For those who love both cooking and shopping, a visit to Tokyo’s Kappabashi Dori aka Kitchen Town is a must.
Located between Ueno and Asakusa – just 10 minutes’ walk west from Senso-ji (temple) – this stretch of road is lined with dozens of shops selling everything a restaurant could need, except for the food!
Alongside a huge array of stoves, rice cookers, grills, pots, pans and cooking utensils you’ll find plenty of covetable tableware, including beautiful pottery, lacquerware and bamboo items, and a great choice of chop sticks and chop stick rests.
You’ll also be able to browse for decorative items such as lanterns, noren (the fabric dividers hung in doorways throughout Japan) and table linen. There’s even an Americana store for themed bars and diners!
A few shops specialise in sampuru, the surprisingly realistic plastic models of food that many restaurants display in the window to showcase their menu, but be warned, these are surprisingly expensive! Restaurants buy sampuru to represent their best dishes, but as a tourists you will probably opt for an individual piece of sushi, or one of the other small items that are more affordable.
You can purchase practical items such as high quality Japanese knives, or more quirky objects such as unusually shaped vegetable and cookie cutters or wagashi (sweet) moulds.
Coffee fanatics are catered for by a large corner store stocking everything from large and very expensive barista machines to individual roasters, grinders and pour over devices – the indie coffee scene is huge in Tokyo.
At less than a kilometre long, you’ll be surprised at how much time (and money) some of us can while away browsing Tokyo’s Kitchen Town!
Check out my post all about the best souvenirs to buy in Japan and click here to find more Japan content on Kavey Eats.
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!24 Comments to "Snapshots of Japan | Kitchenware Shopping in Kappabashi Dori, Tokyo"
Looks wonderful – I could easily lose myself there!
Yes, it’s a place to while away hours!!
I found this so interesting. When I lived in Japan a while ago, I never heard of this street in Tokyo. The fact that all of these vendors have come together in one place makes this a shopping destination for sure. Yes, it’s great for the restaurants and commercial catering businesses but I would love to go shopping there as I’m sure I would find some fabulous things for my own kitchen.
We have visited on each of our three Japan holidays, I can’t resist the temptations. I don’t buy loads but I do choose a few things and it’s such a pleasure to browse.
Wow, what a place. I’d want to come home with at least half of these items! Happy belated birthday, too!
Yes, it’s tricky not to fill a whole suitcase!!
Tokyo’s Kitchen Town could certainly make a dent in my wallet! I really like the realistic plastic food but I’d probably settle for some cute cookie molds. What a neat area to explore and lose yourself!
Yeah, the plastic food is amazingly realistic but expensive for sure. The cookie cutters are amazing, such a huge selection!
Always expected nothing less then fancy stuff from Japan and this post reinstated the thought. Even when it comes to kitchenware they have such a great variety. I would live to visit Tokyo and go home shopping and this post is very helpful.
Yeah, we also found a bunch of handy clever things in the department store kitchenware sections and even in the 100 yen stores!
Quite an interesting array of items! I love cooking and shopping so this definitely is my kind of market. The crockery looks unique, would love to explore this market when I’m in Tokyo.
It’s a great place to visit. It’s actually just a long length of one single street (with just a handful of stores in cross streets nearby) and it’s not an attractive street either, but the shops themselves are fascinating.
That’s so cool (and a bit nuts) you can buy all those plastic food replicas! I absolutely loved shopping in Japan and exploring all the different quirky shops and things you can buy…things you can buy that you never even knew you needed too! Japan is definitely up among the coolest places I’ve ever visited. I wish I had more time in Tokyo on my last trip.
Yes, we love shopping in Japan too, just so much unusual (to us) things to buy!
Oh, wow! This is a heaven for people who like to cook or just like watching food channel. Seems like everything is there, from the traditional Japanese cookware to even Americana kitchen stuff. And the shop that specializes in sampuru, I think it’s cute!
Yeah, love the sampuru stuff! Lots of great items to browse and buy!
Oh wow, yet another reason to visit Japan!
I do have a bit of a thing for the replica plastic food… Probably best to stick to amazing knives and beautiful ceramics!
There are so many great ceramics!
Japan truly have many awesome kitchen wares! Their designs and functions will make you amazed as well.
Have you shop many?
Yes, we always bring back lots of things when we travel to Japan!
What a treasure trove! I love picking up pieces of ceramics and food while I’m away. Just need to find room in my suitcase for them!
Same!!
Wow! Japan is a fascinating country! But I may really need Google translate to survive there.
As you’ve mentioned it is indeed costly. I may not even consider shopping there. But those cookie cutters are indeed fascinating.
Only a few things are costly, many things are far less expensive than here in London and many items in kitchen town are very affordable, especially crockery, some cookware, and things like cookie cutters and chopsticks!