Ohi Keibajo, also known as Ohi Racecourse or Tokyo City Flea Market, is a very popular flea market in Tokyo. As a matter of facts, it is the biggest of all flea markets in Tokyo held on a regular basis, and where flea market enthusiasts can find real bargains.
Hosted by the Tokyo citizens recycling society and held almost every week, Ohi Keibajo features around 600 booths and is technically more related to a US car boot sale, than to an antiques market. Therefore visitors should not expect to find traditional Japanese antiques like porcelain tableware, real vintage Kimonos, old furniture and traditional decor items like those sold at Shrines & temples flea markets.
Flea market merchants at the Ohi Keibajo mainly sell old worn out bric-a-brac, cookware, anime toys, clothes, video games, books, dvds, videos, rusty tools, watches, second hand clothes, bags, tools, knick knacks, old electronic and other assorted paraphernalia. Basically the same products one would find at a car boot sale in Europe or in the US, only with a Japanese flavour.
Ohi Keibajo can nonetheless be a true goldmine for travelers visiting Tokyo for the first time, and eager to discover the Japanese culture they were acquainted with through mangas and other TV shows.
All in all, with so many stalls you lose count of and prices as low as ¥100 for anything, Ohi Keibajo really puts all that shopping around Tokyo for thousands of yen into perspective.
Matt Jensen
29th June 2015 at 12:07As a big fan of the British ‘car boot sale’ when I came to Japan in 2014 I had to try out a flea market! So I did! The flea market itself is fantastic: so many stalls you lose count, with people selling all sorts from cookware, anime toys, clothes, video games, books, dvds, videos, most wanting as little as ¥100 for anything, it really puts all that shopping around Tokyo for thousands of yen into perspective! You’ll also find various food vendors in the flea market, whilst the hot food was tempting, we couldn’t say no to some Kakigori in a variety of tasty flavors!
Everyone is very polite and no one was forceful at the flea market unlike some people at car boot sales, and as foreigners they would always try and tell us how much they were telling us in English, and we didn’t feel as though anyone was driving up the price because we were foreigners!
Marsha Ward
31st May 2016 at 19:36I was so looking forward to checking out a flea market in Tokyo. We hauled all the way across town on Sunday morning with hope of finding even one cool, unusual thing. There seemed to be a few true collectors mostly selling toys–the rest was a jumbled heap of old, worn out bric-a-brac, rusty tools, piles of clothes, and useless old electronics. There was one vendor selling some interesting natural history items, but I was skeptical about my ability to import them along with the feeling that the bear claws had probably been procured under less than ideal circumstances. There were sellers with piles of old kimono for only 200JPY, but they smelled strongly of mothballs, and I had little confidence I’d be able to get the smell out.
Overall, I’d give it a pass–there’s nothing else out that way in the event of a bust, so it’s basically a waste of three hours.
NIK
5th March 2017 at 11:48I went there yesterday, I like it.
There are food stalls too, kebab, curry, yakitori, etc… delicious!!