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Two Tokyo shopping days, with vintage shops, standing sushi and coffee jelly

Shop browsing and a good meal often went together on Haruru’s Tokyo days out. These are two different outings: a Golden Week journey through three neighbourhoods, and another day linking Shimokitazawa with Kichijoji.

Two separate personal shopping memories, with their visits and meals kept distinct.

Golden Week: Kichijoji, Koenji and Shimokitazawa

The Golden Week outing began in Kichijoji with a favourite standing-sushi stop. After looking around four shops there, Haruru took the train to Koenji, where browsing the vintage-clothing shops was part of the fun.

Then it was another train ride to Shimokitazawa. She bought some household items and vintage clothes along the way. There was a lot of walking, but it made for a satisfying shopping day.

Sushi rolls and nigiri with browned surfaces.
Orange-topped nigiri, with a note listing the order of the walk around town.
White-topped nigiri with a display case behind.
Nigiri with silver skin and a green garnish.
Golden Week: Kichijoji, Koenji and Shimokitazawa — Haruru’s photograph

Coffee jelly, grilled offal and ramen

A break at Kohikan brought back a student-days memory. It had been decades since Haruru had last been there, and ordering coffee jelly made her feel how much time had passed.

After shopping, she tried a horumon grill restaurant for the first time and enjoyed the food with beer. Even after that meal, she finished with ramen. The day held plenty of browsing, walking and eating.

Coffee jelly topped with ice cream, with a note recalling 珈琲館 (Kohikan).
A plate of meat coated in sauce, with a note about horumon yakiniku.
Pieces of meat on the grill, with smoke rising.
A dish of long pieces coated in orange sauce and a chopped green garnish.
Meat coated in a pale sauce on a metal plate.
A bowl at the end of the day out, annotated “尾道ラーメン”—Onomichi ramen.

A different day back in Shimokitazawa

On a separate outing, Haruru returned to Shimokitazawa after more than ten years away. There were many small shops, vintage-clothing shops and places for lunch to look around.

Her photographs include the wooden front of RAINBOW, a dish on an iron plate and a plate of pasta. Another shopfront is crowded with hats, bags, crockery and metal containers: small details from a day spent looking around the neighbourhood.

A different day back in Shimokitazawa — Haruru’s photograph
A different day back in Shimokitazawa — Haruru’s photograph
A different day back in Shimokitazawa — Haruru’s photograph
A different day back in Shimokitazawa — Haruru’s photograph
A different day back in Shimokitazawa — Haruru’s photograph
A different day back in Shimokitazawa — Haruru’s photograph
A different day back in Shimokitazawa — Haruru’s photograph

Another standing-sushi stop in Kichijoji

That second outing continued in Kichijoji with more shopping and standing sushi. Haruru liked the meal enough to tell the restaurant she would come back.

The sardine and horse mackerel were particular favourites, and she ordered more of both. This was a different sushi visit from the one that began the Golden Week route.

Another standing-sushi stop in Kichijoji — Haruru’s photograph

Horse sashimi and the motsunabe she forgot to photograph

In the evening, the second outing took her to a Kyushu-style motsunabe restaurant. She forgot to photograph the pot itself, but her account remembers the meal.

The horse sashimi, especially the tategami cut, was a highlight for her. After a day of shopping, eating and drinking, she looked back on it as a fun holiday.

Horse sashimi and the motsunabe she forgot to photograph — Haruru’s photograph

Sources for this account

Haruru's separate accounts of shopping days in Tokyo, edited and shared with her permission. The two visits are retold separately.