Shimotori Shopping Arcade — Attraction in Kumamoto

We visited a number of shopping streets in Kyushu and this must be the busiest. A wide and long walking street where shops were located at both side of the alley. There were small little alleys that would lead to some local restaurants and eateries as well. The family had fun shopping here where managed to find the popular Japanese pharmacy, don don donki, some street food and even a shop selling local porcelain kitchen ware and wooden kitchen items, all made in Japan. There were some common fast food restaurant like McDonald’s and Starbucks located along this street too. I even managed to find a good taiyaki snack bar here which tasted awesome, crispy on the outside. I would say one would need to allocate at least two hours for...

Date visited: late Jun 2025. Most of the shops are restaurants- fried stuffs and resulted in oily smell along the arcade. Couple of Pachinko shops. Couple of shops selling stuffs. One shop similar to Dunkee shop duty free. Couple of medical duty free shops. Anyway nothing really interesting to shop. Most shop close at 7 pm-8pm. There is McDonald along the arcade. Quite disappointed as the arcade is filled with cooking oil smells - overnight cooking oil smell. I just want to leave as fast as possible. I thought would be better in other section but sad to say due to many stores are restaurants selling fried stuffs, the smells just stay along the entire arcade. There is nothing interesting to take pictures for...

Nice busy shopping street with many eateries. Me & my daughter had nice ramen at Kokutei. We also found a grocery store selling many local fruits etc. The local strawberries in season were reasonably priced & they tasted wonderful - crunchy w tinge of sweetness. Some were fairly large size so will recommend any visitors to go all...