Steph C.
Yelp
We wandered around Tokyo Solamachi for a bit after a trip up Tokyo Skytree. It was a happening mall--a lower case sky mall--that was absolutely riddled with the kind of Japanese character goods I would've lost my mind over when I was in high school.
I'm 37 years old, and I deeply enjoyed browsing shops dedicated to Jump Comics and Pokémon. I started learning Japanese because I read Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk in Korean as a pre-teen, and I was a dedicated reader of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece for many years. I'm too old to buy manga-related toys for myself, but I couldn't resist taking a picture with the big Monkey D. Luffy in front of the store. I am also, shamefully, a daily Pokémon Go player, and have been since 2016. If my kids were old enough to be into Pokémon, I'm sure I would've found a hundred cute things to buy "for them" in the Pokémon shop.
Other highlights included a Kirby-themed café and a Sylvanian Families pop-up shop, where I bought a couple of figurines as a souvenir for my friend who's obsessed with a TikTok channel featuring minute-long Sylvanian soap operas.
I'm not sure my husband--a 40-year-old man who has never watched anime--got much out of Tokyo Solamachi, but I had a great time browsing this character-centric sky mall. It's worth a quick trip if you're already going to Skytree, or if you want to fill your suitcase with fun little cartoon goodies.