{"id":105078,"date":"2024-10-22T11:42:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T02:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/?p=105078"},"modified":"2024-11-25T22:08:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T13:08:50","slug":"secondhand-shopping-in-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voyapon.com\/secondhand-shopping-in-tokyo\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Old Tokyo: Secondhand Shopping in Japan\u2019s Well-Stocked Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I don\u2019t particularly like new stuff. It makes me sad, for example, to think of factories churning out an ever-growing roster of festive tat, that, for the most part, will be unthinkingly binned the moment the season has been greeted, or the last trick (good luck in Japan!) has been treated. Barring food and drink, it seems to me, the only items where anything less than brand-spanking-newness is completely unacceptable are socks and underpants. I have even, quite happily, given new and thrilling second-lives to junk shop spectacles that, for reasons I chose not to linger on, were no longer required by their previous (similarly mole-like) owners.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A vintage store in Shimokitazawa. Photo: Marion Pont<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Living a largely secondhand life is not difficult in Tokyo, where there is a thriving thrift-scene, made fruitful by the often luxury-level bric-\u00e0-brac disposed of by the capital\u2019s well-to-do and stylish citizens<\/strong>. Only in recent years has the growing discrepancy between Japan\u2019s unchanging bargain-basement wages and its prices, which may not yet be through the roof, but are heading towards it, had a diminishing effect on this once-gushing wellspring of tasteful and high quality secondhand goods. The still-trickling remnants of cheerfully complacent boom-years consumption, however, means that in Tokyo\u2019s myriad recycle shops there is, even now, plenty of new-to-you booty to be discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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