Shinsaibashi Shopping Street

This is Osaka’s main shopping area — there are streets and sidestreets of covered shopping with many international brand names as well as local Japanese shops. It’s a great place to get all your clothing and accessories shopping done in one place. A lot of the smaller stores are not tax-​free so be aware before you buy. There are also a lot of big pharmacies here for those of you who want to stock up on Japanese pharmaceuticals.
It does get pretty crowded in certain stores — especially the pharmacies! They also have a 300yen store, which I thought was pretty interesting since I only saw 100yen stores in Tokyo. The items are a little bit better quality since they are a bit more expensive.
I came to Shinsaibashi with one goal in mind and I refused to look at other stores until I reached my goal. I needed new glasses — after my cousin and friend both told me that they got their glasses for super cheap in Japan, I was holding out to get mine. I finally stumbled onto A-​Look in Shinsaibashi, where I got 2 pairs of prescription glasses for $ 160 — tax free too! And the best part… I only had to wait 30 minutes for them to do it for me. That’s unheard of here in America! I’ve waited more than 3 days for my new glasses before. I highly recommend it — the salespeople are super helpful and can speak good English.

Shinsaibashi is definitely a must see for those who like shopping or just like to be around people. You can learn a lot just by watching people, experiencing the shopping culture, and eating at the multitude of restaurants here. Shinsaibaishi shopping street is one of the more renowned shopping places in Osaka. There’s good variety and lots of young people are around.

You can’t possibly visit Osaka without going to Shinsaibashi. You just can’t. I don’t care if you’re not a shopaholic or if you don’t like crowds – no excuses.
This was one of the highlights of my trip to Japan a few years back. Although it’s been years, I can still picture trying to cool off from the mid-​August burning heat and retreating under the next arcade as soon as I got out of the sun. Although most of the shops under the arcades are mostly catered to a younger crowd, you don’t have to be a teen or a 20-​something-​year-​old to experience this place. This whole strip has a little bit of everything – cheap to high-​end, from junk you don’t need, to game arcades, to knock off handbag shops, to luxury department stores – there’s something for everyone.
Crowded, exhausting, but all worth it. I spent about 3 – 4 hours here and the time felt like a breeze while I was taking my sweet time, looking through each shop. Compared to the stuff you can get in the U.S., some of the clothes are a little pricier and smaller, but it’s definitely considered a bargain in Japan. Times have changed, and the arcades now have probably been taken over by typical, global retailers you can find anywhere, but this place was original with shops you couldn’t find elsewhere or many of. The most intriguing part was the fact that some of these shops’ and boutiques’ storefronts were so small, they were two stories high and stretched all the way on the side. Talk about allocating land! If i remember correctly, the Sogo department store was about 7 floors high. Be sure to stop by Cecil McBee, if you’re into eclectic fashion!