Descente — Local services in Tokyo

As is always the case, a beloved brand of extreme quality destroys their own reputation by cheaply outsourcing their product production offshore and tries to convince you it’s still the same as it always was and that you should still pay a high price for it. Now the majority of their products are made in China and Myanmar so they pay much lower wages and less for materials but still charge the customer as though it was made in Japan. What’s worse, the staff are either unaware of this or trained to tell you it’s Japanese made. And when you show them the label says made in China they appear shocked. This is a real shame because this brand will never return to Japanese made quality that it was first famous for. A real pity because it was incredible. Now it’s...

Fantastic Japanese brand making stylish and very good quality clothing.

But get this: I bought a ski jacket here and used it for a week or so up on Hokkaido and found the zip on one of the internal pockets stuck fast when closed. Grrr. However, I took the jacket back to the shop and after a little debate, they refunded me the entire purchase price (c. £650) and gave me the jacket. It was January afternoon (it was cold outside) and I was flying back to the UK the next day, so the shop’s preferred option of sending the jacket back to their factory for repair wasn’t going to be a satisfactory option for me.

Amazing customer service....

This three-story shop located on the corner.

When you enter the 1st floor a lady at the “tea bar” handed us a cup of roasted tea. The first floor has a custom shop for baseball gear.

2nd floor is outerwear gear, mostly for street wear. The basement is running gear.

I was actually looking for ski gear but they didn’t carry it. I saw some ski...