! They also have ATMs and photocopiers. 

When Osamu first mentioned that 7-Eleven stores are a good choice if we want a quick, inexpensive take-out meal without having to go to a restaurant on the couple of evenings with no group-scheduled dinner, I was skeptical until we went into one. What a surprise to find a selection of fresh, prepared salads and sandwiches, hot foods like noodles, rice balls, bento boxes, chicken, pot stickers, as well as fruit drinks, beer, and various breads and snack items. They are open 24-hours a day and we did in fact pick up something to eat a couple of times to bring to the room with us instead of going to a restaurant for dinner, for a change and a quiet evening. 

Family Marts and Lawsons are similar to 7-Elevens and also carry a limited number of grocery items and some clothing, umbrellas, and pharmacy items. 

Japan is truly a culture of contrasts, where old ways and traditions coincide with modern and current ways of life. At the other end of the shopping spectrum, there are shopping areas that easily eclipse many malls and shopping districts in the US. In Tokyo, architecturally striking modern buildings line the approximately 12 and a half city blocks where you can shop for almost anything.   

The Ginza area in Tokyo close to where our hotel was located, is an especially upscale and affluent shopping district.  We walked the Ginza strip several times including at night when the atmosphere and ambience were quite festive with all the lights on. Here you find name brands like Gucci, Chanel, Vuitton, H&M, Zara, Tiffany's, and brands I have never even heard of, amongst others.  

Here also, posh restaurants line the uppermost floors of department stores, while select groceries and goods are available in the basement. In between, several floors beckon with their current fashion displays or other items for sale.

A friend recommended a peek into the clothing store called Uniqlo. The people were lined up outside to get in. Their display of cashmere sweaters currently in stock was eye-catching. I wish we had come with larger suitcases because the prices compared to back home for cashmere were more than reasonable. 

One of the buildings along the Ginza strip in Tokyo is Nissan Crossing, an  exhibition facility featuring a futuristic batman-like-mobile in their front window display. Here we saw vintage Nissans as well as concept futuristic cars with cutting edge technology, projecting the company's vision of future cars. 

On the very top floor, we saw a different technological marvel. Aibo (Artificial Intelligence RoBOt), is a robotic dog developed by Sony's Computer Science Lab.  Just like a real puppy, this rare breed performs life-like movements and antics, and if you call it by name, waddles over to you with tail wagging, then plops itself on its belly, legs extended looking at you adoringly. I was entranced.  

Real live rare-breed puppies can average around $1,300 with the very rare ones up to $8,000. So one-of-a-kind, Morro, with a price tag of only about $2,000 is a bargain. Plus he is a low maintenance dog since he doesn't need to be fed, or for that matter walked and have his deposits picked up. 

Morro, the Aibo wonder dog

Akihabara, a neighborhood in Tokyo, was a similar astounding experience. Known as electric town, Akihabara (also called Akiba), is a geek paradise. Here we entered a world that is totally foreign to me and very futuristic. Highrise stores sell anime video games, manga (Japanese comic books and graphic novels), but also computers, and household appliances. 

In the Akihabara Radio Center, we walked past many small retail store stalls selling electronic components and gadgets that are now mostly outdated. It reminded me more of a museum and a storage facility for what today would be antique or vintage devices, gadgets and parts, like 8-track and cassette players, turntables etc. 

The entire area teemed with people of all ages.

Akihabara district in Tokyo

Kyoto too has its upscale shopping street located in the heart of Kyoto where we walked along Shijo-Dori St.  There happened to be a fabric store located close to the Nishiki Market.  It was candy for the eyes with so many choices making it almost impossible to focus on any one fabric - I wanted a yard of them all. Japanese cloth is universally known for its quality which is not a surprise, after all, considering that quality is an integral part of the culture.  It felt heartwarming to learn that ladies here do still sew and buy fabric. 

Any type of fabric, from cotton to upholstery and garment fabrics was available in this multi-level shop, including a floor devoted to notions and threads. I finally chose a couple of pieces of fabric to bring back with me as reminders of my visit.

We also stopped at a clothing store called GU, a sister store of Uniqlo where I found three short sleeved t-shirts to tide me over in the lingering hot weather. The entire purchase amounted to roughly $15. I really wished we had brought larger cases. 

We definitely experienced the full range of Japan's shopping choices. The traditional street market and shopping streets remain the hub of daily life, where vendors ply their wares from small stall fronts. It's all neatly organized and arranged, albeit tight and often over-crowded. 

At the other extreme, the 7-Eleven type convenience stores, malls and departments stores, are the modern venue for food, restaurants, and all other other merchandise. 

No matter where you go, you will not go hungry or do without. Anything and everything is available and conveniently located along train routes or within walking distance. 

I really wish I had brought a larger suitcase...