Best shopping places

What are the best places in Tokyo for buying souvenirs, clothes, snacks, anime stuff, etc.? I know it's probably a different place for each of those categories. And what is your advice when buying before leaving Japan?

The first place I always go to is Donki (short for Don Quixote). There are many branches, you can search on google maps.

For anime it depends on: what series and how old it is. For older series, used shops tend to be best. For things like Pokemon or Studio Ghibli, there are shops that pretty much just sell merchandise for them. (various Pokemon Centers and some shopping areas have a Studio Ghibli store. They don't have the same merchandise as the museum, but I tend to prefer it at the stores.) For current popular series in Japan, Animate carries a lot of stuff.

For other shopping it depends on what you want and what you want to spend and your size. Shibuya is full of cute trendy shops and I've seen some as well in Harajuku and Shinjuku Station. For snacks, again it depends on what you want and what you want to spend and are you looking for name brands. Tokyo Station sells a ton of "famous" snacks people buy as omiyage in Japan. You can also find plenty of KitKats and less fancy snacks at Don Quixote.

Good luck!

If you are looking for manga/anime stuff then as mentioned above Animate is a good place to start. I have only just found out about "Tokyo station character street". Honestly how have I not heard of this before, I suggest that's also a good place to visit. For second hand and older stuff I always recommend Mandarake & in particular their main site at Nakano Broadway https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3069.html https://www.mandarake.co.jp/dir/nkn/index-en.html#googtrans(ja|en)

ZYCAPS is the best choice.They can customize the hat that suits you best.Their quality really very good . If you want to buy , choose them . 

Check out the second hand stores. I've found amazing pieces from Japanese designers for a small fraction of what they retail.
Ragtag, Kindal, Select7 to name a few. You can go on Rakuten.co.jp to see what pieces they have at which retail locations too (there are a few).
For higher end stuff, Daikanyama has a few really great shops, namely Lift Etage and Lift Ecru. Julius is also in the area.
Scattered around Tokyo, there's also Dover Street Market, N4, Beams, and Neighborhood that are worth a visit

If you're in Tokyo, for second hand stuff, I recommend the Asakusa district around Sensoji Temple. There's a lot of stores that sell all sorts of little items, including food. There are also used clothing shops with really good deals. Last trip, I got a full kimono and obi for 1,000 yen.

For higher end stuff, Tokyo Hands in Shibuya. There's grocery items and a several liquor stores that have good deals for sake and shochu.

Donki has an excellent selection for almost anything.

For toys and anime, Yamashiroya in Ueno market. It's right across the street from Ueno station.

For buying things to take home for gifts and personal use, I almost always make a trip to the Aeon Laketown Mall in Saitama at the end of a trip to Japan. From the perspective of many foreign tourists, this seems like an odd suggestion, because essentially it is just a huge (really huge) Western-style shopping mall, and it isnft even in Tokyo. (It takes 45 to 60 minutes to get there, one way, from various places in Tokyo, but itfs an easy ride on JR, with only one change of train, and most of the time I am able to sit all or at least most of the way.) The thing is, I find it to be a very efficient solution for buying certain types of items, especially midrange snack items and other things that are best bought in a large supermarket. (There are actually two of them there, each with a somewhat different selection and lineup of brands.) There are a couple of decent-sized 100-yen shops there, a Muji, and a lot of other shops for food, tea, kitchen items, stationery items, and assorted other things, although the vast majority of the shops are devoted to fashion, accessories, and cosmetics (not things that interest me). For the things that I buy there, a single stop at Laketown is much less time-consuming than moving around to different stores and neighborhoods in Tokyo, and it is completely weatherproof (the JR station is right at the main entrance). There is also an outlet mall there, although I am not really an outlet mall person.

Anyway, itfs not for everyone, but I love the place and have always been grateful to the person who suggested it on a Japan travel forum years ago. So Ifll just put it out there, even though I know that the suggestion of going to a Western shopping mall will offend many Japanophiles. I typically spend four or five hours there including a lunch break (there are LOTS of restaurants there as well as casual eating possibilities), at which point I havenft even begun to cover all the stores of interest to me, but I do get tired. Add an hour each way for transit, and I usually get back to my hotel by midafternoon (I try to arrive at 9) with a big haul of great items. (To carry them back on the train I take a duffel bag and a backpack with me.) A real plus is that if you go on a weekday, it is almost never crowded. (Avoid Sunday afternoons, though!) Itfs no longer new, but it is well kept-up and comfortable (free lockers, lots of places to rest, good bathrooms). Itfs just on the huge side (you get your exercise for the day) and I wouldnft recommend it to someone with mobility impairment.

I also make time for a few places in Tokyo, my favorites being Tokyu Hands (I like the Shinjuku store best myself) and the basement floors of Shinjuku Takashimaya and Isetan (for high-end snacks). I will admit that Donki has a lot of good stuff at good prices, but I have just never liked the ambience at Donki, and it tends to be oppressively crowded. (My best experience to date has been at the Shibuya Mega Donki very early in the morning.) Also, a huge 100-yen shop is kind of a must, especially if I donft get out to Laketown. My favorite is probably the Daiso in Kinshicho, but there are several other good ones in Tokyo. (I wouldnft go out to Kinshicho from the Shinjuku side of Tokyo just for the Daiso, but itfs worth it from Tokyo Station or someplace like that.)