Tokyo Central & Main

I absolutely love this store so much! I come here every Monday with my son and bf and we always get a lot of snacks and goodies! I buy all my Sailormoon stuff. Thanks to this store I would have never got it. But yeah the best place ever and it has a lot of animé and kawaii stuff

What a fun store! I love coming here and finding the things I miss from Japan. They always have the unique varieties of Kit Kats I crave. The past time I got Sweet Potato Kit Kats — so yummy. I have got many other unique from Japan chocolates here before.
We always find some other cool items to take home. The daughter loves the Animé items they sell and usually gives us a list or pics of items she is hoping they have in stock. This past visit it was 3 out of 4 request so not bad and the Gaming Princess was happy with her new treasures.
If you like Japan goods then this is a must stop if in San Diego. It you are like me you will leave with a couple of bags full of goodies and treasures. I will definitely being stopping by on my next visit to San Diego.

This is one dangerous store for my wallet. There are so many things that i can buy from food to makeup to cute stuff animals to gadgets that I didn’t even think i needed.
As soon as i stepped into the store i was dazed by so many different items. Im glad I didn’t come in with empty stomach because they had such wide variety of snacks i was afraid i would leave with a basketful of them. I did walk away with some Japanese hand made candies, Oreos strawberry and cream pocky and a hello kitty soy sauce bottle which i am very happy with. The store also sells animé figures with excellent details. If you’re a fan of adorable giant stuff animals then this place is definitely for you. In addition they also sell Japanese specialty drinks that are very tasteful.
Parking here is atrocious so park with care. It’s always full and drivers are not too kind and also do keep watch of those who are backing up because they dont look.

When I walked in I had no idea where to start. There’s so many things to look at. Things can get a bit pricey, but the browsing factor isn’t bad. So glad they have a Hawaiian section, but it is pretty small and doesn’t do much for my cravings. Wish there was a bigger selection. I reminisced hard while I was in here. All the candies and snacks my childhood heart loves.
All in all, if you’re bored and just want to take a look around for the heck of it, you’re gonna walk out with a bag in your hand because why not.

What a cool store! So many things to try! I love that there is a sign on everything in English. I found so many products that I’ve been wanting to try but haven’t because I don’t know what’s in them or what they will taste like.
We thought we were just going to do some window shopping until we found our arms full of stuff, then we filled a cart!
The candy station is awesome! So many cute little candies and gummies to choose from.
Picked up some kona hazelnut coffee and used it with the French press… delicious!
Also, it was really nice to see they have a security guard since there were tons of rowdy teenagers who’s parents must believe this store offers babysitting. Security did a good job at keeping them from clustering but sadly, they still thought it was ok to do skateboard tricks just outside the door.
PARENTS: drop your teens off somewhere else if you don’t feel like dealing with them! People are here to shop.

My wife LOVED this place.
Read Elite Mel M.‘s review and was intrigued, but knew what I was in for.
The Marukai parking lot is TINY and the parking spaces are tiny too, so a tip, is that if you have a big ass truck or suv, either park on the street, or in a pinch, park in the lot BEHIND Marukai, that has the bbq store and western boot store. Otherwise, you might have a fender bender.
We picked up some cosmetics. They have a great selection of Pentel brush pens at reasonable prices, which is awesome, those things are THE BOMB!(if you do any art, anyway, lol)
It’s mostly divided up like a department store… cosmetics at one far wall, housewares, stationary/​cell phone doodads, then CostPlus like Japanese foodstuffs, and on the other far wall in the back, Gundam and assorted other expensive Japanese export toys. Towards the front there is an ice cream freezer, a candy area and a cooler with teas/​coffee drinks.
Super fun, and prices are not too bad either. We will go back.

I much prefer this store to Marukai across the parking lot. I know this is a newer addition to the Marukai line-​up, and I’m a fan.
It took a while and my mom visiting to get me to stop here, but I’m glad we did. I had seen online that they promised to have a large Hawaiian section, and as mom was craving Hawaiian food and treats, we knew this would be a must-​stop.
The Hawaiian section isn’t as large as I thought it’d be, but it certainly had more than enough treats and sweets to make my mom make yummy noises up and down the aisles.
We made our way through the aisles, adding soda crackers, guava jelly, coconut candies and iced tea mixes to our basket. Then, having done that, we circled back and made another circuit up and down those same aisles, just in case we missed something.
Having gotten our fill with those three aisles, we walked through the rest of the store. They have a decent Japanese-​inspired bakery/​sweets section. It’s on par with what you’d be able to buy from Mitsuwa. I think the prices are competitive, as well.
Towards the back of the store, they have a small toy section, some more candy, pens and office supplies, stuffed animals and — random — a costume section. Ever want to dress up like a carton of instant noodles? This is where you should shop!
Kidding aside, I do like this market. There’s a good variety of different items, and their prices seem fair.
Parking is more than likely going to be a hassle, but if you don’t mind a short walk, you can park in the lot behind the store. It seems to be less crowded than the lot up front.

Used to be branded as Marukai. The one in LA after the rebranding looks magnitudes better than what was done here. After I learned about the rebranding at the LA site, I was expecting similar if not better experience over back in SD but it hugely disappointed. It was still tiny and it was missing a lot of food. You still need to go to the other building for your supermarket items and it was still not up to par. This made a bit more sense based on how many vacant parking spots were open. I’ll still need to go back to LA Tokyo Central site to buy my Japanese goodies instead of goign to this one.

I haven’t been here in a while. This store used to be Marukai Value, but it’s gotten a name and layout change from what I saw during my visit. From what I understand, the store is still part of the Marukai family.
Appropriately named Tokyo Central and Main, this store has a ton of Japanese merchandise. They have beauty products, kitchen items, foods /​snacks, toys, drinks, and much more.
I can’t speak on the beauty products, my wifey got to look around there. I saw makeup, but know nothing about the quality or names. I was too busy in the toy section and all other areas checking out things with my God Daughter.
This place is stockpiled with Japanese foods, snacks, and drinks. We saw a variety of Pocky, mochi, cookies, crackers, chips, and candy. They also had different flavors of ramen and jerky. There are a variety if drinks as well: teas, coffee, milk tea, juices, and sodas.
We saw a ton of animé merchandise, plush animal toys, and. Hello Kitty items. They have kawaii (aka «cute»… as my God Daughter would call it) animal pillows, dolls, slippers, fuzzy socks etc. My God Daughter was fan girling over a lot of the popular animé toys and figures she likes (Naruto, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, and others). Since she is a huge animé fan, I got a lot of ideas for presents with the holidays arriving.
They had kitchen items such as utensils, bowls, and plates. Many of the items geared towards kids and big kids (they had Hello Kitty themed dishes and utensils). They sell lunch boxes, bento style boxes, and food storage containers.
There’s a «candy tree» closer to the front of the store. You can use a grabber tool (they have them attached around the tree) for the harder to reach candy. There’s also a section of the store dedicated to Hawaii. They have Hawaiian candies, coffee, snacks, foods, drinks, and other goodies. I didn’t even know there were so many varieties of Spam.
If you love Japanese and/​or Hawaiian goods, this is the the go to place. It’s really nice to have a store like this in SD.

Domo Arigato Mister Robato! This place got a new name and a face lift! Coming here made me not miss home (Oahu Hawaii) so much. They have an impressive amount of Hawaiian products straight from my little island home and it even smells like home! They have a Manapua section, Snacks, island cooking ingredients, Lion Coffee, Hawaiian Sun, Hawaiian salt, Marinades, Kauai Kookies, Candles and lotions. Too many to name and even have toy Ukulele’s.
They have Costumes, Gundam, toys and a lot of items to look at that will briefly make you feel like you’re in Tokyo & Hawaii. Well, for the duration it takes you to go through every aisle. They have a candy tree that you use a toy picker to grab the sweets from. Luv the candy and sweets area. It’s so different from what most are use to. It’s playful, colorful and fun. Drop in for a unique shopping experience.

For people who are obsessed with anything Japanese, we are so lucky that San Diego is home to many Japanese markets and shops. On the corner of Balboa Ave. and the 163 N exit is a trifecta of Japanese stores (Marukai Market, Living, and Tokyo Central & Main) which creates a gravitational pull that sucks in all those who love anything Nihon and kawaii.
For those who are wondering, the $ 1.50 items that used to be in the former Marukai Value Plus has been moved to the back of Marukai Living.
Being a subscriber to RRcherrypie on YouTube, I have always been fascinated with DIY candies. Back then, they were only available on the internet, but lucky for me Tokyo Central & Main has a whole shelf of them. From molded sushi candy to microwave pancake art to foaming toilet drink. They all taste nasty, but are so satisfying to make.
The right side of the store has all the candies, snacks, and Hawaiian goodies. If you are going to Hawaii, please check here before you go so you don’t end up buying things that could have been bought here. It happens a lot. The left of the store has your figurines, Sanrio items, and beauty items.
Don’t delay, get sucked into a black hole of Japanese fun today! At Tokyo Central & Main ;).

Came here to look around. This place has changed its name and it’s look from the inside. We were trying to find a red wig for my daughter but no such luck.
The reason for the three stars is most of the stuff in this store was a little pricey to me compared to Daiso. They are both Japanese stores! If you have money to drop here, be prepared. I can probably find the same stuff at Daiso. This place has a bigger selection and not everything was pricey but the Hello Kitty bags and costumes were ranging from $ 30 and up. Yikes!
The other negative was parking. I found a big scratch on my door when I came out of this store. Honestly, I just noticed it when I got back to my car. Parking really sucks here. People drive like maniacs so be careful!
The only thing I got was the mango mochi which was a little over a dollar. Around $ 1.19 to be exact. There was so much good stuff here. It was so cool to browse around the store. I also like how everything was labeled.

Wow Wow wow! This store is better than before (Marukai Value) with more colorful, cute Japanese merchandise! The new owner of Marukai decided to change the name from Marukai Value to Tokyo Central so this store is still part of Marukai, at least that’s what one of the staff told me.
If you like animé, this is the place for you to get some Sanrio, Dragon Ball, Gundam, Naruto and other merchandise. Besides these for kids and nerds, they also have stuff for the girls/​ladies who want to look pretty, be healthy and keep their house nice like matcha green tea powder, foot bath accessories, makeup, cleaning supplies, dining ware and kitchen gadgets. There are also school supplies and phone accessories for sale. This store has almost everything and browsing in there is definitely a fun activity!
I got a shower cap here for cheap and some matcha green tea powder since it looks pretty legit. The prices are reasonable and service was quick and friendly too.
Love this store!

Previously known as Marukai Value… they have recently changed the name of the store. Inside the store things look the same for now. However who knows what might happen.
I was still able to buy my Hawaiian goodies, when I recently stopped in to the store.
All of the products look the same. I asked the cashier why the change and she was not sure. She said that eventually she had heard that they may remodel the store. Interesting since they had done this within the past few years.
Hopefully things do not change too much for the worse and only for the better.