Shin-Okubo at the moment has the most foreign residence in Kanto. Among the many people from different countries such as Korea, Thailand, Myanmar etc, there is the most Koreans, and is also said to be a holy place for recent trend of Korean fans. I decided to walk the town where you can feel a different country while being in Japan.

First I got off the station, went under the guard rails into Okubo dore Ave. From that part the town is filled with Hangul. Although it was during the daytime on a weekday, there are a lot of people!

Precautionary signs and names of stores are all written in Hangul. There really must be a lot of Korean residences. There were a lot of Korean restarauts lined up but also there were more stores that sold Korean star’s goods. Due to the Korean boom in our world, there really were a lot of stores.

The store on the far left “Korean department store” not only sells star goods, but also had cosmetics etc on the second floor. The Korean traditional sweets “Dragon whiskers” were also sold, and supposedly show us how it is made at the spot. Please take a look when you get the chance.
All stores were crowded and suggest the popularity of the Korean stars.

Within the stores are goods such as posters, key holders, files being sold. Coming to Shin-Okubo I wonder if you have a kind of a magical spell casted onto you and you buy something without thinking. It may be a business effect only available in this Korean town.

From the street across the Korean department store, in between the roads you can see the coffee prince. This store has from a number 1 to number 3 store, that you can consider it being the number 1 popular store in Shin-Okubo. This store is a model of the TV drama that was popular in both Korea and Japan- “Coffee Prince number 1 store”.
The interior of the store is made for girls, the desks and decorations, the window decors, and café menus etc all are of cute motifs flowers. Its appealing point is that all staff in the store is Korean males, perhaps to make the customers feel as if they were inside the drama. All ladies please come by and meet the handsome staff.

Walking down the street with the Korean department store, walking towards the opposite of the station for a while, you see this street sign.

It is another Korean style shop. The store is located on the right street right after the seeing the sign.

We arrive at the Korean shop “Giruzuhausu”. On the first floor is a goods shop, second floor is a cosmetics shop. To find the recent popular Korean cosmetics, I recommend this store. It had a large variety of cosmetics in cute designs.

Going back to the street before is the super market in the Korean building, “Seoul Market (Shijyan)” can be seen. There are a number of super markets in Shin-Okubo, but due to the market being close to the station it was very crowded with Japanese customers as well. A lot of the products being sold are good for take home gifts and homemade kimchi which is also good for buying gifts as well. They gave me a food sampling; it was delicious with its full-scale spiciness that would go well with rice. It is unique that it is freshly homemade by Korean mothers.

The Korean restaurant called “Kan-saran” on the 2nd floor is very popular, there were people waiting in line. There is also a party course where you can rent the place out. You can also try on the Chimachogori; for those that want to experience the real Korean culture I recommend going to the “Korean building (Han-ryuu-kan)”.

Walking further from the “Korean building (Han-ryuu-kan)” we go into the first street. Here there are Korean restaurants lines up, and I think this is the street in which you can experience Korea the most in Shin-Okubo’s Korean town.

This place was also very crowded with people. Although it is crowded with a lot of people, there is a lot more car traffic than you think so please be careful! Either way the amount of people is amazing.

As you walk you can hear Korean here and there.

This is the “Kanton-no-omoide annex”. A popular store where celebrities visit as well, and is often reported on TV. Not only Japanese, but there were also signatures of Korean celebrities as well.

Here you can enjoy the Korean street food.

Every dish has a lot of volume. There is also the yakiniku menu which you can enjoy light-heartedly. The seaweed soup is essential for Korean cooking.

Because it is supposed to be a street food restaurant, the interior designs make it feel like as if we are outside. The staff here has conversations in Korean, so you can enjoy the atmosphere of the real Korean food stands.

The “Kan-ton square” before was in the middle of this street, but as you walk father there seems to be a lot more Korean restaurants.
Having a meal or desert in the terrace seats, also feels like you are in Korea’s food stands!

In the strong atmosphere of the street foods, there is also a fashionable café. It is the calming atmosphere “82 café HONEY CAFE2. There is a shaved ice “Pappinsu”, Korean sweets that can only be bought in Shin-Okubo.

After passing this street, we come out to “Shokuyasu Ave”.
Turning left after coming out we can see the landmark of Shin-Okubo “Donki-hotei”.

Even the signs are in Hangul. Perhaps even the residents here become familiar with “Donki-hotei”.
When walking in Shin-Okubo it may be easy to have this place as the criterion.

Walking further you start to see a store called “Goryeo”. Turning left there, are Korean restaurants lined up. The street before was more common-style, but this place had a more full-scale atmosphere with its yakiniku restaurants.

This small building was a store just for grilling meat. It looks very delicious nicely grilled!

We go back to Shoku-yasu Ave and this time we will be walking towards the station.
Walking toward the opposite direction from the street with Donki-hotei, we see a super market called “Korean square (Kankoku-hiroba)”.

It is easy to enter possibly due to the fact that it is located away from the station. There are less Japanese customers, and it seems to be that the products being sold are more full-scaled Korean style than the super market introduced earlier. A lot of the customers there were residents from that area, and you could hear a lot of Korean in the store. I think the most Korean like store is this store.

This fruit like product is called “Chame”. They let me take a sampling and it was crispy and tasted like Melon. I think it is very easy to eat for girls as well. This was sold in all super markets so it is easy to get!
And the picture next to it is a cow tail. Perhaps staff from Korean restaurants buys this for their business. The products sold are rare, and is a little bit of a special secret spot.

Again, we go back to the Donki-hotei streets.

We arrive at the traditional Korean crafts specialty store “Insadon”. This store is rare, that deals with Korea’s traditional folk crafts. Traditional furniture, general merchandise, accessories, and Korean Japanese paper called “Hanji” were also available.

The touching feeling felt like the Japanese paper, the only difference was it is used to dye vibrant colors. The rough and stiff sense of touch is what’s unique about the paper.

On the 2nd floor it is a photo shoot to wear Chimachogori, please stop by to make some memories. There are some products that are only available in this store.

As you walk along Shoku-yasu Ave there were a lot of Korean style star shops lined.

There are goods of Korean stars that were popular a while back; it seems to be that this place was a sacred place in Shin-Okubo for Korean fans.

Getting closer to the station, this time we arrive at the super market called “Nandemunshijyan”. This super market you think it would be a food supply department, but right next to it is a cosmetics section, I was very surprised at first! In Shin-Okubo super markets also hold cosmetics. This store was also very popular and crowded with people.

I just wanted something that was Korean, and bought these.
Because I do not understand the Hangul characters, I have no idea what it says. Buying these items with half entertainment, buying these as gifts while not knowing what the items are, are another thrill with interacting with other cultures.

This drink tastes like…
I will leave that as a surprise for you guys!
Everyone please challenge different products.

Walking from the super market to in front of the guard rails, and turning right, we come back to where we first started. And this is where our stroll comes to an end. This time we went to the back a little farther back of the Korean building towards Shoku-yasu Ave, if you go even farther, there are even more collection of Korean style shops.

Even if you are not a Korean star fan, there are a lot of places where you can fully enjoy Korea’s elemnts. You can experience the elements of different countries while being in Japan; I felt that Shin-Okubo is a small piece of a foreign country.
You can also feel that Korea is a very friendly place; it was very impressive to see Japan accepting foreign countries.
Please if you get the chance, go eat delicious Korean cooking, also to enjoy Korea, visit Shin-Okubo!