Lost in Tokyo Part 4 – Shopping for Things and Stuff in Tokyo

OK, let’s talk further about shopping in Tokyo.

I know, it sounds so consumptive, but believe me, you will become one consumptive bitch when you’re in Tokyo. Give it a day or two in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akihabara.

Vintage Video Games & Cheap iPhones and Electronic Whatnot Gadgets in Akihabara

My husband used to be a gadget-freak and is still a gamer. He has his weakness about MarioKart in Nintendo 64 that must have been out 15 years ago at the very least, but he loves it. When we met, and moved in together, he used to play and I accompanied her. We solved Zelda WindWaker together as well as Luigi Mansion and we had this Bongo Donkey Kong thing on Nintendo Gamecube, but his true videogame love-of-a-lifetime is MarioKart 64.

So when we booked the flight to Tokyo, naturally J wanted to go to Akihabara, shortly called Akiba, because it’s where all the video games, new and vintage ones, as well as electronic whatnot gadgets are sold.

Boy, am I right that he’d go crazy there.

If your husband is one vintage videogame geek like mine, I suggest Super Potato in Akiba. It’s the easiest to find and they have everything, the most complete collection of vintage videogame stuff – even things like Famicom, Super Nintendo, whatever! I almost wanted to buy one SNES for good ol’ time’s sakes but then I remembered I have a husband and a baby to tend to, a family to take care about and four businesses I must run, so, goodbye SNES.

Things worth seeing in Akiba:

- The main street where you have all the Anime Stores, Vintage Videogame Shops and just stores where you just want to spend and buy everything because the things are so cute.

- Super Potato of course for a videogame-crazed husbands/boyfriends… *le sigh*

- Craftmanship for all things plushies and accessories with Anime characters on them.

- Sofmap stores because they sell very cheap iPhones (locked with KDDI, AU or Softbank – but depending on your luck you might be able to unlock them in Jakarta) – I bought one iPhone 4S white 16 GB for my brother’s fiancee only ¥ 30,000 – something like IDR 3.6 mills or € 300; and another iPhone 4 black 32 GB 2012 production (so it’s iPhone 4 but was produced and released earlier this year) for my brother at approximately the same price.

- 100-Yen Stores that abound there – where everything costs – yes, the price is right – ¥ 100.

- Maid Cafes – basically cafes where you can hang out and play with girls dressed in cosplay attires (choose your own manga fantasy, you perv).

- M’S where all your pervy imaginations will come true. It’s all 6 floors of perversions in all kinds of aspects but mostly either S&M (hence M’S as store name) or cartoon-stuff.

- Yodobashi Cameras for all gadget-y things.

Get there by using either the Ginza Line or the Hibiya Line.

Fashion and Useless Cute Stuff in LED-full Shibuya

My other obsession was the LED-full Shibuya. It’s like, the place where people go to and strike a pose in front of dashing and bedazzling LED displays meters and meters high, where all the lights are on and the show must go on in Tokyo.

Shibuya also houses the upscale brands such as Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton and the whatnots, but what I found most appealing were the small stores of cute artsy things scattered around it.

You just have to go around and find those stores.

We bought some silly keychains with gay-figurines representing plants – ugly but so funny at the same time, with the main character being a peach whose name is Kakure Momojiri.

As well as some really cute, artsy and creative t-shirts for J & Louis (twin set, Louis has the small tees and J the big ones with same designs) at Arton Shibuya.

There is also this store called Tokyu Hands in Shibuya full of useless, but extremely cute stuff.

I bought some really cute earrings and whatnots in a small pinkie store called Claire, and then some other cute keychains in another store whose name I can’t remember.

Oh gosh, Shibuya. I just love it and gotta go there one day with a bagful of cash ready to be spent in a day!

Lost in Tokyo Part 3: Eating in Tokyo

Eating in Tokyo could be a challenging task because the waiters don’t speak English. Most menus don’t have English translation as well so just guess. Have a guess and let yourself be surprised by what you order.

But you have choices – wow – from sushis to fusion steaks to curry rices to noodles to drinks to bottled drinks to sweets and chocolates, you have even bigger choices than you have in Europe.

Sushi, Curry, Onigiri, Japanese Steak, Japanese Pizza, Takoyaki and Ramen

Price-wise, eating in Tokyo isn’t that expensive. If you want to be frugal, you can just stop off at any convenience store nearest to you like Lawson, 7-Eleven, Family Mart, Sun-Kus etc and you can have a packet of bento rice or sushi or curry rice or Japanese pastas for ¥ 300-500 (€ 3-5) or a simple Onigiri for ¥ 120-160. The Onigiris are deeeeeeeelicious. They can be of any fillings: Seaweed, Kawa (Chicken Skin), Tobiko (Fish Roe), Tuna & Salmon Mayo, Spicy Squid – just everything possible. Eat one and you’re totally full already.

In restaurants, well, it really depends on your budget – there are fancier ones like the Michelin-starred Japanese cuisine in our hotel, which could cost you between ¥ 5,000 to ¥ 25,000 (€ 50 to 250) but most street ones you find, delicious as well, cost between ¥ 350-1000 for a meal. Iced tap water is free of charge.

On the second night, we found this cute Tanuki Bar with a Tanuki as its mascot (Raccoon) which was so nicely decorated in Japanese ecritures, but we didn’t understand a thing they said so off we went after a drink, and landed in a sushi bar with moving sushi belt that sold all the sushis for ¥ 150 a plate – it was so deliciously fresh and tasted so much better than any sushis I had ever tasted in Indonesia. (No sh*t, Sherlock – it’s Japan, the land of sushis)

What we really really found delicious in Tokyo:

- Sushis: from ¥ 150 a plate.

- Japanese Curry (try CoCo IchibanYa – move over Mr. Curry!!): from ¥ 480 a plate.

- Onigiri (even the ones from Family Mart / Lawson tasted yum): from ¥ 120 apiece.

- Japanese Steak (we found this one great resto in Shibuya, just 10 meters from the Crossing of Shibuya Station / Hachiko Statue, above the GasPanic Club, on the 4th or 5th floor – honestly we didn’t even remember the name but their steaks were just so heavenly – generous portion, well-done, delicious sauces): from ¥ 500 per portion / dish.

- Japanese Pizza: I didn’t taste any but J said the pizzas he ate at this small bar in Shimbashi, near our hotel, was one of the best pizzas he ever tasted. ¥ 380-580.

- Takoyaki: ¥ 350 for 6 balls approximately. Takoyakis are small squid-filled balls that I happen to be addicted to, since recently. I had them for dinner after going back from Shibuya, found them in the Tokyo Food Show at the Shibuya Station. Gahh, they’re awesomely tasty.

- Ramen: not a big fan to be honest. But some people can find the ramens very delish – from ¥ 500 I guess.

Kit Kats, Chocolates, Tokyo Banana, Mochi and Cakes

Japanese sweets industry must be thriving because there must be a million products available in the sweets area. I had the difficulty restraining myself from eating all the sweets there because they were so tempting, well-packaged and well-visualized.

Kit Kats are another story. I knew since long that Japanese Kit Kats are the variants you will never find anywhere else in the world. Try these: Wasabi, Peach, Plum, Blueberry Cheesecake, Raspberry, Black Chocolate, Green Tea, Strawberry, Banana – unfortunately, we could only find the Raspberry, Black Chocolate and Blueberry Cheesecake Kit Kats

Next time we go to Tokyo I must find more flavors.

Japanese like to make their cookies and cakes pretty and creative-looking. You’d find cakes shaped in the forms of Anime cartoon characters, mainly at the “Connerie Land” alias the souvenir shopping mall under the Tokyo Sky Tree. Doraemon mini-cakes, Hachiko cookies, Pokemon biscuits etc etc. Endless shopping sprees!! They’re so cute you cannot resist buying them – we bought a DomoKun tin containing chocolates for Baby Louis even though he doesn’t eat any chocs yet.

Mochi-wise the same – I went crazy!!! Oh, next time I must bring home so much more of those cute-looking mochis!

How about Tokyo Banana? Tokyo Banana is currently most happening souvenir from Tokyo – I bought two boxes for my friends and even the yellow packaging was too cute. The ones I bought were Tokyo AkiBanana from Akihabara / Akiba.

Gahhhh, the joys of spending. I was turning into a true shopaholic the whole time I was in Japan.

So, you’re still not booking the next flight to Japan?

Lost in Tokyo Part 2: What We Love about Tokyo

I hadn’t been in Tokyo for a long, long time and J never went there. So we just took off one day and explored Tokyo for a week.

WE. LOVE. TOKYO.

Tokyo is a clean and proper construction of metals, betons and skyscrapers that still remembers its nature: in between the tall and multilayered Tokyo, there’s always a touch of green. Parks, pedestrian zones, a patch of garden. It’s amazing.

In France and Germany, we don’t go to the malls on the weekends. We go to parks and picnic there. We go to libraries and read. We go to painting expo and be amazed. We go to the riverside and sunbathe. In Jakarta, forget it. There is no such thing as those free luxuries. But in Tokyo, as a matter of fact of being in a city so futuristic, the capital of the most developed country in Asia, we, once again, found these little luxuries that we long so much.

In Tokyo, you just walk. Walk. And walk. I could barely feel my feet anymore after a day – but it’s so fulfilling and new and each thing is a discovery, a wonderment, that we kept walking.

Tokyo is one big pot of colorful images and creativity bundled with noisy sounds that make of the city charming. It’s a giant ant farm so productive it doesn’t leave any room for unproductivity.

Tokyo is so electric that even the smallest things in daily life are electric and electronic. Small things that make life more comfortable, things done and get done faster, ways imagined as efficient as they could be – there’s no space for mistake.

Well, it’s a city so visual that everything is designed as creative as it could be and as neat and proper as it must be.

Tokyo – we love it.

RANDOM THINGS ABOUT TOKYO YOU SHOULD KNOW

- Tokyoites do not speak English – or very little of it. We had to struggle with the language barrier.

- Tokyoites are VERY polite and well-mannered.

- There is NO trashbin anywhere in the city – people are expected to bring home their trash and put it in their own garbage bin.

- You can find convenience stores everywhere – 7-Eleven, Lawson, Family Mart, Sun-Kus and many, many more. They’re open 24 hours straight non-stop.

- Tokyo Metro is very neat BUT complicated. The ticket-vending machines are all in Japanese and it took us like 5 minutes before we figured out how to switch to English and buy our tickets.

- Tokyoites are very consumptive and very branded-minded. Everyone totes something with a brand – in the metros, on the streets, everywhere, literally. From top to toe. Old, young, children, men, women alike.

- Toilets in Japan are SO VERY CLEAN, believe me. And most of them have this electric shower system that you can control: hot water, normal-temperature, how hard is the pressure, and the seats are heated. The toilet seats open up themselves to you when you walk in to the cubicle.

- Tokyo is multilayered like I said. The city is built to minimize the loss of space and to make sure every centimeter is being used properly. So, we often find seating places outdoor and restaurants on B2 or B3 (that’s 2 and 3 levels underground) with a very high view of beton walls.

- Tokyoites are very punctual.

- Tokyoites are very creative and cartoon-minded. Whenever there is something to draw on, to illustrate on, they do make use of these spaces.

- Anything else? Well, we’ll be back soon!

Lost in Tokyo Part 1: Hunting Designer Stuff in Shinjuku

We’re in Tokyo!

Well, isn’t that obvious. We’ve been planning to go to Tokyo for over a year now – last year our holiday was cancelled due to the tsunami that suddenly hit Japan. And earlier this year due to some problems with the airline.

Anyway, we’re in Tokyo since Wednesday night and it’s been fun! We’re staying at the Park Hotel Tokyo at the Shiodome Media Tower.

Japan is really a world apart. Most people don’t speak English here and almost everything is written in Japanese, sometimes with translation in English, sometimes not. We’ve got some difficulties in asking directions for example – nobody answers your questions if you speak English! Moreover, people always mistake me for a Japanese – so they don’t bother speaking in English at all. The first day, it took us about ten minutes before we got to operate the Tokyo Metro ticket vending machine correctly.

But I’m not going to talk about Tokyo first – as per request from my friends on Twitter, BBM and Whatsapp, the first episode of my Lost in Tokyo Series is “Hunting Designer Stuff in Shinjuku”.

Brand fanatics? Welcome to the Paradise of Shinjuku

I love branded designer stuff. OK, you can call me shallow or whatever, I also used to think that branded stuff were not for me and simply too pretentious, unaffordable, useless. But then I had my first Marc Jacobs and then Louis Vuitton bag and I was instantly hooked. I’ve been collecting them since. And believe me, once you cross over to the other side, there’s no getting back. You will always want more and more.

So when I heard from a friend of mine who just visited Tokyo that you can find real designer stuff for so much less in Tokyo, I absolutely had to go where she went.

I don’t usually buy secondhand stuff – I like my Louis Vuitton vachetta light-colored and clean (my husband pointed out that the fakes’ vachetta don’t age and don’t develop any patina and he told me why buy authentic bags when they age faster than the fakes? OH. Men. I haven’t yet started talking about him going crazy on vintage Nintendo consoles in Akiba yesterday), but from time to time, why not? If the stuff is mint and almost like new.

Anyway, my friend had emptied all her bonus in her Tokyo shopping spree. She went there with a Japanese colleague from Tokyo, who guided her throughout the hidden treasures in Shinjuku.

She also told me an interesting story she got from the Jap colleague: the fact that these designer stuff usually come from “working” girls.

In Tokyo, it is a common thing that a girl who works also gets supported by her lovers /admirers / sugar daddies. Not only the ones working in karaokes / bars but sometimes also girls who work as shopkeepers, waitresses – well, you never know. I can understand – the three days we’ve been spending here have shown us how much Tokyo is the palace of excessive consumption even worse than Paris. Almost everyone wears designer stuff here. In the metro, on the streets, everywhere I see women and men sporting designer stuff. Clad in everything that has a name, from top to toe.

So, these girls are happy to accept men who maintain their lifestyle – buy them branded stuff, jewels, watches…but then often they get tired of the gifts or they need money or they just want something else, so they go and sell or exchange the gifts off for so much less and get something else they prefer – another model of bag, another kind of jewel, whatever – that’s how the designer stuff end up at the secondhand shops for so much less.

This kind of business could work good in Jakarta – where you see a lot of kept girls. But then again, maybe not. Indonesian kampong girls like to keep the stuff their sugar daddies buy them – afterall, not everyday a kampong girl could get designer stuff, am I right?

I, for one, know of a girl who earned merely the minimum wage but went wild and spent twice her salary, over US$ 300 in Zara and Mango when her European sugar daddy came visiting her. (OH. You get it now. For Indonesians, Zara and Mango – and soon H&M – ARE luxury. Thanks for the importers who deliberately sell them way overpriced. I almost never buy anything from them because they’re overpriced in Jakarta and being positioned too up high. Been saying it over and over again: in Europe, wearing Zara or Mango and even more H&M means you’re a student or young – nothing luxurious about it, it’s just stuff you wear everyday – while in Jakarta, it’s HIP and POSH and TRENDY! What? You don’t like Zara and Mango? Can’t afford it? You’re not cool, then!)

Anyway, girls like these abound in Jakarta as well. But they’re perhaps simply “less expensive” than their Japanese counterparts because they could be happy just by going to Zara or Debenhams. So maybe this kind of business model – secondhand shops – could work good in Jakarta but you gotta lower the standard: instead of selling Louis Vuitton,  Chanel, Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Balenciaga, Hermès and the likes, you gotta sell the high street brands like Zara, Mango, Uniqlo, H&M.

I’ve strolled out too far I guess – enough about it, let’s get back to my Tokyo story.

This morning, it was raining in Tokyo so we decided the shrines and the palace were off the track and chose to go to the commercial centers instead. I opted for Shinjuku. That’s where my friend found her steals.

We got out at the Shinjuku Station, the exit next to SunRoute Plaza Shinjuku, and some fifty meters farther, I was crazed to see the first of the stores: DAIKOKUYA.

Daikokuya

Daikokuya are small shops scattered a bit everywhere – later I also saw their signs in Ginza and in Shibuya. I got into about 4-5 Daikokuya shops today in Shinjuku and Shibuya.

Daikokuya are small shops where you can purchase and sell back designer stuff. Not only bags – also shoes, wallets, accessories, jewelries, even watches.

They price the bags at reasonable range – a small Louis Vuitton women’s wallet in monogram starts at ¥ 8,900 – which literally translates to € 89. Monogram Neverfull starts at ¥ 38,000 for ones with whose vachetta has already developed patina and Monogram Speedy (not the Speedy B like mine, though – I didn’t find the Speedy Bandoulière like mine anywhere in the shops today) starts at ¥ 15,000 for the smallest one, size 25, and ¥ 23,000 for size 30. Gucci and Prada bags start at ¥ 20,000 while the Coach bags are even cheaper – as much as ¥ 8,000 for a Poppy tote. Google yourself the real price on their website.

Daikokuya also sell men and women’s watches and jewelries. I even saw some Cartiers and Rolexes sold at ¥ 60,000 and beyond today.

Komehyo

Second stop after Daikokuya was Komehyo. It’s an eight-story building in main area of Shinjuku, located across the big Isetan which is literally like Printemps or Galeries Lafayette in Paris. We didn’t go to Isetan – what for? I prefer going to Lafayette next month for the mid-year soldes/big summer sale.

So, Komehyo is a paradise for secondhand stuff. All designer, all branded, all real. People don’t sell fakes in Japan, unlike in China or Jakarta or Bangkok or even Paris suburbs.

First floor – bags, perfumes and jewelries. I saw some Birkins there, priced at ¥ 220,000 to start with – I have never seen any Birkin priced so cheap – the Jakarta-based online shops on Facebook usually sell them at Rp 55,000,000 and beyond which converts to US$ 6,000 and that’s rare – very rare.

Well, not in Japan, apparently.

Komehyo is eight floors of secondhand steals. Almost everything is secondhand and so much cheaper here. Bag-wise, they have everything: from the first-tier brands such as Hermès, Vuitton, Veneta, Balenciaga, YSL, Gucci, Dior, Chanel, they also have the second-tier ones such as Kate Spade, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Tory Burch, Coach.

On the first floor, a Kate Spade purse was ¥ 7,900 – mint condition, Stevie Classic Stucco monogram was ¥ 10,000 something. Marc by Marc Jacobs start at ¥ 10,000 as well. Balenciaga Vélo starting at ¥ 35,000, while a Chanel Cabas Maxi 08 Series was around ¥ 70,000.

Second and third floor boast luxury watches. We saw some Cartiers and Audemars-Piguets priced at ¥ 1 millions and beyond. Fourth floor is jewelries – from Tiffany & Co to BVLGARI to whatever is Swiss and expensive.

Komehyo’s Fifth Floor

Fifth floor. Now, fifth floor is solely dedicated to branded leather goods: handbags, wallets, luggages – they even have the DISCOUNT BIN where they toss in Louis Vuittons of various standard monogram basic models starting at ¥ 25,000!! You also have some Coach and Hermès Garden Party.

See? SEE WHAT I MEAN?? I went crazy here!

Komehyo’s Sixth and Seventh Floor

Sixth floor has secondhand clothes and shoes for second-tier brands such as Marc by Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors etc. I saw some cute MJ espadrilles and flats but they’re all size 36-38. Too small for me. Prices start as low as ¥ 800 on this floor.

And on the seventh floor you have first-tier brands: Chanel jelly tongs for ¥ 5,600, Louboutin flats starting at ¥ 15,000 and endless Jimmy Choos, Manolos, Prada, Ferragamo, Miu-Miu, Gucci, Vuittons and Dior from practically the same starting price.

If you’re traveling on budget, Komehyo best stays avoided. Believe me, even the least shopaholic person will go crazy here.

Brand Off Tokyo

After we went out, we found another shop not so far from Komehyo, on the same side of the road. It’s called Brand Off Tokyo. I couldn’t take any pictures there since it’s so small and the salespeople were all looking. (It’s actually forbidden to take photos in the shops)

Brand Off Tokyo also had super cheap stuff – like a monogram Louis Vuitton Aquarelle and Dentelle starting at ¥ 30,000. Second floor is entirely Hermès – I’ve never seen so many Birkins and Kellys in my life! They have new Birkins – the most expensive one is the pumpkin orange Hermès signature color made from Ostrich leather with gold hardware and teeny mini diamonds, priced at ¥ 1,580,000.

The cheapest Picotins were about ¥ 50,000 and one I liked, Shoulder Kelly in tan leather is ¥ 200,000.

Other Small, Privately Owned Boutiques in Shinjuku

In Shinjuku you also have lots of smaller, privately owned secondhand boutiques. They are the CHEAPEST ones by far, with LV wallets starting at ¥ 3,000 – downside is, the collections are incomplete and most often are more vintage / older.

The Vuittons’ vachettas are almost always so dark already – end patina stage. But well, for that price, shut up and stop complaining already. If you want a white vachetta you have the official stores, right?

Now, are you booking the next flight to Tokyo??

Well, that’s about it – I’m glad we went to Shinjuku today. It’s going to be my must-list from now on if I go back to Tokyo.