Japan Shopping Guide

Japan is the best place on Earth to shop — and the most confusing. Size tags in systems you have never seen, price tags mixing tax-in and tax-out, a tax-free counter with rules nobody explains, and a gift culture with its own etiquette. This app decodes all of it, completely offline. SHOP How Japanese retail actually works: the service, the baskets, the cash tray, fixed prices and the no-tipping rule. A field guide to 12 store types — department stores, the legendary depachika food basements, 100-yen shops, drugstores, electronics floors, discount megastores, supermarkets, shopping streets, secondhand treasure troves and more. Paying at the register, declining the point card gracefully, how tax-free shopping for visitors works in plain terms, fitting-room etiquette (yes, shoes off — and use the face cover), store manners and taboos, sale seasons from lucky bags to half-price stickers, and how to get everything home in one piece — 97 entries in plain English. SIZE DECODER Tap your US, UK or EU size and get the Japanese size to look for on the rack — women's and men's clothing and shoes. Learn why shoes are sized in centimeters, why a Japanese M is not your M, and what 9号 means. Conversions are clearly marked as approximate; the fitting room makes the final call. PRICE TAG DECODER The kanji on Japanese price tags, made tappable: 税込 and 税抜 (with tax, without tax), 2割引 (the fraction-off system), 半額 (half price — the best sticker in Japan), 均一 flat-price signs and one-per-customer limits. Read any tag in the country at a glance. SOUVENIR DECODER 36 gifts that actually land — matcha sweets, senbei, furoshiki, kokeshi, hanafuda cards, Japanese pens, sheet masks and more — each with what it is and exactly how to pick a good one. Filter by food, crafts, cute, practical or bulk-friendly for the whole office. Plus the unwritten rules of omiyage culture: individual wrapping, regional exclusives, gift presentation and the fine art of the self-souvenir. PHRASES 30 sentences for asking, trying on, paying, tax-free and gift wrapping. Tap any one for a full-screen version you can simply show at the counter. Plus full-text search across the whole guide, and a star list for the things you want to remember. Works in the middle of a nine-floor department store with no signal. No account, no ads, no network access, and nothing about you is collected.