1Tsukiji Outer Market Shopping
Walk the narrow lanes locals still use for breakfast and kitchen supplies, arrive before 10 to beat tour groups.
Tokyo shopping is really three cities, and this plan gives each one a day: Ginza's polish, from Tsukiji's kitchen-supply lanes to all nine floors of Itoya; the Harajuku-to-Shibuya fashion corridor, from Takeshita Street's vintage racks to Omotesando's flagship architecture; and old Tokyo's craft streets, where Kappabashi sells the knives the city's chefs actually use. The meals are chosen like the shops: Ginza's queued-for tonkatsu and ramen, a century-old sukiyaki house by the Sumida.
Walk the narrow lanes locals still use for breakfast and kitchen supplies, arrive before 10 to beat tour groups.
Tokyo's grandest shopping avenue. Wako's clock tower corner marks the classic starting point.
Long-running tonkatsu house near Ginza's main strip, known for its miso-marinated pork cutlet.
Even without a full performance, the lobby gallery and single-act tickets let you glimpse this Ginza landmark's ornate facade.
Nine floors of Japanese stationery and craft goods, the 4th floor's washi paper section is a hidden favorite.
A tidal garden with a teahouse on the pond, the skyscrapers of Shiodome loom behind the pines at dusk.
Tiny, always-queued shop famed for its rich chicken paitan broth, a low-key close to a big shopping day.
Enter through the towering torii on Omotesando side, the forested approach quiets the city almost instantly.
Tokyo's teen-fashion artery, crepe stands and vintage racks packed tight in a few hundred meters.
Set in a converted 1930s bathhouse, this is the cutlet Aoyama shoppers actually queue for.
Tree-lined boulevard of flagship architecture, duck into the Dover Street Market building for its rotating installations.
Watch the choreography of a thousand pedestrians from Starbucks' second-floor window before crossing yourself.
Open-air rooftop deck 230m up, book the sunset slot, when Fuji is sometimes visible west of the skyline.
Solo-booth ramen counter, order via vending machine and customize your broth intensity slip.
Tokyo's oldest temple, go before 9:30 to see the Kaminarimon gate without the tour-bus crowds.
The temple approach's shopping arcade, ningyo-yaki cakes and traditional crafts line both sides.
Ride the futuristic Himiko boat downriver past Asakusa's bridges toward Hamarikyu, book ahead for weekend departures.
Century-old sukiyaki house near the river, the set lunch is a gentler, more affordable way in.
The street that supplies Tokyo's restaurants, plastic-food models and real Japanese knives sold side by side.
An old-town shotengai that survived the war and the bombs, cats, senbei crackers, and shopkeepers who remember regulars.
A century-old restaurant in Ueno Park's edge, serving kaiseki-style set courses in a wooden teahouse setting.
The breaded cutlet at its Ginza dressiest and its Aoyama coolest, one miso-marinated, one served in a converted 1930s bathhouse.
Ginza Kagari's rich, almost creamy chicken broth is one of the city's most queued-for bowls, and the queue moves fast.
Thin-sliced beef swished at the table in a room that has been doing this since the Meiji era; the set lunch is the affordable way in.
The department-store basement food halls are Tokyo's edible museums, and this plan walks right over several without stopping. Ask Robin to carve out an hour under Ginza before your Hamarikyu pause and it will.
No. Every day runs on the metro plus walking, and the one awkward stretch, Kappabashi to Yanaka on day 3, is a short taxi. Driving in central Tokyo would only cost you shopping time.
Most department stores and flagships handle it at a dedicated counter when you spend above the threshold: show your passport and the discount or refund is applied on the spot. Rules and minimums change, so check the current scheme before you fly.
Later than you might plan for: most boutiques open around 11:00 and department stores around 10:30, which is why this plan gives mornings to markets, shrines and temples. Evenings are generous, with many stores open to 20:00.
This plan keeps to the central circuit, with Takeshita Street and Yanaka carrying the secondhand flag. Koenji's arcades and Shimokitazawa are the true vintage deep-cut: give them a fourth day, or ask Robin to trade them into day 2.
Yes, cleanly: the five-day first-visit plan covers the neighborhoods sight-first, while this one shops them. If you have a week, run that plan and fold these shopping days in where they overlap.
Koenji's covered arcades in the afternoon, when the secondhand shops actually open, then Shimokitazawa's lanes into the evening. This is the day serious vintage hunters come to Tokyo for.
Start under a Ginza department store while the food halls are laying out the day's wagashi, then walk up to Nihonbashi's craft flagships for lacquerware and knives with centuries of pedigree.
Canal-side boutiques, record shops and the bookstore campus at Daikanyama make a slower, design-led closing day, with an easy run back to Shibuya for a farewell dinner.
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