About Dept 81
I’ve been going to Japan since the early 2000s, and now I make Japan content full-time.
Snacks, drugstore finds, Donki runs, tiny design objects, weirdly perfect everyday things — basically the stuff people DM me about after every trip.
The question I kept getting was: where do I actually buy this?
The sakura cups. The station keychains. The little things you can’t really get here without flying to Japan or trusting a random overseas listing.
So I started Dept 81 to bring a little of it back.
Everything here is made in Japan and ships from New York. Some items are made to order, so a few things may take a few weeks. I handle the importing, customs, and logistics so you’re not dealing with mystery shipping or surprise fees. You just get the thing.
It’s a short list on purpose.
I’d rather sell ten things I actually stand behind than build a giant catalog of stuff I don’t care about.
— Steven