Best places to buy hiking, outdoor and camping gear in Tokyo

Before climbing Fujisan, we needed to shop for a lot of gear because we moved to Tokyo with 3 pieces of luggage each. While there are maybe one or two English blogs about places to shop for outdoor gear, they weren’t very exhaustive or comprehensive. *If you know of any thorough Japanese blogs, please leave a note in the comments!

So without further ado, here’s a list of the best stores that we visited – most were in West Tokyo and Shinjuku, but we did venture out to Yokohama as well. While there are a lot of stores in Central, they’re generally much smaller than the ones out West, so we’d encourage you to get on Chuo-sen and make a day of it.

Best places for new hiking gear

Moripark Outdoor Village in Akishima

Website: https://outdoorvillage.tokyo/

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/eGgiEabc3qKJnFDJ7

Moripark Outdoor Village is a shopping complex out in Akishima, about 45 minutes on a Chuo-sen train from Shinjuku. Here, you’ll find mostly large foreign and domestic brand name outdoor stores such as:

• North Face
• Columbia
• Montbell
• Snow Peak
• A & F Country

Note: At Moripark, we purchased our Salomon Hiking shoes from the Salomon outlet and our Darn Tough socks from A & F Country.

Tip: While you’re there, make sure to check out the Moritown shopping complex because there’s a lot of places to eat and things to do here. The “second” best melon pan shop is there, too – and it’s delish.

Outdoor shops in Kichijoji

Website: http://kichijoji-outdoortown.tokyo

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/LKSdzhGZ7dk4hay66

The Outdoor Shops Map in Kichijoji is a map of all the outdoor / hiking / camping gear stores in Kichijoji. Definitely check the link as it has a map of stores along with links to their online website. Like Akishima, you’ll find a number of large foreign and domestic brand name outdoor stores. Our personal favorite is L-Breath because of its variety – if Kichijoji is too far, there’s also a location in Shinjuku. You’ll also find Maunga and 2nd Gear, stores that primarily sell second hand gear. Check their websites out first (they typically have photos/descriptions of their current stock) as they’re pretty tiny places, so you may end up being disappointed if you’re coming from Central.

Note: In Kichijoji, we purchased Sara’s Osprey bag and SmartWool socks from L-Breath, and Sara’s Columbia rain gear and fleece from ICI Ishii Sports.

Tip: While you’re out at Kichijoji, don’t forget to get some menchi katsu at Satou, a Dutch Baby (American sized) at the Original Pancake House and ride the swan boats at Inokashira Koen. 😀

Best places for second-hand hiking gear

In other cities, we’ve often lived or worked by Goodwill / Ross-like stores, and being the treasure hunter that he is, Ryan absolutely loves to shop at these places. If you don’t mind getting second-hand gear for items that will probably get destroyed after the first use, then you should absolutely check these places out.

Mode Off in Hachioji

Website: https://www.hardoff.co.jp/shop/kanto/tokyo/hardoff/201028/

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/UNhcS2ZAaU1ebh3A7

The Mode Off (aka Ryan’s dreamstore) is actually within Eco Town, a complex that consists of Hobby Off, Mode Off, Hard Off, Off House, Book Off, and a Liquor Off. The Hard Off group is a nationwide chain of reuse stores that covers everything from clothing to comics to liquor. The Mode Off in Hachioji has a large selection of men’s hiking clothes (and a lot of American-sized brands), but unfortunately, an almost non-existent women’s section.

Note: At Mode Off, Ryan scored both a black North Face down and an Analog Snowboarding 10K jacket for under $100 total.

Tip: When you’re at this complex, don’t forget to check out all the other *Off stores. There’s a lot of great deals to be had here.

2nd Street in Hachioji

Website: https://www.2ndstreet.jp/shop/details?shopsId=31224

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/KFZKA85RBe5ct3aU6

Like Mode Off, 2nd Street is a nationwide chain of reuse stores. While they don’t specialize in outdoor gear, we did find a bit of hiking gear/clothes out at the 2nd Street in Hachioji. Shopping at these stores involve a bit of inventory luck – so we may have just been lucky (though hiking is extremely popular here). Inventory consisted of a lot of Japanese branded items including North Face Purple Label items. While there were a few items for women, like Mode Off, the selection was fairly small.

Note: At 2nd Street, we bought hiking poles for $20 USD a pair. Ryan says that this is probably one of the best investments you can make if you’re becoming a serious hiker – the poles definitely help save a lot of energy on both the ascent and descent of a climb.

Maunga in Kichijoji

Website: https://www.maunga.jp

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/aHhBGxcwXNqpFMT1A

We really liked this store because even though it’s small, the entire store consists of legitimate, second-hand hiking gear. They have a really wide variety of products of big brand name items from the US, UK, and Japan. With that said, it’s not a whole lot cheaper than if you bought them new, but saving 20-30% off items that will get destroyed after their first use just seems like the right thing to do. While we didn’t get anything from Maunga, we did visit it a few times and were pretty impressed with the selection of items.

Tip: While you’re out at Kichijoji, don’t forget to get your menchi katsu at Satou, a Dutch Baby (American sized) at the Original Pancake House and ride the swan boats at Inokashira Koen. 😀

Best places for rentals

Yamadougu in Shinjuku

Website: https://www.yamarent.com

Location: https://goo.gl/maps/1sXMQ3wsHUzWr4vK9

If you’re just visiting but still want to get your hike on, this is by far the best place we found in West Tokyo. While it’s a small shop, they have a fairly large selection of items to rent, and not to mention, they have a drop-off location at the Fuji-Subaru Line 5th Station so you don’t have to lug your items back to the city. Win!

Note: When we hiked Fujisan, we rented gaiters from them for the descent, but depending what you wear (and the weather conditions), you may not even need them for the hike down. We definitely didn’t so YMMV.

All the places we visited

If you know us, you know that we’re crazy detailed. Here’s a list of all the stores we actually visited in preparation to hike Fujisan. We’ve linked them to Google maps if you want directions to where they’re located!

• Snow Peak in Yokohama
• North Face in Yokohama
• Columbia in Yokohama
• L-Breath in Shinjuku
• Yamadougu in Shinjuku
• ICI Ishii Sports in Kichijoji
• Maunga in Kichijoji
• L-Breath in Kichijoji
• Montbell in Kichijoji
• Mountain Hardwear in Kichijoji
• Eco Town in Hachioji
• 2nd Street in Hachioji
• Salomon in Akishima
• Columbia Factory Store in Akishima
• A & F Country in Akishima
• Snow Peak in Akishima
• North Face in Akishima

Hope to see you on the trails!