How much shopping is too much shopping?

Hi everyone!

I'm planning to spend 6 full days in Tokyo in the future (on a total of 21 days in Japan, but nothing is booked yet) and I'm not sure about the amount of shopping I'm planning.

I hope my questions will make sense (I tried looking it up online but couldn't find anything so I'm wondering if the problem comes from me...)

I will travel with my husband and our two sons (6 and 13). We love mangas and animes, and are very excited about shopping for anime and mangas stuff in Tokyo (among other things of course).

I have noted down a lot of interesting shops to go to in Tokyo: the 2 Mugiwara stores, the Pokémon stores, the Ghibli stores, Animate stores, Nintendo centers, (Mega or not) Don Quijote, Jump stores, Mandarake, Akiba zone, book off, Tokyo hands, Daiso \100...

I have found 4 main areas where to shop in Tokyo: Nakano Broadway, Ikebukuro, Akihabara and Shibuya.

- Is it worth visiting the same shop in two different areas, or are they mostly the same?
(For instance, will a Don Quijote in Akihabara be the same than one in Ikebukuro, or is it worth visiting both?)

- how long do you usually spend in a shop like Animate, Mandarake or Daiso \100...? From my readings, it feels like these kind of shops are super big, sometimes on more than one level, is it true? I find it difficult to imagine shops this big with just anime stuff or cool things, so I find it difficult to imagine how long we should spend in each shop (to have an idea of how many shops we can visit in an afternoon)

- did you ever experienced a shopping burn out in Tokyo? Kind of a temple burn out but with shopping, if that's a thing?

I'm also planning to see other things in Tokyo of course, but I guess I'm worried about under-estimating the time needed to go between shops and the time needed to see everything in the shops and about planning to go to too many areas for shopping and ending up burned out. Especially since we are not so fond of shopping usually (but very excited about Japanese shops :D)

I should add, for anime and manga shops, I'm not necessarily planning to spend tons of money, it's more like going to a museum to me, maybe buy a few things, but mostly just look at stuff.

Hope it makes sense! Thanks for your time!

About shopping: why i will buy?Because my country has not this products or rare.

Suppose i have 10000 yen to spend, at first i will buy food items,then i buy transportation pass or ticket.then i spend rest of money to buy kodansha publication books.i love it.
Kodansha is the best. you will fall in love. If u read some of their publications.Good Luck.

I spent 3 hours at Nakano boarday just browsing and looking for stuff to buy. Probably the first time to Akihabara was 3 hours.

I'm not sure there is much of that stuff you want in Shibuya. And Ikebukuro has one main street with limited stuff.

I'd do Nakano Boardway and Akihabara first. Then just make a decision on whether more shopping is required.

The shops open and 10-11am and close 7-8pm. So you can even just do an evening somewhere for dinner and a quick shop. Wont feel like shopping so much then.

You can shop until you run out of time or your money.
If you are short on time, then go to the biggest Mega Donki (Don Quijote) in your area. Because the bigger the store, the more selections you'll find. I have been to a small Donki that sold only food/snacks.

For me, gtoo much shoppingh is if I have trouble bringing the bags home by myself (too heavy, too big to fit in checked luggage, etc). Youfre typically allowed two checked bags per person, but it might vary with your airline/ticket type. You have your husband and boys to help you though, so that shouldnft be an issue.

Some stores from the same chain do carry different things. For instance, the Donki in Ginza had the otc supplement I wanted, but the pharmacist went home early so I couldnft buy it. On the other hand, the one in East Ikebukuro didnft carry it at all. Some Matsukiyo stores have a more limited selection too. Donft forget that you can buy tax free at some stores, but youfll need your passport and you might need to go to a specific tax-free counter.

For anime/manga merch, I usually only shop at Ikebukuro. The Animate store in Ikebukuro is the main one. Its been years since I last went to the other ones in Osaka, Akiba, Shibuya or Chiba. Itfs still fun to look around and see what the smaller stores carry, but I believe the Ikebukuro one has the largest selection. It was remodeled and just reopened recently, so the lines were extremely long when I went last week.

Some other stores I recommend:
K books- second-hand store for otaku merch. Each one has a different genre, so if youfre looking for a specific characterfs goods, itfs easy to find them if you go to the right store.
Uniqlo- clothing. Though you can skip it if you have a Uniqlo nearby.
Swallowtail- themed butler cafe and gift shop. The gift shop has desserts and sweets which look cute and taste pretty good.
Amazon Japan online- if youfre looking for something specific that may not be in stores anymore. You can pay with a foreign card and get it shipped to your hotel, but just give it extra time in case therefs trouble with your payment going through. This happened to me recently, even though I had just bought some items online with the same card just a few days ago.
Themed cafes/attractions- these change every few months, so just check which places have an ongoing collaboration with the anime(s) you like.

Have fun shopping in Tokyo!

Yes, each Pokemon Center has a slightly different amount of merch in stock. And yes, I get Pokemon Center burnout long before my tween does. I also can only take so many store selling used Pokemon Cards. Luckily, my tween has gotten faster about shopping, so we go through stores a lot faster than we used to.

Mandarakes all have different merch because they all sell used items. Some used items are fairly common so they might be easy to find, but others are harder to find so it helps to visit more than 1. I collect fashion dolls, so, I am most fond of the Nakano Mandarake because there is an entire small shop just selling fashion dolls.

Animates are mostly good if you are looking for stuff for current series. Sometimes they do weird and unexpected flashbacks to older series. But in general, if what you want is older and has been on the air for the last 5 years, there is going to be a lot less stuff available. Merch is also based on which character and which series are popular with the Japanese, which is not always the same as what is popular with foreigners or what foreigners think should be popular. Lots of older series that would have normally vanished have been getting sequels as well, which helps bring them back.

Thanks everybody for your answers!

I have a better idea on where to go and how long to spend there now.

Thank you all for explaining all these different stores to me, I feel like I have a better understanding of how things work in Japanese shops thanks to you. It all seems so complicated when I look it up online, I'm glad I asked here :)

I think I'll decide on our two favourite shopping areas then see if we still have energy for more shopping after these days. And I'll stick to the biggest store of each chains, unless a smaller one is more specific to what we prefer :)

Looking forward to shopping in Tokyo :D