1 / 2Depachika treasure huntPhoto: espinr / CC BY
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Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Department-store basements are Japan’s edible museums — thousand-yen bento that would cost fifty dollars anywhere else. Isetan Shinjuku is the cathedral.
- 3 hr door to door needs a 5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Depachika treasure hunt is famous
Isetan Shinjuku's food floor is generally considered the best depachika in Japan, which makes it the most concentrated food retail in the world by most measures. It is a basement, so it is weatherproof, and the counters will explain and sample anything.
Three places, three different answers
The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.
Generally considered the best depachika in Japan, which makes it the most concentrated food retail anywhere.
Open in Google MapsWhere locals goTobu Ikebukuro food floors東武百貨店 池袋店One of the largest by floor area, and far less crowded with visitors.
Open in Google MapsClosest to the berthDaimaru Tokyo大丸東京店Inside Tokyo Station, which makes it the one you can actually reach on a tight clock.
Open in Google MapsWhere the 3 hr goes
Counted from the moment you step off the gangway, about 30 minutes after the ship arrives. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.
55 minutes each way is the measured figure for rail ~55 min to shinjuku (ginza ~30 min), not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 1 hr 10 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~4h round tripSenso-ji at Asakusa
The thunder gate, the incense cauldron, the oldest temple in the city — arrive before nine and Nakamise’s snack street is yours.
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See · ~5hShibuya Crossing & Meiji Shrine
Three thousand people per green light, then a forest shrine one JR stop away, at Harajuku, where you cannot hear the city at all (gates close at sunset: 16:40 in October, 16:10 in November).
See the detail
Eat · ~4h with transitTsukiji Outer Market crawl
The inner auction moved; the good part stayed.
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