Is the Tokyo City Flea Market Worth It? Full Guide

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I’ve heard about the Tokyo City Flea Market ever since I started thrifting.

Everyone talks about all of the booths there and there are so many finds there for you to discover. And I knew that when I went to Japan in December of 2025, I needed to go check it out for myself.

If you are a big fan of thrifting, there is no better place for you to go than the Tokyo City flea market.

When I learned that my trip in December to Japan would pass over a weekend, I knew that I had to make the track to the Tokyo City flea market. Staying over at Edogawa in Japan. Getting over to Tokyo was only a 1.5 metro ride to the market, so I got there at around 10am.

Here are 6 tips that you need to know:

1. Bring cash

The rule of thumb is to always better to bring more rather than less.

Since there are no ATMs nearby, even if there are, you would not know if it could take your specific bank card. So just in case you do find something that you really like, as better to have more cash available on hand.

I brought around $300 in USD which converted to yen is around 46,400, and I spent around 30,000 for two jackets, a beanie, ceramics, art prints, custom jeans, and vintage keychains. Because they were all individual sellers, barely any of them had card readers on the table so it will be your safest bet to bring cash.

I was able to get a unique one-of-a-kind koi fish embroidered jeans at the market, and it was from a seller that reworks jeans with his own designs on them. I managed to find a pair that was my waist and my preferred length in a low waist style in his pile of stock. And to this day, it is my favorite purchase from that market.

2. Bring a snack

I arrived to the market at around 10 a.m. and I was so busy walking around for my third find that I didn’t eat until closing of the market. They had around 6-8 food trucks on the very side of the parking lot, which I didn’t even see until the very end. Some of them are slightly overpriced for a very small amount of food, so I ended up going to the outskirts and finding this meal for around 1,200 yen.

But if I would go back in time, I would most likely buy some sort of meal-ish snack from 7-11 on the way to the metro and eat it when I get hungry while thrifting.

3. Buy in the last hour

I promised myself that I would not buy for the sake of thrifting in one of the biggest thrift markets ever, I make notes of items that I want to buy, but aren’t necessarily needed in my collections. But I went back to those same booths in the last hour and for the same jacket that I saw originally selling for ¥7,000, the lady who was selling it gave me an automatic discount to 5,000 yen just because I picked it up and tried it on.

I haven’t even started haggling.

I got these two jackets at the market: a Diesel fur trim black jacket (¥5,000) and a beige white goose down jacket puffer coat (¥3,000).

I’m sure that you could most likely get some deals at the Coach purse vendors with this tip because a lot of the vendors also just do not want to bring so much stock back. I was seeing people cross out their signs with a discount in the last hour, some of them would switch their signs to ask me for the discount when it’s the last hour and a half.

4. Trinkets!

Besides the clothes at the market there are also plenty of handmade ceramics, toys, pokemon cards, vintage keychains, vintage jewelry, vintage cameras, gadgets, and art prints at the market. So don’t sell yourself short and only check out the vendors for clothes!

This was also the perfect spot for you to potentially get not only souvenirs for yourself but also gifts for other people. I got some beautiful ceramics and keychains for my friends back home that I gifted when I’ve came back to America and they all loved it!

5. Second floor of the parking lot and outside the parking lot.

Before you give up after taking two loops around the first floor of the parking lot, which is what you see when you first enter the racehorse track of the Tokyo City Flea Market – there is more outside of the parking lot and above the parking lot. There is a reason why you have to schedule almost half the day to check out this flea market because I was there from 10 am to closing at 2:30 pm.

A lot of the smaller gadgets are found on the second floor, and the majority of clothing is found mostly outside with the other half being in the first floor of the parking lot. But there are so many vendors that you really need to take the time to go through each row, and it’s very easy to not remember if you’ve checked out this row already, so it’s good to make a note of which vendor you’ve already seen by keeping a mental note of maybe the first item that you see at their stall.

Conclusion:

Having gone to a lot of thrift stores in Ginza, Shibuya, Tokyo, and more, I can confidently say the Tokyo city flea market outweighs them by an incredibly wide margin. A lot of the thrift stores are selling luxury items, but the Tokyo City flea market is definitely on the cheaper end with the same quality.

The small indie thrift Japanese stores end up looking really similar to the items that you would see at Goodwill, because they’re often selling curated Carhartt or even university hoodies. So a lot of the thrift stores ended up not being really worth thrifting at, especially if I came to Japan for more streetwear pieces.

I would love to return to the Tokyo City flea market when I visit Japan again, it was actually partially raining in the morning when I went. In fact, I was able to get a discount on some items because it was wet from the rain. But hopefully next time around, there would be more vendors than there were when I went.

If you love thrifting, the Tokyo City flea market is definitely somewhere that you should visit when you visit Tokyo. It is only available from Saturday to Sunday, both days, from 9am to 2:30pm, so make sure you wake up to your alarm for the best thrift finds!!