Detailed picks
The markets and food streets from the verified itineraries, with the right hour to arrive.
26 markets and food streets in 10 cities. Every place that comes from an itinerary links to its full day.
A ninety-year-old market street, full of sashimi bowls, grilled eel and tamago omelets. The inner market moved to Toyosu, but the outer one stayed, and this is the part that is fun to eat in. Come in the morning.
Photo: AXP Photography / Pexels
Narrow alleys at the west exit of Shinjuku Station, with about 80 businesses, around 60 of them places to eat and drink, most serving yakitori or motsuyaki (offal skewers). Some charge a seat fee and many take cash only. Not kosher.
Photo: Grendelkhan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A market that rose after the war under the railway tracks in Ueno: street snacks, dried seafood and cheap clothes. Bustling, cheap and unpolished.
Photo: Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Market · Tokyo, Toyosu and Odaiba
You start at the new wholesale market, from 2018.
A 400-year-old covered alley, 'Kyoto's kitchen'. Dashi rolls, octopus and matcha sweets. Very narrow at busy hours, and eating while walking is considered impolite.
Photo: DANIEL JULIE from Paris, France / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
A stone alley in Kyoto along the Kamo River, lit by lanterns. Duck hot pot and traditional Kyoto cuisine. In summer the restaurants open terraces over the river, and that is the season to come.
Photo: Julien / Pexels
Market · Kyoto, North and Center
400 years, 130 stalls, and one covered lane: quail eggs on octopus, Kyoto pickles, tamagoyaki and sake.
Temple · Kyoto, around the station
You start at a 5-story pagoda 55 meters tall, Kyoto's symbol from the Shinkansen window.
In Osaka, stalls with grilled king crab, otoro and sea urchin. More expensive than a neighborhood market because it is aimed at tourists, but the quality is good.
Photo: SungMinSeung / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Osaka's illuminated strip, the place for takoyaki and okonomiyaki. Very crowded in the evening. Entry to the area is free, and the amount here is an estimate of spending on food.
Our own photo, September 2026
An entertainment district from 1912 in Osaka, full of stalls of fried skewers. The sacred rule: you dip in the sauce only once. Entry is free, and the amount is a spending estimate.
Photo: Julien / Pexels
Market · Osaka
Osaka's kitchen: about 150 shops in a covered lane of about 580 meters.
Food · Osaka
According to the restaurant, kushikatsu was invented here in 1929: skewers of meat, shrimp, sweet potato and cheese in a crisp coating.
Hiroshima · Seafood
The city's wholesale market, where the auxiliary buildings are open to the general public with shops and restaurants that cook from that morning's stock. Important to know: this is a working facility and not an attraction, and the trading halls themselves are closed to visitors. Once a year, on one Saturday in March, the market festival opens to the public with tuna cutting, a demonstration auction and grilled oysters. Outside that day, come for breakfast and not for a tour.
Street food · Hiroshima
You start the island on the main street, because most shops on the island close towards evening.
Sapporo · Seafood
About 60 shops next to the central wholesale market, a seven-minute walk from Nijuyonken Station. Seventy to eighty percent of them sell fish. 6:00 to 15:00, and the large shops until 17:00, but a shop that runs out of stock closes at noon, so come in the morning. The restaurant area opens at 7:00. Larger and more local than Nijo Market in the center, and less touristy.
Market · Sapporo
You start in a small market in the city center, with seafood stalls and breakfast restaurants: a rice bowl with uni, ikura and crab costs ¥2
Kanazawa's coastal market on the Sea of Japan: sweet botan shrimp, crab and yellowtail. Crab season is from November to March, and that is when it is at its best.
Photo: dconvertini / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Market · Kanazawa
You start at a market that counts its years from 1721: about 170 shops in covered lanes, with snow crab in winter, sweet shrimp (amaebi) and
Takayama · Morning market
Takayama's second morning market, in the square in front of the historic Jinya government house. Smaller and quieter than the market on the river: homemade pickles, sweets and seasonal produce, and most of the sellers are older local women. 7:00 to 12:00, and in winter from December to March it starts at 8:00. The good time is between 8:00 and 9:00, before the groups arrive.
Market · Takayama
You start at the market along the river, which according to the market union began in the mid-Edo period.
Stay or return · Mount Koya
You finish with a night in a monastery, a shukubo, ¥15,000 to ¥25,000 per person with dinner and breakfast.
Live squid fishing tanks, and the chef slices translucent sashimi moments later. You can also fish for yourself. It opens very early and closes at midday.
Photo: OKJaguar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Naha · Covered arcade
A covered arcade 416 meters long that connects Kokusai-dori to Makishi Market, and around it two more arcades, Ichiba Hondori and Mutsumibashi-dori. Vegetables, tropical fruit, dried fish, sweets, souvenirs and clothes, and this is the part most visitors to the market miss because they go in and out through the same door. The walk is free, and it is worth pairing it with a meal on the second floor of the market.
Lunch · Naha, Okinawa
The public market was renovated in 2023, and it is closed on the fourth Sunday of the month, except in December.
