Getting Patches in Kanto

I have recently taken up a minor hobby of patch collecting. I am specifically collecting iron-on patches, since I am a) lazy and b) highly unskilled with sewing. This all started when I managed to grab a decent quality denim jacket at a Mode-Off years ago, during the era of closed borders and limited tourism. I got the jacket for about 500 yen, which is nigh impossible now that things have normalized post-2020. Not to mention the inflation of everything. Wages all across the board don’t seem to be keeping up with that either.

I’m getting off-topic.

Iron-on patches are surprisingly hard to come by if you don’t know where to look. Quite often, however, they’re meant for kindergarteners for use on their uniforms or something. You’ll see Thomas the train engine patches or Anpanman’s face, for example. So, here’s a small list of where I was able to find iron-on patches.

1. Chicago (Harajuku)
2. Kinji (Harajuku)
3. Today’s Special (Futakotamagawa)
4. Yuzawaya (Kamata)
5. Daiso
6. Seriya

On the list, numbers 4-6 carry mostly children’s patches, although they will have some interesting-looking ones for someone really looking for patches. Daiso and Seriya has some interesting Van Gogh and Route 66 themed patches. There is also a store called Dream that carries cartoonish patches but the designs are probably more for teenagers and above. I can’t find the store on Google Maps, likely because of how common the name is, but it is in Musashi Kosugi, if memory serves me correctly.

Those are all the physical stores where I either bought something or was tempted to make a purchase. However, it’s definitely a lot easier to just order online. Amazon has a pretty good selection and I actually use Temu a lot because I can pay for my order at a convenience store. While convenient, the downside of using an online store is that you know these patches are mass-produced. The ones you get in the physical stores, even the Daiso stores, have a bit more of a limited feel to them.

In the above picture, only the spaceship patch came from an online order, so I hope that says something about the availability of patches in-person.