Ikebukuro offers many shopping spots of many genres. From casuals to enthusiasts, shopping in Ikebukuro seems to be a place where all these categories mesh together. It is not just a place to buy the common goods and items, but also a place to hunt for limited merchandises and collectibles.
Ikebukuro Shopping Mall (Sunshine City)
Divided into 5 different areas, Sunshine City of Ikebukuro is build up of multiple buildings and areas which consist of: Sunshine60, Prince Hotel, World Import Mart, Bunka Kaikan, and Alpa. Opened in 1978, Sunshine City is the first and the oldest of places to implement the idea of a city within another city concept.
Alpa is the main area for shopping, consists of many specialty store of many genres. Located at the base of Sunshine City, connected to most of the buildings in the area, it is near impossible to miss this area. And if perhaps you are a Pokémon trainer, do drop by the Pokémon Center on the 2nd floor.
Directly connected to Alpa is the World Import Mart building. The first 2 floors are ALTA, where it features a line-up of shops focusing in fashion and apparels. For Anime enthusiast of shounen genre, namely title from Shounen Jump, such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto, J-World on the 3rd floor is for you. Or if you a gamer and liked Namco games from back where pacman was a thing, try Namja Town on the 2nd floor.
Tired of shopping? Sunshine60 building is a 60-storey building with an observatory deck on the top floor. Not a normal observatory deck, but a playground that tickles all of your five senses, offering you a totally unique observatory experience. It is named as Sky Circus, Sunshine60 Observatory, definitely not a place to be missed.
Spot Information
- Spot Name: Sunshine City
- Street Address: 3-1-1 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170-0013
- Access:
- 6 minutes-walk north of Higashi-Ikebukuro station
- 12 minutes-walk east of Ikebukuro station
Ikebukuro Shopping Street
Shopping complex is not the only shopping experience that Ikebukuro can offer. It also has a street full of shops to shop, or just to window shop.
Sunshine60 Street
Linking east side of Ikebukuro station and Sunshine City, Sunshine60 Street has a lot of shops lined up along its path. From BicCamera, Uniqlo, Sega, many variety of shop categories are available here.
Ikebukuro is also known for being an alternative of Akihabara. Hence you can find a lot of anime related stores along the road.
Spot Information
- Spot Name: Sunshine60 Street
- Street Address: 3 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170-0013
- Access: 4 minutes-walk east of Ikebukuro station
Otome Road
Towards the end of sunshine 60 Street nearing the Sunshine City is the Otome Road. As mentioned earlier, being an alternative of Akihabara, this road is well known in the Otaku culture, except that this particular area caters more for the female audience.
Animate, K-Books, Mandarake, Lashinbang, and few other stores sells anime merchandises and goods, new and pre-loved (yes, everything is in good condition). Be sure to compare the prices before buying, because one store might offer better discounts.
In case you are to visit this area with little children, just a little heads up, not all of the Otaku culture goods here are safe for minors, especially doujins, which is a self-published manga, where a number of it might feature contents not suitable for children to read. Regardless of this, Otome Road is another interesting spot to shop for anime related goods.
Spot Information
- Spot Name: Otome Road
- Street Address: 3 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo 170-0013
- Access:
- 8 minutes-walk north of Higashi-Ikebukuro station
- 10 minutes-walk east of Ikebukuro station
Ikebukuro Department Store
Ikebukuro, well known for being a commercial area is surrounded by a number of department stores, but two of them are the most significant in size and location. If you drop by Ikebukuro via Ikebukuro station, these two large department stores are connected directly to the east and at the west side of the station:
Shopping at Seibu Ikebukuro Honten
Attached directly on the east side of Ikebukuro station, one easily can access the giant-sized Seibu Department Store. Seibu Ikebukuro is the head store of the Seibu Department Store.
One might think that this department store might just be no different than any other normal department store, but think again, this is a huge building of 12-storey building have much to offer, simply a 1 day shopping might not be enough if you are really come here for the sake of shopping.
Spot Information
- Spot Name: Seibu Ikebukuro
- Street Address: 1-28-1 Minami-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-0022
- Access: Direct access from the east side of Ikebukuro Station
Shopping at the Tobu Department Store Ikebukuro
Acts as a main competitor of Seibu, Tobu Department Store is another giant building attached directly to the east side of Ikebukuro station. It is also directly connected to the station, but on the west side.
The store have 15 floors, with the top 5 floors focuses on restaurants, bar and cafes, while the remaining floors are places for you to shop till you drop. Similar to Seibu’s this department store with many floors, might take extra effort to be covered in one day, unless if you are just leisurely doing window shopping.
Spot Information
- Spot Name: Tobu Department Store ikebukuro
- Street Address: 1-1-25 Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-0021
- Access: Direct access from the west side of Ikebukuro Station
Ikebukuro Underground Shopping
One would normally see a shopping complex, in a form of a building. Usually they go higher up, the more shops they have. But have you heard of an underground shopping complex? Well, it is actually quite common in Japan.
Ikebukuro Shopping Park
Ikebukuro Shopping Park is one of the underground shopping complex which is just east of the both Ikebukuro station and Seibu Ikebukuro. This underground shopping complex has only just 1 underground floor, but it houses 73 shops and restaurants, and in the category of apparels, women’s wear shops are dominant.
Spot Information
- Spot Name: Ikebukuro Shopping Park
- Street Address: 1-29-1 Minami-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-8532
- Access: Direct access from the east underground exit of Ikebukuro station
Others: Echika Ikebukuro
Echika Ikebukuro is another underground shopping complex in Ikebukuro, located to the west of the ikebukuro station. It also has 1 basement floor only, and is directly connected to the Ikebukuro station.
Spot Information
- Spot Name: Echika Ikebukuro
- Street Address: 3-28-14 Nishiikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-0021
- Access: Direct access from the west underground exit of Ikebukuro station
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