Tips

Shopping in Tachikawa – 9+1 must go places

Tachikawa is full of shopping places from shopping mall, department store to electronics stores, etc. As a result, whatever that is you need to buy, I am sure you can find it in Tachikawa. The reason why I wrote 9+1 is because one of it, called Green Springs, isn’t open yet. It is planning to open in the spring of next year 2020. So where to shop in Tachikawa exactly?

Shopping Mall

LaLaport Tachikawa Tachihi

Large shopping mall with over 250 stores, food court and restaurants. In addition to shops and restaurants, clinics for internal medicine, dentistry, ophthalmology are also available.

Recommended shops

Here is a list of shops (alphabetical order) I think are worth visiting (in my opinion) for buying gifts for your family, friends or even for yourself. These are just a few, and there are hundreds more you should go check out yourself!

Akachan Honpo (the most well known baby and maternity brand in Japan)

Awesome Store (popular for stylish and cute products. Relatively cheap too.)

Francfranc (stylish interior decor and furniture. Not so cheap but some products are worth the price)

Mujirushi Ryohin (simple and stylish clothing and home products)

Seria (100 yen shop franchise that is known to be more stylish than other same kind of 100 yen brands)

Tokyu Hands (variety store with many products unique to Japan)

UNIQLO (good quality and price clothing)

Village Vanguard (variety store with full of unique stuff. Store layout is very unique too)

212 Kitchen Store (cute and stylish kitchen products)

3 Coins (variety store where most of products are 300 yen! Cheap and cute. Sometimes they make products collaborating with famous characters such as Doraemon, etc. and they are always super cute.)

Detail information

Hours:
Shopping services 10AM – 9PM
Food court 10AM – 9PM
Restaurant services 11AM – 10PM
(※ Eggs ‘n Things 9AM – 9PM)
Supermarket 9AM – 10PM
Clinics hours vary for each clinic

Address:
935-1 Izumi-town, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-0015 

Phone:
042-595-9393

Access:
Right next to Tachihi Station of Tama Monorail Line

Others:
・Babies/Kids friendly
・Baby stroller rental with 100 yen deposit (you will get the money back)
・Baby break room, diaper change room
・Free Wi-Fi (4 times a day, 30 minutes each)
・Tax free shops available but the list not available from the shopping mall site

Official site:
https://mitsui-shopping-park.com/lalaport/tachikawa/en/ (Unfortunately, main information is in Japanese only. Minimum information is available in English, Chinese and Korean.)


LUMINE

A shopping mall which is directly connected to JR Tachikawa Station with approximately 280 shops. Most of the stores are more towards young people in their 20s or even younger. Especially, if you want to check out trends of young Japanese people, LUMINE is a great place to go.

Recommended stores

There are just way too many clothing stores and variety of stores so I wouldn’t list here. To name a few, here is a list of stores (alphabetical order) that I go often.

Gong Cha (Taiwanese drink shop franchise. In fact, they sold the company to Gong Cha Korea, so now it’s technically Korean company selling Taiwanese drink. You will always find a long line with young people. However, if you go there in the morning on weekdays, the line isn’t too bad. Make sure to include Tapioca as topping for your milk tea, because they don’t come by default.)

PLAZA (variety store full of character goods such as Barbapapa, Care Bears, Simpsons, Snoopy, just to name a few! I love this store! Every time I go, they have new goods to check out and make me spend more money!! lol)

Seijo Ishii (Grocery market franchise that I would say is similar to Whole Foods Market in the US. For example, they offer a wide range of healthy items, including fresh foods, various home made deli products and desserts. Also they have imported wines and cheese.)

Supermarket in the B1 floor (Fish and meat sold here is well know to be very fresh.)

UNIQLO (good quality and price clothing)

Detail information

Hours:
Shopping services
Weekday 10AM – 9PM
Weekend/Holiday 10AM – 8:30PM
Book store 10AM – 10PM
Restaurant services 11AM – 10PM

Address:
2 Chome-1-1 Akebonocho Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-0012

Phone:
042-527-1411
Customer Telephone Consultation Office: 0120-639-007

Access:
Directly connected to JR Tachikawa Station
※ Parking available but very expensive! 🙁 No matter how much money you spend there, they only offer free parking up to 2 hours only. After than, it’s 350 yen per 30 minutes! I wouldn’t drive my car.

Others:
・Free Wi-Fi
・Approximately 50 tax-free shops

Official site:
https://www.lumine.ne.jp/english/tachikawa/ (Unfortunately, main information is in Japanese only. Minimum information is available in English, Chinese and Korean.)


GranDuo Tachikawa

A shopping mall which is directly connected to JR Tachikawa Station. When I walk into GranDuo Tachikawa, the first feeling I get is that it is a bit old style compared to other shopping places in Tachikawa. It opened in 1999 so it’s not that long ago and LUMINE Tachikawa (used to be WILL) opened in 1982 so it should be a lot newer than LUMINE. But it’s not. Whereas LUMINE targets young people, GranDuo is supposed to target women in their mid 20s and 30s.

Recommended shops

To be honest, I don’t really go to GranDuo for shopping because most of the stores I want to go are available in LaLaport or other places. However, there are some interesting places that are worth a visit in GranDuo in my opinion. (alphabetical order)

Event Marche on the 1st floor (Always different event is going on here selling goods and food that are unique and local from all over Japan.)

Fruit Gathering (Not a store selling fruits! 😉 They are a chain of stores selling various brands of cosmetics like Sephora but with more high-end brands such as Chanel, Shu Uemura, Jo Malone, etc. If you want to buy cosmetics and don’t know which brand to buy, maybe this is a good place to go because you will have so many choices to choose from.)

Supermarket on the 1st floor (They have quite unique assortment. I wouldn’t say you will find everything you need, but they tend to have many different kinds for the same food. For example, for curry, they have an entire isle with different kinds of curry. (see the picture below) It’s almost like a library of curry!!! Furthermore, even for other food, I find many unique brands that I normally don’t see in other stores.)

These are all curry!!!!!!

Detail information

Hours:
Shopping services 10AM – 9PM
Restaurant services 11AM – 10PM

Address:
3 Chome-2-1 Shibasakicho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-0023

Phone:
042-540-2111

Access:
Directly connected to JR Tachikawa Station
※ Parking available but free parking is available only up to 3 hours if you spend more than 30,000 yen. After that, it is 250 yen per 30 minutes for weekdays and 300 yen per 30 minutes for weekends. I wouldn’t bring my car here.

Others:
・Baby stroller rental (with deposit)
・Baby break room, nursing room
・Free Wi-Fi available on certain floors only: 1F, 2F, 4F, 7F (weird….)
・Tax-free counter: 1st floor information counter

Official site:
https://www.granduo.jp/tachikawa/ (Japanese only)


Green Springs (Coming soon in April 2020!!)

Green Springs will become a new hot spot of Tachikawa for sure. It will open in April 2020 with various different facilities – hall, hotel with spa, office, shops and restaurants and park.

It’s very close from JR Tachikawa Station, Tama Monorail, Showa Kinen Park, IKEA Tachikawa, etc. It’s also close from FARET Tachikawa Art, public art works in Tachikawa. (If you want to find out more about FARET Tachikawa Art, click here for detail article.)

I can’t wait until it opens! It will make Tachikawa so much more attractive and place you must visit when you visit Tokyo! I will write more about it when more information is available.

Press release:
https://www.tachihi.co.jp/2019/04/12/green-springs/ (Japanese only)

Official site:
https://greensprings.jp/ (Japanese only)


Others

MEGA Don Quijote Tachikawa

Don Quijote is a Japanese franchise store that many foreigners enjoy to go. They sell all kinds of things. It’s a very unique type of store with very unique store layout you would find. The one in Tachikawa has “MEGA” attached in front, and it is a format of Don Quijote that focuses on “close-to-life” shopping style that offers daily necessities from food to household goods.

Detail information

Hours:
9AM – 2AM (If you missed a chance to buy gifts at other stores, go to Don Quijote because it is open until really late at night!!)

Address:
2 Chome-18-18 Akebonocho Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-0012

Phone:
042-540-6431 

Access:
4 minutes walk from JR Tachikawa Station (see the map below for detail direction)

Others:
・Parking available but it’s on the opposite side of the road and it only offers up to 2 hours with shopping over 5,000 yen
・Tax-free
・DAISO (mostly 100 yen variety shop) is also located inside the store ※ Hours: 10AM – 9PM only

Official site:
http://www.donki.com/en/store/shop_detail.php?shop_id=388
Main information is in Japanese only.
Minimum information is available in English, Chinese, Korean and Thai)


IKEA Tachikawa

It’s a typical IKEA store you would find anywhere else in the world. Nothing special. But it’s really close from Showa Kinen Park so if you want to have a quick bite of hot dog or ice cream, you can stop by for one. I like going to IKEA on weekdays for coffee when the store is practically empty and on weekends for brunch before it becomes crowded with people.

Recommended shops

I like going to restaurant on the second floor and and Bistro on the first floor. Before 11AM, what’s called “morning curry” is only 99 yen! It actually tastes good. All-you-can-drink for soft drink and coffee (regular coffee / cafe latte / cappuccino) is only 100 yen. If you are IKEA member, drink is free until 11AM. It means curry+drink is less than 200 yen!! (With just this, you get a free whole day parking too!!!! See below for details about parking fee.)
If you go first thing in the morning soon after the store opens, you will get to enjoy the nice and quite store with not many people. It tends to get really crowded in the afternoon.

Detail information

Hours:
Shopping services
Weekdays:10AM – 9PM
Weekend and Holidays:9AM – 9PM
Restaurant services
Weekdays:9:45 AM – 9PM
Weekend and Holidays:8:45 AM – 9PM
※ Closed :New Years Day (Jan. 1)

Address:
6 Midori-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-0014

Phone:
0570-013-900

Access:
– By train –
5 mins walk from JR Tachikawa Station North Exit
7 mins walk from Takamatsu Station of Tama Monorail

– By bus –
1min walk from Disaster Medical Center East.(Saigai Iryo Center Higashi)

Others:
・Parking is flat 1,000 yen per day if you don’t buy anything. But if you buy even the cheapest thing in the store, parking will be free. You need a receipt with a barcode for free parking, but if you buy food from Bistro on the 1st floor, you don’t get a receipt with a barcode. So it means your parking won’t be free.
Baby foods (bottled one) are available for free for under 9 months at the restaurant. If you ask for one when you are paying for your food, they will give it to you for free.

Official site:
https://www.ikea.com/jp/en/store/tachikawa (Japanese and English available)


Department Stores

I don’t really shop at department stores, but there are two large well-known department stores in Tachikawa that are worth mentioning.

Isetan

One of well known department store brands in Japan. Department stores tend to attract older consumers. But I know many women in their 30s like Isetan.

Recommended shops

Again, I don’t shop much at department store so I don’t personally have have recommendation.

Cosmetics and beauty products on the first floor (There are many different brands available you can choose from.)

Starbucks (There are many Starbucks near Tachikawa Station but this is by far the most spacious with 67 seats. But whenever I go, it is always crowded and difficult to get a seat.)

Detail information

Hours:
Shopping services 10AM – 7:30PM (Department stores close quite early!)
Restaurant services 11AM – 10PM

Address:
2 Chome-5-1 Akebonocho Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-0012

Phone:
042-525-1111

Access:
2 minute walk from JR Tachikawa Station north exit
1 minute walk from Tama Monorail Tachikawa-Kita Station 

Others:
・Parking available –
  Up to 1 hour free for shopping 2,000 yen or more
  Up to 2 hours free for shopping 5,000 yen or more
  Up to 3 hours free for shopping 30,000 yen or more
  250 yen per 30 minutes after that

Official site:
https://www.isetan.mistore.jp.e.az.hp.transer.com/tachikawa.html (English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean available)


Tachikawa Takashimaya Shopping Center

If you are especially looking for high-end luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Gucci, etc. go check them out. (If you want more variation for luxury brands, I would recommend you go to Ginza instead though.) Stores that you wouldn’t normally expect in a luxury department store such as reasonable price home decor store and amusement place for kids are also available.

Recommended shops

Indoor and Adventure Island DocoDoco (It’s an amusement place particularly for kids that opened in October 2018 inside Tachikawa Takashimaya Shopping Center. Kids from 6 months to 12 years-old can use the facility with their parents.)

Junkudo (Large bookstore)

NITORI (It’s a Japanese version of IKEA. IKEA used to be very famous in Japan, but nowadays NITORI is actually doing better with good quality and design products that are also reasonable price.)

Detail information

Hours:
Shopping services 10AM – 8PM
(※ B1, 1F, 3F 10AM – 7PM)
Restaurant services 11AM – 10PM
Junkudo / Cafe 10AM – 9PM
Indoor and Adventure Island DocoDoco 10AM – 7PM

Address:
2 Chome-39-3 Akebonocho Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8507

Phone:
042-525-2111

Access:
3 minute walk from JR Tachikawa Station north exit

Others:
・Free baby stroller rental
・Baby break room
・Tax-free shops
・Parking available –
  Up to 1 hour free for shopping 2,000 yen or more
  Up to 2 hours free for shopping 5,000 yen or more
  Up to 3 hours free for shopping 30,000 yen or more
  250 yen per 30 minutes after that

Official site:
https://www.takashimaya-global.com/en/ (No Tachikawa store specific site available. Main information is in Japanese only. Minimum information is available in English, Chinese and Korean.)


Electronics Stores

Two of the most well-known electronics stores in Japan are available in Tachikawa.

Bic Camera Tachikawa

Typical electronics store you can find in Japan with many floors with different categories of products each floor.

Recommended shops

Seria (100 yen shop franchise that is known to be more stylish than other same kind of 100 yen brands. ※ CASH ONLY)

Detail information

Hours:
10AM – 9PM

Address:
2 Chome-12-2 Akebonocho Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-0012

Phone:
042-548-1111

Access:
1 minute walk from JR Tachikawa Station north exit
2 minute walk from Tama Monorail Tachikawa-Kita Station 

Others:
・Tax-free available
・Parking available –
  Up to 1 hour free for shopping 2,000 yen or more
  Up to 2 hours free for shopping 5,000 yen or more
  Up to 3 hours free for shopping 30,000 yen or more
  250 yen per 30 minutes after that

Official site:
https://www.biccamera.com/bc/i/shop/shoplist/shop012.jsp (Machine translation available in many languages)


Yamada Denki LABI Life Select Tachikawa

Typical electronics store you can find in Japan with many floors with different categories of products each floor.

Recommended shops

I don’t have specific recommendation for LABI. Nevertheless, the most popular floor to tourists is 4F. In addition to that, on the 5th floor, there are many different kinds of stylish espresso machines and lighting.

Detail information

Hours:
10AM – 10PM

Address:
2 Chome-2-25 Akebonocho Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-0012

Phone:
042-526-3611

Access:
Right outside of JR Tachikawa Station North Exit and directly connected to Ta-Cross Hiroba 

Others:
・Tax-free can be applied to any product but the main floor for customers from abroad is 4F where a variety of assortment of popular products that are popular to tourists is available
・Parking available –
  Up to 1 hour free for shopping 2,000 yen or more
  Up to 2 hours free for shopping 5,000 yen or more
  Up to 3 hours free for shopping 30,000 yen or more
  250 yen per 30 minutes after that

Official site:
http://www.yamadalabi.com/tachikawa/ (Japanese only)
http://yamada-taxfree.com/en/featured-tachikawa (English available)


If you visit any of the shopping places and stores I recommended, please let me know how it went. Your feedback is very valuable to make my contents more useful so I would love to hear back from you. Please feel free to leave me any comments below!

Happy shopping!

omoidehouse

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