Shopping streets are surprisingly common in Kyoto. There are some in the Demachi Masugata shopping arcade and some in Fushimi,
We recommend the 800 m long Kyoto Sanjo-kai Shopping Street.
Although it is called Sanjo-kai Shopping Street, the nearest stations are JR Nijo Station and Nijojo-mae Station on the Tozai Line.
It is about a 10-minute walk from both.
The atmosphere is retro and rustic, but with a mix of renovated cafés.
Calm. You can relax.
Nearby is the Busshin Inari Shrine, which is associated with Ryoma Sakamoto, and it’s a good place for a walk.
Let’s take a quick stroll.
You can see all the way to the end of the road. There’s no one here.
One Sunday. The shutters have come down quite a bit, but this is also a very rustic and tasteful place.
Dari K, famous for its chocolates, has also moved.
The arcade is a great place to have fun even on a rainy day.
I said that you can enjoy a leisurely stroll, but there is one point to note.
The speed of passing cyclists is very fast!
I wonder why they are in such a hurry.
Be especially careful if you have small children.
‘Bar ber mukozawa’. Anyway, it’s very shibu. The Showa period atmosphere is not bad.
It’s like a film set. Looks like he’s good at punch perms and sports hair cuts.
I wonder what kind of character ‘Mukozawa’ is.
Tamaya set restaurant. Storefront with a sense of nostalgia.
The trademark ‘Marutama’ is cool even though it is a food shop.
The use of tiles is also very cool.
On the other hand, there are also stylish shops like this dotted around the city.
The menus range from ‘Bean-curd soup set meal’ to ‘Gateau chocolat’.
The menu of an old set meal restaurant has been replaced by the son’s ‘From now on, it’s a café, Dad!’ and renovated it.
It is a pleasure to walk along the Kyoto Sanjo-kai shopping street, where such imaginary dramas come to mind one after another.
Walking slowly, you see a bullish sign!
‘Kyoto’s cheapest lunch box, 250 yen.’
This is seriously cheap. The volume, taste, quantity and variety are all very, very satisfying!
It’s as if they’ve put together all the words they can think of. I’m curious about this.
It was close to evening, so it looks like they have already sold a lot.
Surely this is cheap at 250 yen. It is no longer in the lunch price class for a trip to South East Asia.
It’s amazing that you can eat three meals for just 750 yen a day.
There is also a traditional sweets shop. The colourful sweets are fun just to look at.
A shop specialising in umbrellas, which is thought to be unique in the world.
Its name is Pichi & Chapu Nishikawa. The owner must love the rain a lot.
I admire his strong stance of going with just one umbrella.
The confident sign that reads ‘We have lots of good umbrellas!’ The confident signboard also shows great courage.
There is also a grocery shop. As in Kyoto, ‘Yamashiro bamboo shoots’ cost around 300 yen! Cheap!
The Kyoto Sanjo-kai shopping street is a good place to visit, and it’s cheap anyway.
Not to be forgotten on the Kyoto Sanjokai shopping street is Kyoto Meat Meat Shop HIRO.
Naturally, it was the biggest crowd of the day.
This is the place to go when it comes to butcher shops in Kyoto. It is the best-selling butcher shop in Kyoto Sanjo-kai Shopping Arcade, which also operates Yakiniku Hiroshi throughout Kyoto.
The beef croquettes are a must when you visit the main shop.
Shoe repair Rin Shoes. Yes, like the umbrella shop mentioned earlier, the Kyoto Sanjo-kai shopping street is full of specialist shops.
This shop is also a shoe repair specialist with a branch in Karasuma Oike.
Specialist shops are good because you can leave it to them, or you can trust them because they have overwhelming knowledge and skills.
Inside the shop, the owner at the back working on repairs and beautiful shoe care-related products.
The attention to detail is amazing.
I bought leather shoe cream and brushes, which should be fine if they are so carefully selected.
You can trust that they only carry the really good stuff, chosen by professionals.
I recommend this shopping street when you want to go outside on a rainy day and just hang around.
As it is a shopping street, there are many shops selling everyday items, and many of them are specialised shops,
You can enjoy the feeling of, ‘Oh, by the way, this is what I wanted’.
There are a few fashionable cafés here and there, so you’ll discover something new every time you go.
I’m sure I’ll be back again.
Kyoto Sanjokai Shopping Street
1-1, Imashin Ienkaishimachi, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto
