Shopping

From Kuma-i

Contents 1 clothes 2 books 3 Food & Drink 4 Beer 5 furniture 6 used 7 craft and fabric 8 shopping arcades and shopping centers

clothes

If you are thinking to buy clothes or shoes, Downtown of Kumamoto city will be a good choice for you to visit.

• Shimotori & Kamitori these two strees are located in Downtown of Kumamoto city. It is near the Kumamoto Castel. These two strees are always busy for 24 hours. It is becuase there are not only for shopping, but also eating and drinking. If to compare the price ranges of these two strees, Shimotori is cheaper than Kamitori.

• Tsuruya is the most famous Department store in Kumamoto city. This department store sells high ends products. There are Gucci, LV, Chanel, versace clothing and other well-known brands you could find in this department store. There is also a good cosmetic section at the first floor of the building.

• Parco is another Department store that is next to Tsuruya. It is very popular among young adults and it is always busy. At Parco you could find all of the trendiest clothings, shoes, etc. The price range is not as expensive as in Tsuruya.

• Comme Ca Store has seven stories whish includes ladies, mens and child clothes. Comme Ca Store semms to be expensive shop, but some clothes are so cheap. If you go shopping the sale day, you can buy anything cheaper than the usual.

• Daiei, as a Japanese shopping expert pointed out, is the cheapest place in Kumamoto to buy clothes. Actually, it depends, but for the most part the selection Daiei carries isn't mansion expensive. If you aren't planning to spend buku bucks on clothes, or if you aren't Elaine , then Daiei would be the first logical choice for your shopping needs. There are many locations across Kumamoto; their logo is a bright orange circle with the letters Daiei below it.

• Hanshin is one of the few department stores in Kumamoto.

• Diamond City opened recently in 2005 and is probably one of the biggest shopping malls in Kumamoto! It has all kinds of regular brand name items; they're cheaper compared to Tsuruya. There are baby, teenager, and adult clothing sizes. A big supermarket is located in the basement. Also there is game center and food court located on the 2nd floor of Diamond City.

• Jun Club is pricey for the latest fashions, but there are some articles of clothing that, if you search carefully, are cheaper than they really are. There should be one in Kumamoto, but I am certain there is one in Fukuoka's Tenjin shopping district.

• WeGo is located in Shimotori across from Parco and is a good used clothing shop. The prices are very reasonable and an excellent place to shop for your used clothing needs.

books

• Tsutaya Bookstore is the Japanese equivalent of Barnes & Noble Booksellers in the States. But there's a catch: the books are in Japanese. ;) There is, however, a variety of Manga for foreign students and adults who enjoy reading that sort of stuff (Naruto is a good one!) or who want to further their Japanese language proficiency. And also, for an added bonus, the 2nd floor of Tsutaya is full of music and media ranging from CD's, videos, etc. Tsutaya Bookstore is located in Shimotori, but there are various other locations across the city of Kumamoto.

Food & Drink

Sanctuary Bar is located in Shimotori, at the back of Daiei. The reason i recommend to go this bar becuase it is very cheap. Most of the drinks are 300Yen. For example: Tequila shot is only 300 yen per shot. Some other drinks cost a little bit much. It is around 500yen but the cheapest drinks are around 200 yen. This bar has 4 floors. The ground level features a dance floor and a great place to have some fun. The second floor is a level for gaming, featuring dart boards an arcade games. The third floor is a more traditional bar setup with a wide selection of mind-bending puzzles to play with while drinking. The fourth floor features karaoke at a very reasonable 100 yen/song.

Crossroads is located off of Shimotori. Crossroads is a small, cozy bar catering to a foreign crowd. Typically one of the on-duty bartenders functions as a DJ for the small dancefloor located in the back.

Jeff's World Bar is also located off of Shimotori and also serves the foreign crowd in Kumamoto. The owner is also a professor at Kumamoto Gakuen Daigaku.

Halal food and basmati rice can be found here according to a | Kumamoto-i post

Beer

Most Japanese liquor stores sell only Japanese beer, and there is an increasing tendency for the smaller stores to skimp even on these, as now cheaper "sub-beers" (which contain less malt than beer, and by law need not even be fermented drinks) sell better, whether "happoushu" or "dai san shu". Stores that want to look a little international may sell one or more of Budweiser, Coors, Corona, or Guinness (either bottled, conventional canned, or draft cans). These stores include Suntops and some of the big new shopping malls such as Hikari no Mori. For a more extensive collection, Premier Cru (covered elsewhere on the site; formerly known as Good One or Moshi Moshi Kameya) or above all Irifuneya (on Sango-sen near Ueki) are about the only choices, though occasionally Tsuruya carries a few items for a short time, generally at inflated prices.

furniture

used

• Second Street is a nice used clothing, furniture, electric product shop.
• [HardOff] is a nation wide chain of recycle shops. A little more expensive than the mom and pop recycle shops, but everything is checked and cleaned up.

craft and fabric

• One on Shimotori
• Tokai is a chain that has a number of stores across Japan. Webpage is

http://www.craftheart-tokai.jp/ The Kyushu shops are here http://www.craftheart-tokai.jp/map/kyusyu.html. Two locations are given on the map, but there is also ones in Arao, Hikari no Mori shopping center and the new Diamond City Clair shopping center

• There is a fabric store at the Kuhonji Daiei shopping center.
• There is a pricey one in the small 'mall' at the Suidocho stop.

A map is at Kumamoto craft stores

• Asakusa-ya (浅草屋])

The shop sells many goods for Japanese festival and Japanese original souvenirs, Calender, Key rings, Imitation Katana, Ninja set, for example. Not only Japanese people but also many foreigners visit and enjoy shopping there so much because almost all of goods are written in Japanese and English.

This shop also has its own website (Japanese only) and we can check and buy goods on Internet.

In the case of culture, We also learn some difference of aspect between Japanese and Non-Japanese by the owner.

It takes about 10 min. from Karashima-Park. Look at Point "A".

Asakusa-ya

Let's GO and FEEL ancient and modern JAPAN!!

shopping arcades and shopping centers

• Kokaibashi shopping arcade is

shimotoori and kamitoori

• Aoki

Branches of "Aoki" a chain store which sells men's clothes, opened at Kuhonji and Hotakubo in Kumamoto two years ago. Now a half price sale is being held in this store now as two years' ceremony. So you will be able to buy all goods for the half price till 1/30. I recommend you to go there even though there was a large crowd during the weekend, there are still many bargains available.

-Kuhonji Shop: You should go from Kumamoto gakuen university toward the Hakuzan Dori. And you will be able to find the McDonalds and you can find this shop in front of it. Address- Kumamoto shi Kuhonji 6-3-28 Tel-096-375-0388 Open 10:00 Close 20:00

-Hotakubo shop*: The store is located on the intersection of Sangyo doro and Higashi bypass (route 57). You can see the shop there.

Address-Kumamoto shi Hotakubo 2-12-16 Tel-096-386-8388 Open 10:00 Close 20:00