Kyoto's main shopping district centres around the area where the streets Shijo-dori and Kawaramachi-dori intersect. There are several huge department stores in this part of the city, and it is mainly here that you will find major fashion chain stores and high-street brands.

Fashionable shops, exclusive boutiques and trendy restaurants can also be found along the elegant Kitayama Street, which stretches eastward from Kitayama Bridge further north in Kyoto.

Kyoto is more famous, however, for its arts and crafts shops, and the most convenient of these for tourists is undoubtedly the multistorey Kyoto Handicraft Center, Kumanojinja Higashi, Marutamachi-dori, Sakyo-ku, which sells a wide range of handicraft products and souvenirs, from lacquerware, porcelain, jewellery, woodblock prints and fabrics to kimonos, swords and T-shirts.

Another excellent craft shop can be found in the Kyoto Craft Center, 275 Gion-machi-kitagawa, Higashiyama-ku, which has exhibitions of textiles, ceramics and many other kinds of craft items made by local craftsmen and artists.

Kyoto has a number of shops that offer hand-made Japanese paper, and Morita Washi, Higashinotoin-dori-Bukkoji agaru, near Shijo-dori, is the most famous, selling purified paper of the highest quality. Japanese comics and film fans should head for Teramachi Street, one of Kyoto's biggest shopping arcades, off Shijo-dori, where there are several stores specialising in manga and anime.