Stepping out in Tokyo #2

Funnily enough I'm writing this in London right now, stuck here due to weather (oh well, there's way worse places to be stuck!). But let's get back to Tokyo...

Another of the neighbourhoods we totally loved was Shimokitazawa. It seemed worlds away from the buzzy shopping districts like Shibuya, and had a lovely lo-fi charm all its own with - again - tons of fantastic vintage shops, clothing stores and little places selling Japanese crafts and loads of great neighbourhood cafes. I made friends with a local who was hanging outside of a hair salon, and we hit the vintage motherload in a store called Haight & Ashbury which carried a beautifully curated collection and included that completely wacky and craft-tastic huge tree entirely knitted/crocheted of wool in the middle of the store. For more in Shimokitazawa check out BlinkLondon.

Finally, back on the design side of things and back in Shibuya we totally enjoyed a run through a department store called Loft which included a 60 Vision section, a cool collection of re-issued Japanese 1960's designed furniture (that's the Lobby sofa by Karimoku below), accessories and even some rather tasty looking cookies.

 

Stepping out in Tokyo #1

A few weeks back I found myself in Tokyo, meeting up with my world travelling other half (you can check out his kid-friendly travel blog here) and my little sister (aka Blink London). Well, it was BRILLIANT, and what an absolute culture shock too. We hit all the sights, shopped ours socks off, and generally wandered around checking out as much as possible. One of the neighbourhoods that we thoroughly enjoyed was Nakameguro, a jumble of streets and alleys filled with a boho mix of fashion and interiors shops, much of them vintage.

Oooh vintage, such a magic word... Anyway, of course we spent the whole day just in this one 'hood and found a slew of cool stuff. Those first three shots are from Hiige which was all about vintage Scandi gear (we scored some great fabric which'll be sewn into cushions soon). Pics 4 and 5 show Hatago International, next door to Hiige, an ultra cool mini shop jammed to the gills with vintage airline paraphenalia. Jantique is next in the pics, and was like hitting a French or Belgian flea market, and then finally Acme Furniture, which was a great mix of vintage industrial gear (lots of it from the US) as well as new pieces. For more, read my sister's fashion-y take on Nakameguro here.