Black Buddha – Excellent experiences and shops not found in the normal guide books to hit up in Tokyo. https://black-buddha.com/tokyo

TimeOut Tokyo – a great list of local events, reviews, and current events to attend. Great to check out right before you head out.

• Time Out Love Tokyo Awards 2017
• Top 100 best shops in Tokyo
• Particularly interesting
  • Tokyo Hotarudo – a shop of Taisho period (1912-26) merchandise.
  • Shin-Yoshiwara – unique souvenir shop that captures the spirit of Yoshiwara, Edo-Tokyo’s legendary red-light district.
    • Yoshiwara’s Twitter feed
  • Beams – 6 floors of dizzying clothing, crafts, and art.
  • Tokyo Kitsch – Unassuming little shop selling traditional, quirky and, as its name suggests, kitschy Japanese souvenirs
  • Kagaya – One of the city’s longest-running smoke shops and deals in everything from standard cigarettes to cigars, pipes and lighters. You’ll find fine Cubans alongside product from places like Dominica, Honduras and Nicaragua
  • Kakimori – Specialist stationary shop. Kakimori’s has a massive range of pens, inks and letter sets. Best of all are the made-to-order notebooks, prepared in five to 10 minutes.
  • Hanashyo Nihonbashi – specializing in Edo Kiriko glassware
  • Atelier Sougeikan – Atelier Sougeikan offers calligraphy lessons where you’ll get a chance to decorate an item of your choosing, such as a fan or a lantern, and take your creation home with you.
  • Karimoku 60 Shinjuku – Turning out exquisite, retro handmade furniture since 1940. The company’s creations are all made from domestic wood and designed to suit Japan’s smaller homes.
  • Tokyo135° Shinjuku Alta – An offshoot of the nationwide Tansuya chain, Tokyo135’s Shinjuku Alta branch attracts a diverse crowd looking for slightly funkier kimono for all occasions.
  • Pass the Baton – modern recycle shop. You’ll find a range of second-hand items, including antiques, furniture, clothing and art – many of which have been previously owned by well-known celebrities.
  • Solakzade – Solakzade’s Harajuku boutique is home to a distinctive range of unused vintage and antique frames sourced from Japan and around the globe. The shop has a particularly broad selection of styles in its 10,000-frame trove, including a few shades that date back all the way to the 1800s.
  • Mask Shop Omote – a favourite among the city’s actors, mask-makers and headwear enthusiasts. The selection ranges from the usual to the fetishistic, including Venetian-style masks, medical gear, Hyottoko (Japanese-style clown masks), and items with animal motifs.
  • House @ Mikiri Hassin – high-concept clothing by up-and-coming Japanese designers alongside select secondhand items from overseas
  • Nude Trump – long-standing vintage clothing shop with a chaotic jumble of outré garments and accessories with all kinds of studded, sequinned and fur-print oddities.

BucketList – top 50 things to do when in Tokyo

Love Tokyo Awards

Tokyo Foodcast – Insider food and sake discoveries in and around Tokyo, with occasional side trips thrown in just for fun.

Conde-Nast 25 things to do in Tokyo

Tokyo Illuminations for the Christmas season

Random and interesting things:

• Kamenya Omoten is a shop that sells masks and masks
  • Twitter feed of Junpei Okawara, the director of Kamenya Omoten
• Shinyokohama Ramen Museum – tour the original Cup Ramen factory and even make your own special blend!
• teamLab * Borderless
• teamLab * Planets