Hangouts-Shimokitazawa
This area may be less known to tourists as a fashion district, but fashion lovers flock here because it is densely packed with vintage stores. Either exit will lead you to discovering something new!
Unlike Kōenji and Nakano you don’t have to look hard to find the shops—either on upper levels of buildings or down side streets. For the most part they’re obviously placed and easy to find! This makes for a much more relaxed shopping experience. Nothing is worse than searching for a shop when you’d rather be looking for the clothes themselves!
Shimokitzawa shop owners make the most of the space, using anything from an old garage to a caravan to sell their items from. The space is always filled to the brim with vintage pieces selected by the shop owner, who—of course—matches the aesthetic of the store perfectly.
The overall feeling of Shimokitazawa is very retro bohemian. The clothing is cheap and the atmosphere is chill. Despite the overwhelming amount of shops the area is very calm and you will easily find yourself wandering into a quaint café or vinyl record shop to indulge in the nostalgia of the surroundings.
This area is very popular with the young people of Tokyo and we can totally see why! It’s cheap and has fun things around every corner.
For a casual day of shopping in a place relatively unexplored by tourists, hit up Shimokitazawa!
