Shopping
Shopping in Japan
Shopping hours in Japan is usually from 10/11am to 7/8pm. Most stores are open weekends and holidays except some specialty stores. In Japan, you need to pay 5% consumption tax in addition to the price. Japanese department stores are fun places to shop. They carry many kinds of traditional Japanese goods as well as the latest fashions. Check out the store sales, which are usually held in July, August, December, and January. Also visiting flea markets in Tokyo might be fun.Duty-free shopping is only available in Japan’s international airports but tax-free shopping is possible in urban centres at authorised tax-free stores. In these stores, purchases of over ¥10,000 on selected items are exempt from Japan’s 5% Consumption Tax but it is worth comparing prices at discount stores and bargain markets before you buy.
Though Roppongi Hills is currently the hottest shopping area in Tokyo, it is by no means the only place to max out your gold card. The Ginza District is centrally located and bejeweled with the neon signage that has become the default image of urban Tokyo. Head to Ginza on Sunday’s when the main thoroughfare—the Chuo-Dori—is closed to motor traffic. This weekly Japanese block party offers street music, vendors selling magical puppets, and, above all, great people watching. Off the main thoroughfare you will find numerous art galleries, and, just like the Keyakizaka section of Roppongi Hills, Ginza is home to Louis Vuitton, Dior, Channel and a host of other designer boutiques.
The shopping of the ladies of the large yashikis and of wealthy families is done mostly in the home; for all the stores are willing at any time, on receiving an order, to send up a clerk with a bale of crepes, silks, and cottons tied to his back, and frequently towering high above his head as he walks, making him look like the proverbial ant with a grain of wheat. He sets his great bundle carefully down on the floor, opens the enormous furushiki, or bundle handkerchief, in which it is enveloped, and takes out roll after roll of silk or chintz, neatly done up in paper or yellow cotton. With infinite patience, he waits while the merits of each piece are examined and discussed, and if none of his stock proves satisfactory, he is willing to come again with a new set of wares, knowing that in the end purchases will be made sufficient to cover all his trouble.
