"Shopping Japan With Four Pins" is an ongoing series in which Amardeep Singh takes us on a tour of the country's best shops. See them all here.
Part IX: MAPS, Osaka
MAPS is one of the very first non-mainstream shops in Japan I discovered years ago that initially hooked me into the world of obscure Japanese clothing stores and obsessing over the niche, peculiar things they carry. I can't remember how I stumbled upon MAPS and I also can't remember why I was so quickly captivated by a store halfway around the world whose website I couldn't read and whose clothing I couldn't buy. Maybe it's that very same idea that's the reason why myself and many others find themselves getting hooked into shops like these in the first place: the fact that the stores feel like such distant, high-hanging fruit. Well, that and the fact that they have very cool things and it's very hard for me to be able to get those things, so the cool things become even cooler. That's like the transitive postulate or something, isn't it? For that reason, I chose MAPS to be the finishing point and the last featured shop in this series.
MAPS is actually located a good bit outside of Osaka city in the next town south named Sakai, although it is still in Osaka Prefecture. Timed from the neighborhood in Osaka proper where I expected a store like this to be, it's about a 45 minute train ride through residential areas. In what I can only describe as a very regular Japanese city, Sakai is a bit of an odd location for a store this good, and walking into MAPS and finally viewing the variety of the brands and the buys in person, it was quickly apparent to me that this store is very good.
There are equal parts both familiar Japanese brands and unheard of international labels and vice versa, which is what initially made MAPS stand out enough for me to make the trip. It's almost confusing how that much product can fit in a single store so far out of "the city" and still manage to survive for 24 years. Packed to the ceiling with menswear and even a little bit of women's from brands like of Corona, Mountain Research, Barbour and at least a few dozen more, the shop somehow managed to live up to my almost impossibly high expectations. Choosing favorites inside the store was tough as there were way too many unique, special pieces to narrow down, but what stood out most for me were sneakers by SPECTUSSHOECO. with some very futuristic lacing mechanisms and the Barbour x Deus Ex Machina Horace coat. As I'm sure you've already guessed, MAPS has no webshop of any sort and no plan to create one—I was stressed about the importance of face-to-face purchases when asking about it—so if you're thinking of buying something, make sure you save enough to include a flight to Osaka. Thankfully, MAPS is only a few minutes from the airport.
MAPS
590-0031 Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Sakai-ku
+81-72-222-5459
Amardeep Singh is a writer and photographer living in New York. You can see more of his work here and follow him on Twitter here.
