Kappa-bashi street and Ameyoko-street in Tokyo

Hell and Welcome to Nipponcraft,

Today, I went to Kappa-bashi street, wholesale district of kitchenware and knives, just to look for a kettle. Today, lots of kitchenware sold in Japan are made in either China or Korea. They are cheap, but I feel a little of anxiety of quality against them, so I visited this wholesale district to get one at cheaper price. While wholesale is welcome, retail is still welcome at most of the shops.


Signboard indicating Kappa-bashi street

 The street is approximately one kilometer long and you can find hundreds of shops specializing in kitchenware at the both sides of street. Kappa-bashi street is located at north east side of Tokyo, near Ueno station terminal (one of the huge terminal stations). You can get there by taking Hibiya subway line and getting off at Iriya station. Then, you need to walk about 500m from the station.


Hundreds of wholesalers along the street

 While walking the street, you can find food sample wholesalers. In Japan, all the restaurants display food samples made of plastic to show how the menus look like. I hear many visitors from abroad gaze these sample at curiosity.

Sushi food sample sold at 1,000 Yen for a piece

Amazing! Dessert and fruit sample!

From Kappa-bashi street, I walked to the west to visit Ameyoko-streets. These streets are quite famous in Tokyo for looking for cheap things. In this area, shops look disorderly. Ameyoko-streets are more like Hong Kong or South East Asia. This area was used to be a black market just after the second world war, and now you can find lots of cloth shops, shoes shops, watch and jewelry shops.


Ameyoko-street at Ueno; shops, shops and shops!



Shops even under the train railway, disorder shops

While walking the street, you can find fish stores. Fishes are displayed outside! It's unique in Japan!



Raw fishes displayed outside!



Fish market, daily scene in Japan

 If you have a chance, please come and visit these areas and please enjoy the unique culture. 

Thank you,
- Ken
nipponcraft