Joanna and I had a shopping list of things to get while in Japan for ourselves and our friends and family but didn’t want the hassle of carrying stuff from city to city. The plan was to use the final 2 days of the trip to stock up. The project manager in me tried to optimize our time by consolidating all the shops we needed to visit into groups so that we didn’t have to spend so much time moving from place to place.
We started the morning early at 9am to make it to the Nintendo store in Shibuya before they opened at 10. I didn’t anticipate a line 15 min before opening but there were people handing out entry tickets and the line was already circling the building. We got in right away and were focused on getting some classic Nintendo controller keychains that use the same buttons as the original controllers distributed via what else? Gachapon machine of course. I read online that visitors are limited to 2, but we got there early enough where we tried our luck until we ran out of cash. We got several duplicates and Joanna had the genius idea to ask people who weren’t happy with theirs to trade. Ended up collecting every unique piece from the NES, Super NES, N64, and Gamecube.
We visited some additional stores and then moved onto the next place. Top item for me was the gestura spoon that I saw on an Instagram video that has special features like a flat edge for scraping things out of jars, it’s exactly 1 tablespoon in volume, and it has a fluted tip for pouring sauce. The spoon is manufactured in Japan but only 1 store in all of Asia sells it on Kappabashi St. which is the kitchenware and cooking district. They are also known to sell wax replicas of real food which are displayed in front of most restaurants in Japan. It’s incredible how lifelike they can be.
Joanna was also eyeing some ceramic dishes for our house so it made sense to spend some time in this area. She was fortunate to find some dishes that she really liked and they were eligible for a tax-free discount. However, the store that carried my spoon said that they sell out within 2 days of restocking. This store primarily sold kitchen knives but I didn’t have the heart to spend hundreds of dollars on a new knife, but maybe next time.
We moved onto Shinjuku and then Akihabara until the stores closed at 10pm. Our feet were killing us but maybe it helped that our wallets were also lighter? I took a before and after pic from our 23k step day.
The 2nd full day we had in Tokyo was more of the same. Optimizing our time in the city to shop. I did book tickets to Team Labs – Planets which is an art installation that many of our friends who have gone to Tokyo recommended. I slightly regretted the decision to buy the tickets only because I was stressing about fitting everything into the day but I will say that it was definitely worth the visit despite our tired feet.
The exhibits were broken out into 3 areas: Garden, Forest, and Water which react to your different senses. The Garden was an incredible place to start our visit. It had mirrors on the floors and walls with beautiful orchids hanging from the ceiling that raised and lowered at random intervals.
Forest had several interactive projections coupled with areas you can climb and jump, others you can draw a picture, scan it, and see it moving along the wall.
Water was the most interesting exhibit. You were required to place your shoes and socks in a locker and roll up your pants. This was a sensory exhibit where you spent a portion of it walking through water at calf height. There were projected fish and cherry blossom leaves in the cloudy water which was surprisingly warm and smelled like chlorine. There were other areas that played with light and benefitted from you being barefoot. I honestly got lost moving through the mirrored corridors because they looked like they went on forever.
There is another Team Labs in a different part of town with completely different exhibits we’ll have to try the next time we’re in Tokyo. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for activities in Tokyo, although there is literally no shortage of activities in Tokyo.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in Ginza which is the richest district of Tokyo. Joanna pointed out a $300k Rolls Royce parked on the road and recommended we not get near for fear of bumping into it. By 8:30 we were DONE with shopping. We were tired, hungry, and were dealing with migraines from the bright lights and sounds of the city. I made a comment on it feels like it was a repeat from the last time we were in Tokyo. Joanna said if we come back, we CANNOT leave shopping to the last few days and need to be more strategic on how we lay out our time because the last two days were super stressful and exhausting. Word to the wise, if you come to Tokyo and plan on shopping, plan for breaks throughout the day otherwise you’re going to hate it.
On the “bright side” we’re heading home tomorrow and we’ll have a 13 hour flight to sit and do nothing to recoup before going back to work on Tuesday😭
The art installations are superb. I love Japanese ceramic bowls. Petition for an unboxing reel. What’s the price range like?