From Shibuya, hop on the Yamanote Line and head to Shinjuku. Here you have a choice: used alternative clothes on the west side and new women's clothes on the east.

Take the West Exit if you're interested in alternative and Lolita Japanese fashion. Closet Child spans three floors of a building just northwest of the station, and carries several Japanese alternative and rock-ish brands like Algonquins, Glad News, h.NAOTO and more. All items are secondhand and sold for much less than the original price. The shop is diagonally across the street from exit D5 of Shinjuku Nishiguchi subway station.

If you like Western brands, head over to the east side and go to the Forever 21 branch in Shinjuku Sanchome. The second floor has a permanent section of sales items, with prices that go as low as ¥300 for new skirts and T-shirts.

For more gyaru-inspired Japanese fashion, take a peek inside the eight-floor Studio Alta (across from the East Exit police box at JR Shinjuku Station), especially on the upper floors. Here, too, most shops have at least one sale rack, with items at reasonable prices—and this is true also for fancy shoes! Alta also includes a small 390 Mart branch.

The street on Alta's left side (coming from the station) also has a bunch of cheap shoe shops, including the high-heeled, cute offerings from Attagirl. This chain will always have some styles for around ¥2,000, with sales dropping prices as low as ¥1,000, and their shoes go up to LL sizes (around 28 cm).

Once you're done in Shinjuku, just two stops away on the Yamanote Line is Takadanobaba. This student town abounds with cheap eateries, but there's also one cheap shop you want to check out: Shimamura. If you tell anyone in Japan this name, you'll probably see them make a half-disgusted face, as it has a lame reputation. However, it's not lame at all! See it for yourself by heading up the street just past Big Box!

Shimamura will take some digging, but hidden among the T-shirts with weird English prints you'll be sure to find something cheap and cute enough to wear. Another good point of Shimamura is that both its clothes and shoes go up to LL sizes, making it the best place for bigger ladies. The Takadanobaba shop also carries children's fashion, and it's a good spot to shop for cheap yet cute roomwear. Look not only at the discount racks, but hunt down the aisles for items that have been discounted by a new price sticker on the label.

Another peculiar feature of Shimamura is that the shop will often collaborate with cute characters, famous brands and idols to offer designer products for cheaper prices. If you like Sanrio or Disney characters, it's definitely the place for you! You can check their website (Japanese only) for news on the most recent collaborations.

If you feel like doing some more digging among secondhand clothes, you can take Waseda Dori toward Waseda University until you spot Tanpopo House on your left (the map puts it down a side street, but it's actually on the corner). This shop has permanent racks of items for ¥100, and while most of them are very low quality, if you look hard enough you'll definitely find something worth taking home. Their shoes section is very small, but it's worth checking for the possibility of decent-looking brand shoes at ridiculous prices.

A final stop, mostly for accessories like bags, hats and socks, is Miniso, located across the street from Tanpopo House. This chain of shops mostly carries household items, but also has quite a big selection of cute bags for prices that range from ¥500 to ¥2,000.

From Takadanobaba, you have two choices—one of which is to hop on the Yamanote once again and head over to Nippori. This is especially interesting for people who are into sewing, as we're heading to Nippori Fabric Town (Nippori Sen-i Gai), featuring more than 100 shops selling all kinds of cloth and sewing equipment. However, our recommendation for people of smaller build is to check shops for racks with "Sample" written on them: these racks often carry label-free sample items made for department stores or popular brands, but at a quarter of the price!

In addition to the general hunt, there are some specific shops you might want to check out. The first one is Heiwa-do (ヘイワ堂), a series of wholesale shops that sell not only textiles and accessories for the house, but also clothing! While the quality isn't stellar, the prices are so low (starting at around ¥100) that it will be hard to leave empty-handed.

The second recommendation is Pop-Girl. While this shop is also part of the Heiwa-do group, as the name implies, it caters mostly to young women, and has Shibuya 109-inspired fashion at much lower prices. The same company also owns Lemon, which caters to children (see Heiwa-do above).

From Takadanobaba, another option is to take the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line to Nakano, and from there head over to Koenji on the JR Chuo Line (if you'd prefer to go directly, you can also make the trip on the Chuo Line from Shinjuku). The main attraction of Koenji is another secondhand shop, Mode Off, located just north of Koenji Station's North Exit. Part of the same chain as Bingo, Mode Off offers plenty of brand clothes in decent condition, with the clothes generally placed according to price, from lower to higher.

Koenji also has a Don Don Down on Wednesday branch on the south side of the station, but if you're looking for more vintage or hipster-esque shops, pass the PAL Arcade area and go over to Look Street. This is the vintage heaven of Tokyo, and while most shops aren't especially cheap, it's worth exploring them as they might have sale racks or hidden gems inside. This website has a thorough list of shops in the area.

While this tour should keep you busy for at least a whole day, it's definitely not a comprehensive list of cheap clothing shops in Tokyo (we haven't even mentioned Shimokitazawa, which is a trip in itself!). Feel free to share your recommendations in the comments!