Tokyo Cheapo's Guide To Shimokitazawa

Good morning, ladies, gentlemen and cheapos! Today we're coming to you from Shimokitazawa, which is a veritable cheapos paradise. We have second hand, vintage, thrifting, hipster hangouts, live bars, cheap restaurants. It's all here. Isn't that right, Angela? Yes, it is! Why don't we go check it out? Let's go! Shimokitazawa is a bohemian neighborhood just a few stops from central Tokyo. It makes a great close getaway from the hustle and bustle of the big city, so if you want to experience a different side of Tokyo, this is the place. The narrow streets of Shimokitazawa are filled with vintage clothing shops, hippie cafes, live houses and much, much more. So let's go explore that today. Looking for our first cheapo shop and I found a furugiya. Furugi meaning second hand clothes. So let's go and check it out. So we've found a stick out store, 700 yen store with everything in there only 700 yen. Which is pretty cheap. Let's go and have a look. So this shop not only sells second hand clothing but it also has new clothing all for 700 yen. So let's go inside and take a look but first, here are the opening hours. When you first enter the shop, you will notice the shop is very clean and tidy. Everything is sorted into categories so it makes it easier to find what you are looking for. The condition of the clothes are also in very good condition and quite up to date with fashion trends. They also have a good variety of women's wear and men's wear so let's go see what Chris has found. Hey, lean wrangler. These are all decent jeans. For 700 yen. What size is that? You're putting me on the spot there actually. Tell everyone your size. This is size M. I'm medium. Let's try these. So after you've picked a few pieces you want to try out, it's time to head to the changing room. Let's see what Chris has chosen. Now it's starting to get a bit cold in Japan so Chris has picked out the sweater and jeans all for a total of 1,400 yen. And he's all ready for autumn. Not only does this shop sell clothes, it sells a lot of accessories as well. 700 yen for a belt. Great find, Chris. And right there is a very happy Chico. Let's head back to the streets and see what else we can find. Now don't be surprised if you find a lot of these vintage second hand clothing shops every corner you turn because that is what Shimokitazawa is well known for. And it doesn't stop just at clothes. You can also buy second hand DVDs, comics, books and even used kimonos. So this is a proper 100 yen store. You might know that there was a tax increase recently. So all the 100 yen stores are really 108 yen stores. Not this one. This one is a 96 yen store. When you include tax, it's exactly 100 yen. This is a Chico friendly, true 100 yen store. So next we have come to the Shimokita Garage department. This shopping area is packed with around 20 fashion, art and general merchandise stores. The condition when setting up a store here is that your store must be a store that contains handmade original products which makes this department store filled with unique and one and only items. And of course, there are many second hand stores and bargains to find in here. So another thing about Japanese second hand shops is that the quality is really good. So even if the price is just 600 yen, that's around 6 dollars US, the quality is still pretty good and it's really clean. You just have to dig around and find something that you like. So while I have a shop around, let's go see what Chris is up to. So this is Danny. We dragged him off the street. Let's talk about Shimokitazawa. So in 5 words, sum up your 5 adjectives. Well, it's quaint. That's an adjective. It's skinny. It's very bohemian. I probably read that in Lonely Planet. But it does have a hippie vibe. It sort of reminds me a bit of parts of Melbourne. With all the sort of little winding bits. You lose your orientation. I don't know how many times we've been up and down the same street and thinking that we haven't seen it. And it just seems to constantly change. Just fresh people and fresh looking shops. And have you bought anything yet? Oh, we bought a lot of weird junky stuff. What else is it? It's calm. It's really calm. Coming out of Shibuya. Or Shinjutsu. Shinjuku. It's incredibly calm and laid back. And I think I've had it all. So if you get a little bit tired from all the walking around and shopping, there are a lot of cool cafes to check out. And a lot of them have outdoor seating as well. Even Family Mart. And if you want to try out some good coffee in Shimokitazawa, then definitely check out this shop. Also check out the free art gallery on top of this cafe. So what can we say about Shimokita? I suppose we voted it the number one place to live, the number one district in Tokyo to live on Tokyo Cheapo. Because it's a combination of being cheap, obviously, the district itself, the neighbourhood, as you see in this video, there's lots of stuff going on. Cafes, bars. It's a pretty self-contained interesting place. And it's walking distance from Shibuya, Nakameguro. It's right in the heart of Tokyo. So it's a really good neighbourhood. It's really central. It's a good place to base yourself if you're just living here long term, or if you're just visiting for a week. It's a really good place to have as a base. It's not too busy. If you stay in a hotel in Shinjuku or something, you're right in the hornet's nest. There's total people everywhere. It's a more quiet neighbourhood. There's no high-rise buildings. You don't really feel like you're in the heart of Tokyo, but you're so close to the centre of Tokyo. That's what I love about Shimokitazawa. It's so close to the centre. It's only, I think, 5 minutes, 10 minutes away from Shibuya. I think it's 3 minutes. It's something like that. It's literally one stop. But when you get off, the environment is completely different from Shibuya. You've got the local feel as well, because of the locals around this area. It's bohemian central. It's very different from Shibuya. Very close. So we hope you enjoyed exploring this area around with us and seeing some of the vintage second-hand clothing shops. And let us know down below your thoughts on Shimokitazawa. Or even better, how about giving us 5 adjectives? I think this poster very much captures the essence. It's a little handmade felt thing. And it's happening real soon. 8th of October till 10th of October.