Thanks for the low prices: it’s 390 Mart

390 yen.

At the time we wrote this, that was just under £2.80, and around $3.55.

How much you can buy for 390 yen, plus Japan’s 8% tax, depends on where you live. When you’re in Japan (or ordering online), the stuff you’ll find with that price tag might surprise you. All you need to do is visit 390 Mart. Head to the 390 Mart Rakuten shop, or search the site from anywhere. (That’s where you’ll find many of the images used in this post.)

A budget store to be grateful for

390 Mart is a zakka shop, mainly selling cute female fashion, makeup, and accessories. It’s one of the most colourful shops, and you’ll know it when you see it. Look for the bright yellow smiley faces with numbers instead of eyes.

It’s like a budget version of WEGO or Spinns. Many of the items are similar: colourful backpacks to use as ita bags, baseball caps, tulle skirts, colourful tees, phone cases, socks, etc. The name ‘390 Mart’ is a pun, kinda. Japan loves puns. 3 and 9 can be spoken like ‘san’ and ‘kyu’. San-kyu. Thank you.

390 Mart apparel for all 365 days

Or 366, if it’s a leap year.

Clothes, shoes, headgear and bags are 390 Mart staples. Made in as many colours and designs as possible. And they range from wardrobe basics to silly party accessories. Pick up a pair of sneakers you can wear every day, or get ready for a special celebration with a crazy hat.

Match your new head-topper with a top – one of 390 Mart’s many, many T-shirts. When we checked out the Rakuten shop for this post, there were over 200 tees to choose from. Start at the simpler prints, and work your way through the character-specific ranges.

Most, if not all, of the T-shirts are ‘free size’ only. As the pics show, the size of the scoop neck and the sleeves can vary instead.

Style that goes with everything

Look closer at the rest of the 390 Mart item list, and you’ll see that a lot of those items are collabs with other brands. It’s not just the T-shirts. Cartoons, sweets, stationery… ‘sankyu’ goes a long way when you’re trying to make friends, we guess.

Take Sanrio as a real famous example. Every brand that isn’t already Sanrio wants a bit of the action. As we write this, 390 Mart’s got collaboration goods with 3 characters right now: Pompompurin, My Melody, and Little Forest Fellow. They’re mainly makeup bags and oversized, face-shaped pass cases.

You too can smoosh a kawaii bunny’s face onto a contactless ticket reader.

Check out the other lifestyle goods to see more familiar faces. Like Popuko and Pipimi from Pop Team Epic. Memes sell, even in Japan.

If you’re a brony, a magical girl in the making, a Dragonball fan, or you just love character goods, 390’s got something for you.

Face and hair care on a budget

Makeup can be seriously expensive. 390 Mart’s ‘cosme corner’ is here for all your makeup needs.

They stock budget cosmetic brands like City Color, L.A. Girl, LipScoops, Malibu Cosme, and L.A. Colors. These ranges include everything from foundation to lipstick and nail polishes. That’s if you can hunt them down. 390’s official Rakuten shop doesn’t have a makeup section. Maybe the only downside to such a great, affordable store.

For a tax-in total of 421 yen, you could even (temporarily) dye part of your hair. Buy a chalk brush in the shade you want, follow the quick instructions, and bam – instant colour highlights.

Because it’s chalk colour, it looks funky and washes out easily. And at that price, you could have a different brush for every day of the week.

Thanks for reading!

Now go see the variety of 390 Mart exclusive items you can order online with DEJAPAN.