For traditional Japanese cosmetics (kesho hin), come to Hyakusuke, a 200-year-old, family-owned shop. During the Edo Period, it did a brisk trade in teeth blackener (white teeth were considered ugly), but today it offers rather mundane products, as well as such traditional treatments as kombu to funori (a seaweed hair treatment), tsubaki (camellia) oil for healthy hair, and -- perhaps most interesting -- uguisu no hun, nightingale droppings that are said to leave your skin soft and smooth. Simply mix it with a little soap to wash your face. A purchase of ¥1,000 ($8.30/£4.20) will give you about a month of daily use. Makeup used by geisha and Kabuki actors is also sold here, attracting customers in these traditional professions, but I'm partial to face paper, used on humid days to blot away perspiration and grime. Open Wednesday to Monday from 11am to 5pm.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Tokyo, 10th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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