Kumamoto is a great place to go shopping. In addition to heading to the malls and shopping streets, though, you can find virtually everything you need at the markets. This offers the chance to have a uniquely Japanese experience, making a regular shopping trip much more fun.<\/p>\n
Not far from downtown Kumamoto, close to Kumamoto University<\/a>, is Kokai Shotengai Market. The old-style shopping area sells all kinds of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat as well as other everyday things like clothes and trinkets. It\u2019s an ideal place to find all sorts of produce for cheap. The market extends a long distance down a narrow street, resembling how markets in Japan would have looked in samurai times \u2014 visiting is a great way to feel like you\u2019re going back in history.<\/p>\n Right by the airport, you\u2019ll find Furusato Ichiba Farmer\u2019s Market<\/a>. It has all the fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, condiments, frozen foods, noodles, and snacks you could ever need. Plus, everything you\u2019ll find here is locally sourced, affordable, high quality, and delicious.<\/p>\n Vendors start selling as early as 4:00 a.m. at Kumamoto Chiho Oroshiuri Market. As a wholesale market with good prices, expect it to be crowded even in the early hours of the morning. It\u2019s a great place to try dishes with the freshest fish as well as to buy large quantities of ingredients to cook at home. There are a few special events throughout the year when there are reduced prices on certain items \u2014 look out for these if you want a good deal.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re concerned with quality over price, JA Kumamotokeizairen you + you could be a good option. You\u2019ll find a wide variety of products from farms around Kumamoto, including organic produce, cut flowers, ornamental plants, and eggs. Although the prices are similar to those at a supermarket, the food is much fresher. To find what you want, you\u2019ll need to come in the morning, as almost everything is sold by the afternoon.<\/p>\n To have plenty of choice for where to eat all in one location, head to Kumamoto Food Stall Village. This open-air food court has everything from seafood to hot dogs across its 17 restaurants. Many serve local Kumamoto and Kyushu cuisine \u2014 you could try a different place every time you visit. Wherever you eat, you\u2019ll have views of Kumamoto Castle, which makes the experience extra special.<\/p>\n Kumamoto even has its own cattle market. Farmers auction cattle from the area, attracting buyers from all over the country due to the high quality of wagyu beef<\/a>. When an auction is happening, the restaurants by the market are open to the public. These sell several fresh beef dishes, including barbecue.<\/p>\n Markets are obviously a great place to visit if you need to buy something, but it\u2019s often just as much fun checking out the wares without making any purchases. Who knows \u2014 you even may pick up a few things you didn\u2019t think you needed!<\/p>\n dconvertini<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kumamoto is a great place to go shopping. In addition to heading to the malls and shopping streets, though, you can find virtually everything you need at the markets. This offers the chance to have a uniquely Japanese experience, making a regular shopping trip much more fun. Kokai Shotengai Market Not far from downtown Kumamoto, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":48704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,103],"tags":[489,731,732,568],"class_list":["post-48703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kumamoto","category-shopping","tag-kumamoto","tag-kumamoto-daily-life","tag-kumamoto-local","tag-kumamoto-shopping"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49476,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48703\/revisions\/49476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Furusato Ichiba Farmer\u2019s Market<\/h2>\n
Kumamoto Chiho Oroshiuri Market<\/h2>\n
JA Kumamotokeizairen you + you<\/h2>\n
Kumamoto Food Stall Village<\/h2>\n
March\u00e9 Kumamoto-Ken Kachiku<\/h2>\n
![dconvertini<\/a>,](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Kanazawa_Omicho_Market,_Japan_(48876956676).jpg\"){kind=link}