Sanjō-kai shōtengai

More than 150 shops under a single roof: this is where you do the grocery shopping, not the souvenir shopping.

You go in at Horikawa-Sanjō and walk under cover for almost a kilometre without ever going outside: pharmacies, fishmongers, rice shops, people with their shopping bags. The association lists more than one hundred and fifty member shops. On Sundays and Mondays half the shutters are down.

A covered shopping arcade, *shōtengai* in Japanese, that runs along Sanjō Street west of the centre, from Horikawa to Senbon. It was not created for visitors: it serves the neighbourhood. Among the shops is Hosoji Kōbundō, which has been carving personal seals for four hundred and twenty years.

ℹ️ There is no charge and there are no opening hours for the arcade as a whole. ⚠️ It is better to go on a Friday or Saturday: on Sundays and Mondays many shops are closed. ⚠️ ‘The largest covered arcade in Kyoto’ is how the association presents itself: it is the association's own claim, not a measurement, and should be read that way.

🚉 Omiya · 8 min walk

Sources: sanjokai.kyoto.jp

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