After hearing about this from a friend I knew it was time to go on a weeb quest! 😁 All throughout the city you notice Japanese influence but the biggest hub is Immermanstrasse/Inmaamantoori near the main station. Other noteworthy areas are the garden in the Nordpark next to the Rhine, and the Eköhaus on the peninsula kind of area across the Rhine, where you'll find a kind of shrine/temple museum place with a beautiful garden around it.
(If you are making a weekend trip to Düsseldorf, also consider stopping by Wuppertal if you want to visit the world's oldest monorail train line that has been running since 1901!)
So I visited everywhere I could, went to lots of Asian grocery shops in the center with many delicious ready to go lunch options, enjoyed some coffee, had of course loads of ramen, what more could you want! This was also like the first time I could really put my Japanese into practice and I'm so proud of how well it went, after watching so much anime 🤣 It was noticeable how the people suddenly relaxed and gladly took some extra time for you if you'd address them in their own language.
It was also the first time (tracked) that I ever walked 43K steps in one day, oofff.... then the second day I did 15K steps with an increasingly heavy backpack... I'll miss it but will also be happy to take some rest again.
The only things I was surprised didn't exist there were torii (those shintou religion gates), there used to be one but it's gone, I asked people but they also didn't know what happened to it 😭 And second, sentou (japanese style bathhouses), they always look so relaxing and atmospheric in pictures but doesn't seem they exist at all in Europe, oh well... Another small disappointed was having nothing the equivalent of a konbini!
Let's go over the Japanese/Asian things you can find in Düsseldorf. You can click or tap the names for the location in Google Maps, or right click and copy link if you wanna save it somewhere. There are a few more restaurants and shops here and there but these are at least the ones I went to or planned to go to.
Most shops are in Immermanstrasse or around the neighborhood except for these:
- Japanese garden, furthest away from the center, kinda small but pretty, in the spring there's supposed to cherry blossoms too, is always open
- Eko-haus, temple/garden/museum in that "island" part across the river, only open on thursday, friday, saturday from 13:00 to 17:00
Ramen restaurants, usually open every day from the afternoon to the evening
- Sakuragiya, also on that island part, wanted to try it but too little time
- Takezo, went here and really enjoyed their cold mugicha and vegan ramen! they will reply to you in german until you say "demo doitsugo anmari hanasenain desu yo" xD
- Takeichi, also enjoyed the vegan ramen, but especially liked it for the excited chatty waiter who sat with me for a while
Then for sweets/cafe i recommend these:
- Pacoju's Dusseldorf for deserts and fluffy pancakes
- Tomo Cafe for a lovely coffee break with a very cute interior
- Bing Go for taiyaki/ice cream
- Sphere Bay Manga Cafe for bubble tea (pretty weeb interior :D)
- Tenten Coffee for fancy latte and cookies
Cute shops that are worth a look (most are closed on sundays):
- East 59 Comics, Mangas und Merchandise, I liked their inventory but most of it is unfortunately in german
- Takagi GmbH - Books & More for lots of manga and merch, kinda expensive but they have some discounted manga in japanese as well, but again too much in german!
- Bookstore Nippon Japanische Buchhandlung for more traditional jp book stuff, you can also buy some cute mascot merch here, and i met such a sweet older jp lady at the counter 😭
- Manga-Mafia Store for more manga and comics, but think you might like Takagi more
- Gashapon (right next door) with the traditional bandai gacha machines, they have a big selection but its kinda expensive, maybe nice just to try tho
- Rune Store Dusseldorf (Japanmeile, more manga and merch!
Of course asian supermarkets! none of them are specifically japanese but they all do have japanese snacks, also an are with fresh/ready made foods (all closed on sundays)
- Hanaro Markt, korean but has a lot of general asian stuff, was kinda gigantic
- Dae-Yan Asiatische Lebensmittel GmbH, korean
- Fresh Asia, chinese store
- Tains - mein-asiamarkt GmbH, general asian store
- Kashmir, primarily indian goods
If you think of anything else that should really be on here feel free to let me know :)
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