A quick tour around the world:

UK: Friend e-mailed me that Metro, one of the 3 free London dailies, recently reviewed a bunch of T-shirt shops in the UK including Spunky Store and East London’s No-One… House of Holland showcased its in-your-face slogan tees à la Katherine Hamnett during London Fashion Week. The T-shirts, which seem to be from American Apparel, are sold out… Being a good corporate citizen ASDA, owned by Wal-Mart (or Wal-Marde as Québecois call it), pulled out a controversial T-shirt (see photo) from its stores… after selling 15,000 of them!

Elsewhere: LaFraise recently went Dutch… The cool folks at Graniph opened earlier this month a booth at Reed Space. Party shots are available on ASNY. Hope they printed larger sizes… And last but certainly not least, Japanese mega-chain Uniqlo is launching next week UT, its own T-shirt label (via Jean Snow and Gridskipper). At 1500 yen (7 quid, $15), these slick looking T-shirts will go really fast.

Photo credit: Daily Mail, Gridskipper.

For a city its size, Tokyo has a rather short roster of bars and clubs. But what the metropolis lacks in numbers, it does make up in spirit. With public transportation practically shut after midnight, clubbers stay out all night drinking and dancing until the first trains run in the morning.

Where
Home to international banks, Roppongi moonlights as Tokyo’s party central. At weekends, the place is swarming with expats, tourists and Nigerian peddlers that you might forget for a brief moment that you’re in Japan.

How
Clubs in Tokyo have a relaxed door policy. Unlike in Paris or London, queues are usually short and quick, trainers are allowed, and female company is not necessary to get in.

Cover depends on what group you fit in. Whereas women usually get in for free and foreigners pay between 1,000 to 3,000 yen (5-15 quid) for admission and 1 or 2 drinks, the Japanese men are charged the highest rates and get no drink tickets.

What
One of the bigger clubs in Toyko, Vanilla is where my friends and I usually went. It’s cheap, busy, and plays more than one style of music.

I’d recommend to check out the main room past 1 or 2am. The Eurodance songs, at first, may seem very tacky. But when I saw the Japanese go nuts over this music and my friends joining in on the fun, I noticed that my right foot was thumping and my head bopping. Soon enough, I was humming the “hey, hey, hey, hey” anthem. (Or was it the alcohol kicking in?)

Other places I like are Velours on a Wednesday or Saturday night, a swanky supper club (though no dance floor) in Aoyama, Propaganda for pre-drinks, Muse and Yellow. One club I think I would really enjoy is Air in Daikanyama, but it’ll have to wait until my next trip to Tokyo.

As for my blacklist, the bars I avoid are Lexington Queen, an all-you-can drink dive with seemingly under-aged Eastern European models, and Gaspanic, where wannabe gangstas strut their jewellery and baggy outfits.

Addresses
I’ve intentionally omitted a trendy lounge not listed on any of the sites that my friend showed me, as it’s one of the few cool places not overrun by tourists.

Web sites
CyberJapan (reviews): website
Metropolis (listings): website
Wikitravel (reviews): website
The World’s Best Bar: website

Roppongi
911 (bar, hip-hop): Roppongi
A-Life (supper-club): Roppongi, website
Feria (bar): Roppongi, website
Heartland (cafe-bar): Roppongi
Muse (club, hip-hop): Roppongi, website
Propaganda (bar): Roppongi
Vanilla (club): Roppongi, website
Velfarre (afters): Roppongi, website

Aoyama
Fai Aoyama (club): Omotesando, website
Las Chicas (bar): Omotesando
Velours (supper club): Omotesando, website

Shibuya/Daikanyama
Air*: Daikanyama, website
La Fabrique* (supper club): Shibuya, website
Womb (club): Shibuya, website

Outside of Tokyo
Ageha (megaclub): Shinkiba, website

* never been.

What makes Tokyo the retail capital of the world? It helps that Japan’s the second economic power in the world, a massive 35 million inhabitants live in the greater Tokyo area, the city has an efficient public transportation system, and the Japanese – both men and women – are stylish.

To give you an idea of the scale of Tokyo’s shopping scene, consider this comparison with other prominent retail destinations.

Looking only at high-end department stores, New York has Saks, Bloomingdale’s, Lord and Taylor, Neiman, Bergdorf and Barneys; London is home to Harrods, Harvey Nicks and Selfridges; and Paris’ retail giants include 3 Printemps, Lafayette and Le Bon Marché.

In metro Tokyo, Mitsukoshi alone has 7 locations. Then there are the 3 Takashimayas, Seibu, Isetan (the men’s store spans 9 floors), Matsuya, Barneys, Printemps, and a few others. Still not convinced? Have a look at this partial list of brands of womenswear in Tokyo.

Shopping areas
The people who’ll dig our T-shirts will like to shop at Daikanyama (mainly women’s wear), Shibuya, Harajuku, Omotesando, Aoyama, and Shinjuku. Venture off the main streets and check out the cool stores tucked in alleys off Omotesando, Meiji dori and Aoyama dori.

Superfuture has the best maps of Tokyo in English, but even their list is missing several cool stores. They could only pack so much info in such little space.

Quality, quality, and quality
Quality trumps price in Japan. That’s why Wal-Mart is losing money there, while the Guccis, Louis Vuittons, Diors and Pradas have towering flagship stores.

Gap did its research well and is positioned as a mid-market brand catering their products (and bumping prices in the process) to the fickle Japanese consumer. Still, the Japanese shopper does frequent places like Uniqlo and Muji, which sell inexpensive yet good quality products. I guess for now shopping at Wal-Mart just doesn’t sound as tantalising.

Local brands that stay local
Other than a few big names, Japan has been rather unsuccessful exporting their fashion brands to other corners of the world. It’s too bad, many of these labels carry wonderful apparel at reasonable prices. I suspect the problem could be a marketing one.

As Japanese are enamoured with French culture, a common practice there (and in Asian countries) is to give a company a French name to get that extra flair. But to do it right, you really need someone who’s fluent in the language to choose an appropriate name. The label Comme ça du mode carries pretty neat clothes, but the name itself has no meaning in French and is grammatically incorrect.

Several household names licensed their names in Japan. Mary Quant is still revered by older Japanese women. Zegna has a trendy offshoot called EZ by Zegna. And following a restructuring, Burberry canceled most of its licensing agreement except in Japan, where the Black and the Blue Label make money.

Yes, it’s true
I’m going to share two interesting observations from my experience in Tokyo. To give you an idea of Japanese sophistication, the design and furniture store Loft (or was it Tokyu Hands?) carries screwdrivers, of all things, in 8 different colours.

Finally, think twice before taking kids to the toy section at the variety store Don Quixote. Sure they do have Pokemon, radio controlled cars, action figures and dolls. Just make sure they don’t turn around to see the other toys that should’ve been put in a separate aisle.

Addresses
I’m only including metro/train stations and web sites, as the address numbering system in Japan is a bit complicated. As mentioned earlier, go to Superfuture’s Web site for maps.

Web sites
Japan Consuming: web
Jean Snow: web
Metropolis: web
Superfuture: web

Department stores
Barneys (high end): Ginza, web
Isetan (high end): Shinjuku, web
La Foret (women’s casual): Harajuku, web
Marui/0101 (casual): Shibuya, Shinjuku ,web
Matsuya (high end): Ginza, web
Mitsukoshi (high end): Shinjuku, Ginza, Mitsukoshimae, web
Parco (design, casual): Shibuya, web
Printemps (high end): Ginza, web
Seibu (high end): Shibuya, Ikebukuro, web
Shibuya 109 (women casual): Shibuya, web
Takashimaya (high end): Shinjuku, Nihombashi, web

Shopping malls
Caretta Shiodome: Shiodome, web
Omotesando Hills (high end): Omotesando, web
Roppongi Hills: Roppongi, web
Sunshine City: Ikebukuro, web
Tokyo Decks: Odaiba-Kaihin Kouen, web

Japanese Brands
A Bathing Ape (clothing casual) Omotesando, web
Acrylic (accessories): Hiroo, web
Artisan (clothing): Shinjuku
Beams (clothing): Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, web
Comme ça du mode (clothing): web
Burberry Black Label (clothing formal): Shibuya, web
Burberry Blue Label (clothing casual: Shibuya, web
Edifice (clothing): Shibuya, web
EstNation (clothing): Roppongi, Yurakucho, web
EZ Zegna (clothing): Shibuya/Harajuku, web
Gloster (clothing): Shibuya
Isaburo (leather goods): Omotesando, web
Taishi Nobukuni (clothing): Omotesando, web
Takeo Kikuchi (clothing): Shibuya, web
Tomorrowland (clothing): Shibuya, web
United Arrows (clothing): Shibuya, Shinjuku, web

I went, I saw, I bought.

Exactly a year ago, I spent three months in Tokyo scouting the retail scene and made all my purchases on the penultimate day of my stay.

This time, I knew exactly where to go and made my main purchase on day 1. It still took me about two hours before I found what I was looking for, a one-button charcoal suit jacket by United Arrows cut to be worn on top of a T-shirt.

My next destination was my favourite T-shirt store, Graniph. I saw only two that I liked and left with just one new T-shirt as the other was not available in my size.

Although I find Graniph has a better selection and cut of T-shirts, the most impressive T-shirt store I’ve seen is the Wonderwall-designed Beams T. You gotta love Japanese ingenuity.

Spending the weekend in Tokyo, the premier shopping destination in the world. So many retail areas to see again - Daikanyama, Shibuya, Omotesando, Shinjuku, Aoyama, Ginza, Harajuku, Roppongi - so little time.