Your fantasy for kitchen utensils made real

Kappabashi Dougu-gai, or “Kappabashi Kitchenware Town”, is a shopping street aligned on both sides with an array of shops specializing in kitchen utensils and baking tools. Everything you ever wanted regarding cooking or baking, it’s all right here on this street.
There are also shops specializing in Japanese tableware, such as porcelain or lacquerware, chopsticks, and even food samples, which are especially popular with tourists visiting from both inside and outside of Japan.
It is located in between Ueno and Asakusa, so if you don’t mind a bit of walking, you can very much walk here from either of the two places.

The best selection of kitchenware you can get in Japan

The origin of the Kappabashi Dougu-gai can be traced back to the latter period of the Meiji Era, when shops specializing in utensils and equipment started to gather here.
Over a hundred years later, it has now developed into a large shopping street that is as long as 800 meters in length.

There are wide selections of tableware, ranging from Japanese styles to Western or Chinese ones. There are also beautiful Japanese lacquerware, perfect for miso soups, and can be bought as souvenirs to bring a little piece of Japan back with you.
There is an abundance of baking tools, either for traditional Japanese sweets or Western sweets, and you can even find specialized stores for wrapping goods, for all your wrapping and packaging needs.

Here’s a rhetorical question, who wouldn’t want a food sample as their souvenirs?

Stores specializing in fake food samples made out of wax are a great place to find unique souvenirs.
You will be surprised at the intricacy and the delicacy of these samples and the samples for fruits and confectionaries are actually kind of cute. There are food samples made into key chains and magnets, which are quite reasonable and makes for great souvenirs.
There is even a “sushi clock”, with sushi food samples placed all around the face of the clock. But if your room is not quite ready for a “sushi clock” just yet, it is also just fun to take a look around in these stores.

Weekdays during morning to early afternoon would be the best time to go

Majority of the stores in Kappabashi Dougu-gai open at 9am, and will mostly close after around 5pm. Closed days depend on each stores, but most stores are generally open on weekdays, while on Sundays or other holidays, 70% or so of the stores will be closed. If you have a particular store that you are set on going, we recommend checking the website in advance to make sure that it will be open.

writer：Nozomi

Photos from
8brandingdesign
sophiachu22
laphoto18