Is Kyoto’s Nishiki Market the latest Tourist Trap in 2025?

Is Kyoto’s Nishiki Market the latest Tourist Trap in 2025?

I was not expecting this place to be a little bit of a tourist trap. So nice. Is it worth it? Is it better than the one I had in Tuki is a question. Mount of Fuji. That was epic. Am I being scammed? Boy oh boy, do I have an awesome video because we’re going to Nishiki Market here in Kyoto, Japan. Now, the very first thing that I’m going to say about Nishiki Market is that it’s nice and cool and covered. Perfect for the summer, perfect for the winter. Um, it’s a Sunday. It’s 2:30 p.m., just for reference, for anybody that’s interested. And, um, some stores do close on a Sunday, but everything seems to be mostly open from what I can see. So, that’s good news for all of us. Which one do you recommend that I try? Number two, Ah, thank you. Let’s go. It’s like sour. Sour. A bit a little bit sour. I’m going to be totally honest. I’m not sure how I feel about starting with a pickle here in the Shiki market. Maybe it would have been better like in the middle, not at the very start. But hey, that’s what’s happened. Let’s get on. Let’s Let’s continue. This is crap. No. Wow. And you can sit on these tables. Actually, I might get a little snack from here. So, I’m going to start off with some gyoza here. Um, can I have osum? What you think? This one. Black pig’s probably the most expensive. No. Cashing cash. Gingto. No, no, no. I’m getting my wallet out of my bag cuz you need cash. 5,000 yen. That’s going to be more than enough for my budget for for Nishiki Market. Let’s hope. Anyway, coffee. Let’s get a drink for the drink corner. Do you have um I mean yuzu. Do you have anything with yuzu? No. Ah. Then namabiru size size M size. How big is M? Show me. M is that? Oh, I don’t want to complain, but 1,000 yen for a for a beer for a mediumsized beer. That is expensive, guys, for for Japan. But I just simply could not have gias without a beer. I was not expecting this place to be a little bit of a tourist trap. Um, things have definitely changed, but hey, is it still worth visiting? We’ll find out. So nice. They’re not super big. Kind of small. But tasty tasty. I don’t want to come across like I’m like I’m complaining cuz I know that the yen is weak and all that. You know, it’s still rather um kind of cheap, but I want to, you know, give a really honest like um review of the place. Let’s look at the prices. The mini okonomyaki is 1,000 yen. Yeah, it’s kind of mini. I would say 2,000 yen for a mediumsiz okonomyaki. I would say that’s a medium. I would say I’m not going to lie. I was totally drawn in by the ease and the foreigner friendliness of this of this restaurant of this like establishment. I have no idea when it comes to like prices of umbrellas, but it’s interesting though. Ichiban um like Yeah. popular. Which one? Mount Fuji. Ah, everything handmade. Wow. Very difficult. Everything handmade. Yeah. Yeah. It’s very They’re also very strong. Big size but very light. You try not heavy. So good. Wow. Thank you. They’re very beautiful. Look, some of them some of them are so beautiful over here. Thank you for showing me. Thank you. Oh, now talk about like a presentation, right? That was like a full-on QVC like like TV shopping moment there. That was epic. All right, what else do we have in store? I mean, 500 yen for a popsicle sort of thing. I can I can I I’m okay with that. I think some cafes. I don’t fancy anything too sweet just yet. Let’s let’s let’s explore a little bit further. Let’s see. I mean, it’s it’s it’s pretty nice. I’m not going to lie. It’s it’s a nice place. You can get food sample, you know, food samples and and browse, shop, etc., etc., etc. What do they have over here? Okay, thank you. Okay. Some more furake. Um, this is like um rice seasoning. Totally recommend you get you buy some to take home if you’re in Japan. It’s one of those things that like is usually overlooked, but when you add it to your rice, you just have a little bit of a taste of Japan in your home country. It’s pretty cool. Actually, this is really good. I’m going to even eat the little extra bits. Spicy, salty, sesame. Delicious. I’m going to actually buy it. Some more samples here. Let’s see. Actually, everything is really nice in this store. Oh my god. My goodness. Sesame sauce. I love sesame sauce. How do you even taste this? Sesame sauce. That on a salad. Taste of Japan, guys. Kyoto chili. What is it? Potato sticks. I like this store. I might be making a mistake here having some chili oil, but here we go. Actually, it’s perfect. It’s crunchy. It says crunchy. It’s a crunchy. Lots of things to try here. 5 hours later, I was drawn in and it worked. I left the store with some seasoning for my rice. And actually, I would say I got my money’s worth cuz I actually ate plenty of little tasters in that store. What else do we have in here? Some teapotss. Actually, I’m looking for a little tanuki. But I’m a bit worried that um it’s too early on my trip to buy it. Might be a little bit fragile. I always recommend that you buy one of these when you’re in Japan. Whisk for the matcha. Just get into matcha. You might not like it at the beginning, but eventually they will you will succumb. You might have seen this little guy usually in red before and you might have wondered why doesn’t he have an eye or why do they have one eye only? And the reason is because you basically color in one eye. You make a wish and when your wish comes true, you color in the other eye. These are so beautiful. My goodness. They’re so goalie and shiny that they look like they’re wet, but they’re not. I would totally buy this if it wasn’t 7,150 yen. Ooh. You Everybody knows that I am a fan of dango mitarashi dango being one of my favorites. Hanami dango rice dumpings on a skure. Maybe I should just have something savory. Just one more savory thing before I go for the sweets. Although, is there even a rule for like um eating savory or sweets first? Like when you’re in a market, just eat what you find in the order that you find it. Maybe a little plum wine. Which one? This one gets Yeah. Oh wow. So is there like a special way to drink it? I could drink it there. But why why is why the box? Uh is over there overflowed. So, I was just saying how um how um is there an order to eating savory or sweets when you’re in a market? But is there an order to drinking things in the market cuz I just got some ume wine um some plum wine which I love. It just caught my attention and I thought why not? Let’s have a little bit of ume wine. Looks pretty good, right? I’m not sure if I’m ringing in the right way, but that’s the way I’m ranking it, guys. Let’s see what there is on offer here. Shellfish, octopus. They they um gr it for you if you want it. Some coobe beef steak. 6,000 yen. Wow. Coobe is just around the corner from here, so we’ll probably get some good coobe beef. It says cameras are okay. That’s sort of like another sign of um of being in a touristy place. They’re used to it. Prawns. Tempura. Tempura road omelette. Interesting. Beef tempura. Ooh, beef tempura might sound interesting. I mean, you know, look at the um it’s quite a good ambiencece here, but at the same time, it’s all tourist, right? Count the Japanese. Count the Japanese. Wagyu skua 1,500 yen. Small size. Can I have one small? Yeah. What was it? 1,500. Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy. Uh, I’ll sit there. Okay. All right, guys. I’m not going to lie. I would most definitely not pay 1,500 yen for this if it wasn’t for a video, but I am in a shiki market and I have um responsibility to try things. The small size 1,500 yen, is it worth it? Is it better than the one I had in Tuki? Is a question. It’s already better than what I had in um Suki. I mean, you know, it’s what to be expected for a place like this. Um unfortunately, it is what it is. Was it nice? Yes. Have I had better A5 Wagyu beef? Absolutely. Was it A5 Wagyu? I’ll never know, really. Um I’m starting to doubt it a little bit, but hey, it was nice. Was it overpriced? Absolutely. So, this um is more realistic cuz they have they actually have the thing at the front. The other place that I went to didn’t have that that trophy thingy, which is uh like the proper Wagyu sort of like trophy, which now makes me think, have I been scammed? I don’t know. Or maybe I just didn’t see the the trophy. Prices are a little bit different. 2,000 yen for more or less what I what I um got. Japan is just so cheap right now. You know, the yen is so so weak that maybe I’ve just been spoiled and it feels like everything is really expensive in this place. But maybe it isn’t. What’s your opinion, guys? What do you think? Is it expensive? Um or am I just overreacting here? Have I been spoiled? Honey shop. Honey shop. Wow. Can I try? Can they try? Please coming. Yes. Thank you. Honey sample here. Sweet. This is Yuzu, right? Oh, Ishi. Oshi. My favorite flavor. Muscat. We have many. Flavor is musc. Muscat grape. These are the best sort of places. You come in just for a little sample and they give you like five strawberry one. The same strawberry, honey, whatever. The yuzu is my favorite for sure. What is this? That one. Cherry cherry. There doesn’t seem to be any end to this place. It’s quite long. some sort of like candies. Some panda panda candies. These sort of like rock candy thingies, whatever they are, are pretty good. Just too early in my trip to like stock up. Spring onion and cheese. Okay. You want my friend? I think I found something that is worth 600 yen, guys. This is quite a hefty 600 yen dish. Be careful. I’ve been I’ve been warned by my neighbor next door to me here, this kid, that it’s hot. So, I’m going to wait. Oh my goodness. Oh, thank you. Bye. Some notes for you um takoyaki lovers who are going to want to um eat that. A few words of advice. Number one, they’re super hot. It’s the kind of dish that you need to um commit to because it’s going to take some time for you to um you know, for it to cool down. Um, it’s also the type of dish that you absolutely do not want to be walking and eating. It’s messy. Make sure that you’ve got a place to sit or stand to um to to have it basically and to commit. It’s going to take a little bit longer than some of the other dishes that um that are available here. That’s all I’m going to say. And also, it’s a great dish for sharing. Definitely uh a great dish for sharing. I know there’s lots of options, lots of fish. I haven’t had it. I know. I know. Um I think it’s time for some hopefully time for something sweet. So now I’m on the local lookout for some um sweet bits. Let’s see some more takoyaki. More expensive here. Is it more expensive? 750 for eight pieces. This looks like quite a good deal actually. Original sauce. And if you want to just have a little taster, you have 500 yen for four. That’s not a bad deal, you know. Apparently, this is the most popular. 550 yen. Japanese green onion and mayo. We found some normal prices. 450 yen. I mean, normalish. 200 yen. And ah 650. Okay. It’s okay. 650. 650 yen ain’t too bad though. Um, this is more like a little bit above like average prices at least for a beer sort of this size. Yeah, there you go. You can actually get some normalish pricey things here. A little detour um there with a beer. Um things that happen when when people know that you’re in Japan like half the time. A friend messaged me actually messaged me saying, “Are you in Kyoto?” Because we’re in Kyoto. So, I’m going to hang out with them for a little bit for a coffee at some point. Anyway, they’re coming this way to to Nishiki Market. Oh wow. These are quite good actually. Okay, I need a dessert, guys. I need an ice cream or something sweet, something nice to compliment everything that’s in my belly. I wonder how much I’ve paid so so far for this little walk. Um, which is a great reminder if you want to support me and my adventures here in Japan, then please do so. One of the best ways to do so is actually by subscribing and liking the video. And um I have a whole list of um affiliate things that you can check out like Sakura mobile for for eim etc. Anyway, it’s all going to be in the description. What an expensive little adventure this has been. Okay, how about some strawberries, guys? So freaking expensive. Freshly squeezed. I was nearly tempted by those strawberries until I saw the price. I’m like, “No, I’m not going to pay that. No. Hi. Thank you. Yay. We’re going to eat inside the meat shop. Um, it’s hot. It’s fresh. It smells like magic. Yes. I mean, they’re quite small. This hits the spot, guys. I’m tired. I’m tired. I do hope that this has been um useful. You have a better idea of what Nishiki market is like here in Kyoto. Um what to expect, what sort of prices to expect, how to budget, and what to do, what to eat, and so much more. If you um want more content like this, then check out this video here. Hopefully, it will also be useful. Um check out our awesome community on Discord and um thanks for watching. Stay positive. Be happy. Bye.

Is Kyoto’s Nishiki Market a tourist trap in 2025? I walk through Kyoto’s famous Nishiki Market, tasting street food, exploring shops, and asking if rising prices have turned it into a rip-off for tourists. From skewers to sweets, I’m shocked at some of the costs, sometimes even feeling ripped off, but the atmosphere is still incredible.

Kyoto’s Nishiki Market has changed over the years, once a traditional food hub for locals, it’s now more tourist-focused. I’ll share what’s still worth it, what feels overpriced, and whether you should add Nishiki Market to your Kyoto itinerary.

📍 What you’ll see in this video:
– Walking the full Nishiki Market arcade
– Trying different Japanese street food
– Talking about prices and value for money
– The ambience and cultural vibe of Kyoto’s kitchen

Hopefully you can decide if Nishiki is worth visiting.

If you’re planning a Japan trip, this guide to Nishiki Market will help you decide if it’s worth visiting or if it’s just another tourist trap in Kyoto.

#Kyoto #NishikiMarket #JapanTravel

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