(Tokyu) Hands

For Japanese people, Tokyu Hands (now rebranded to just Hands) is simply a convenient place to go shopping. For tourists, Hands is a one-stop shopping wonderland. 

I’m not a big shopper, but when I’m traveling, I still need to buy gifts for friends and family back home. At Hands, I can get all my souvenir shopping done in one place. 

Unlike, Village Vanguard which trends more off-the-wall, Hands has a thorough selection of almost anything you could imagine.

Hands is spread over multiple floors with far too many things to list them all, but here’s just a sampling of some of the treasures you can find here:

Backpacks

Backpacks from every brand, for every age, and every style. Ranging from the very famous Japanese brand, Porter, to Adidas and Jansport.

B-Side Label Stickers

These stickers have all kinds of crazy characters and are hugely popular in Japan. I’ve written about them before. If you like them at Hands, you can see even more of them at a B-Side Label store.

Unique office supplies:

A $500 USD Parker pen for someone you really love or want to impress. Notepads with cute images on them, organizers in every color, sticky pads, kitty-cat paperclips, and much more.

Travel:

Camping gear, including the super durable and currently very trendy Stanley Brand Thermos. Many styles of Leatherman tools, backpacks, tents, coolers, etc.

Year-Round Halloween stuff:

Cinema Secrets’ blood gel, creepy rubber rabbit and horsehead masks, manga character costumes, and tons of other fun stuff.

Animal accessories:

Maybe your little dog needs new clothes, a chew toy, and a cake to celebrate its next birthday. You can grab all those things here as well as every cat-themed anything you can think of.

Mugs and Kitchenware:

There are lots of cool mugs here. I’ve seen everything from flying cats and flying dogs to an image of a gang of raccoons carrying a sleeping person. There are also, blenders, cooking utensils (usually shaped like cute animals), and even packaged snacks and treats.

Coffee:

Coffee aficionados don’t need to feel left out. In addition to Bialetti stovetop espresso makers, every Hario coffee product is here; pour over gear, syphon gear, grinders, kettles, cups, and mugs. Even coffee makers like Nespresso are here.

Much more:

There are health sections, shoe-polish sections, as well as more traditional Japanese items; Fans, furoshiki cloths, chopsticks, sake cups, ceramic bowls, etc.

Grab a steampunk necklace, a cat-shaped spatula, or matcha tea powder. Pick up a plastic banana-shaped banana holder so when you pack your banana in your lunch bag it doesn’t get squished ­–or an aroma wristlet (because who wants stinky wrists) or pig-shaped silicone chocolate molds, because pigs!

Hands has a huge cosmetics section as well. Every powder, blush, face mask, oil, cream, eye makeup, lip-color, nail polish, and hair products imaginable are here.

This list barely scratches the surface of what you can find at (Tokyu) Hands. You could easily spend several hours here. 

–Remember to buy a shopping bag from the vending machine when you arrive. Trust me, you’ll need it. 

The Last Train

There’s always a moment when you’re at a bar, izakaya, nightclub, or other venue in Tokyo (or other Japanese cities) at night, having a great time when suddenly half the people get up and leave. My first time experiencing this felt so jarring. My buddy Paul explained that the people leaving, were all hurrying to catch the last train.

In my mind, Tokyo’s trains run 24/7, but that is not the reality. All trains (public and private) stop running from around midnight until 5 AM. 

You have a few options. Grab a cab (This can be expensive based on distance). Make sure you only stay out late within walking distance of wherever your hotel is. Find a cheap capsule hotel or manga cafe if your accommodations are too far or too expensive to get back to. Or stay up all night until the first train starts. If you choose this final option, you can explore an entirely different Tokyo (Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, etc.). There are restaurants, bars, karaoke places, izakaya (think Midnight Diner style), and clubs that stay open until the first train starts. This whole night world is an adventure in itself.

Plan accordingly and good luck. 

Sukiyaki

I want to give some attention to a distinctly Japanese meal rarely served in the United States. It’s called sukiyaki.

Sukiyaki is a celebratory dish I highly recommend. It is thinly sliced beef simmered at the table in an iron pot with veggies (and sometimes tofu) in an addictive sweet and savory combination of mirin, sugar, and soy sauce.

I had my first taste of sukiyaki at an after-work office party in Nagoya. If you like beef, you will enjoy this dish. It’s more of a group type of food to order, but some places have smaller individual sizes.

It’s customary to dip the cooked meat in freshly beaten raw egg to add more depth and balance to the flavor of the meat. Japanese raw eggs are safe to eat and are found in numerous dishes.

After hearing about my sukiyaki experience, my good friend, Chef, created an amazing sukiyaki mountain meal at his Nagoya izakaya which my Hungarian friends and I enjoyed tremendously.

It’s worth going out of your way to find a sukiyaki place and try this for yourself. Some places do sukiyaki and shabu-shabu (which is more common in the US). If you get a chance to try this, let me know what you think.