買い物
かいもの
kaimono
= shopping; purchased goods
買い物 (kaimono) is one of the most practical words a Japanese learner can pick up early. It covers both the act of shopping and the items purchased — and it doubles as a verb when paired with する, making it indispensable for daily life.
買い物 functions as a noun with two closely related senses. First, it refers to the activity of shopping — going to a store, browsing, and making purchases. Second, it can refer to the goods bought, as in “today’s kaimono” meaning the things you came home with. When used with する (買い物する or 買い物をする), it becomes a verbal noun meaning “to go shopping” or “to do one’s shopping.” The word is neutral in register and works equally well in casual speech and polite conversation. In formal or business contexts you might hear お買い物 (o-kaimono) with the honorific prefix, especially in retail settings where staff address customers.
Learners often confuse 買い物 with 買い物客 (kaimono-kyaku, “shopper/customer”) or 買い物袋 (kaimono-bukuro, “shopping bag”). When saying you are going shopping, the natural pattern is 買い物に行く — note the に particle, not へ. Omitting に and saying 買い物行く is common in casual speech. Also watch out for pitch accent: kaimono has a flat pattern in standard Tokyo Japanese (LHHH), which differs from some regional dialects. Finally, 買い物する and 買い物をする are both correct; the を is often dropped in spoken Japanese.
買い物 is written with two kanji: 買 (kau, “to buy”) and 物 (mono, “thing” or “object”). The hiragana い between them is the okurigana (送り仮名) — the trailing kana that marks the inflected stem of 買う. Together, 買い物 literally means “a thing to buy” or “a bought thing,” which neatly captures both senses of the word. The kanji 買 contains the radical 貝 (shell), historically associated with money and trade. 物 is one of the most versatile kanji in Japanese, appearing in dozens of everyday compound words.
Everyday use
週末にスーパーへ買い物に行きます。
Shūmatsu ni sūpā e kaimono ni ikimasu.
I’m going shopping at the supermarket this weekend.
Casual / Social Media
セールにつられてネットで買い物しすぎてしまった。
Sēru ni tsurare te netto de kaimono shi-sugite shimatta.
I got lured in by a sale and ended up buying way too much online.
Formal / Cultural context
母に頼まれてお使いの買い物リストを持って商店街へ向かった。
Haha ni tanomarete o-tsukai no kaimono risuto o motte shōtengai e mukatta.
Entrusted with an errand by my mother, I headed to the shopping street with her list in hand.
Shopping in Japan is shaped by a dense retail landscape unlike most countries. Urban neighborhoods typically have a shōtengai (商店街) — a covered or open-air shopping street lined with small specialty shops selling fish, vegetables, tofu, and daily goods. These coexist with large department stores (depāto) and 24-hour convenience stores (konbini) on almost every block, meaning kaimono can happen at any hour. Since 2020, plastic shopping bags have been charged for at most retailers, prompting many shoppers to carry a reusable bag (エコバッグ, eco-baggu) as a matter of habit.
Japanese retail culture places a high value on courteous exchanges at the point of purchase. Cashiers typically present change and receipts with both hands or on a small tray, and customers are expected to receive them attentively rather than snatching items off the counter. This mutual care during kaimono extends to how purchases are wrapped — even convenience store staff will bag items neatly and ask whether you need chopsticks or a spoon. For learners visiting Japan, paying attention to these small rituals turns an ordinary shopping trip into a window into everyday Japanese social values.