Tokyo Shopping Guide: Tomato
By Marceline | November 2, 2007
Tomato is pretty legendary amongst Japanese fabric mentalists (like myself!) as THE place to go for fabric. It’s situated in Nippori which is the fabric district of Tokyo. Yes, there’s a whole area of sewing related shops full of fabric, trims, buttons and everything else you might need. It’s even called Fabric Town! The pennants along the street really helped us find the area and we saw four people with Tomato carrier bags in a couple of blocks so it really is the place to go for both locals and tourists.
Tomato has six floors of mostly fabric and the best floors in my opinion are 4 and 5. Floor 4 is rammed full of bolts of cute fabric including every character you can image – Sanrio, San-X, Nintendo, Disney etc. etc. I really had to limit myself here as you’re buying by the metre and also those bolts are heavy! I could have bought everything but a lot of the character prints are too big for my purses so I eventually settled for the most adorable Sugarbunnies fabric and a those crazy sausage bunnies above that we previously bought stickers of. They were both about £5 per metre. I also picked up some great bits of fabric in the remnants bins for about £2 each. Looking at my receipt, I seem to have scored a 20% discount – I don’t know if that was due to the fabric I bought or an offer they were running (or just because they liked me, heh).
Upstairs in Floor 5 we found several million fat quarters – so many that I couldn’t focus on anything after the first 100. Luckily there were readymade bundles available so I got a pile of cute fabrics for about £4 and a few more remnants. Near the counter is a small selection of ribbon and trim – I got some cute bunnies and then my sister spotted some awesome webbing with pandas and cats. These were all about 75p per metre.
There were different types of fabrics on every floor so you’re sure to find something you love, whatever your tastes. They also had a lot of general sewing supplies but I was just sticking to the fabrics and trims. Directly across the road from Tomato is a Tomato discount shop but I was already weighed down by my earlier fabric purchases so I passed this time. Plus there was an intriguing button shop next to it which needed visiting.
Adorable Sugarbunnies fabric
Cute remnants
Webbing and trim. “We are cats” – yes, you are.
Fat quarters
Fabric Town pennants
How to get there
Nippori is on the wonderful JR Yamanote Line which circles the centre of Tokyo. The station has a stamper so look out for that before you exit the gates if you like collecting them. Fabric Street itself is Nippori Chuo Dori and is a few minutes walk from the East exit (from the train, follow signs to the North Exit then the East Exit*). Turn right out of the station and work your way ahead and diagonally towards the left and you will hit Fabric Street. The street starts opposite a bus terminal (complete with fountain) and then look for the big Fabric Town pennants. Tomato is on the left side of the street (going away from the station) and has a huge red tomato sign so you really can’t miss it. There are also some great up to date directions at Superbuzzy.
What else to do in Nippori?
Shop shop shop! If you wander around there are tons of stores selling fabric, trims, buttons, appliques, clothing and much more. There was a great button and fabric shop opposite Tomato (see below) and I got some great character fabric remnants there. Nearer the station end is a great shop called Lemmon which sells cute stuff and bento accessories.
UPDATE: Erin kindly emailed with some photos of the button shop which is called Kumagai. It looks as great as I remember.
* Thanks to Art Box Diary for correcting this!
Topics: Tokyo Shopping Guide |
10 Comments »
November 5th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Hey, I visted Japan too from 25 Oct to 1 November. Only saw your posting when i am back! aww…i am upset! I missed quite a lot i guess….ARGH! but time doesnt permit too but still ARGH i wish…i could buy some quite cheap fabrics…….
May 14th, 2008 at 10:33 am
ooohhhh!! really great information!! I’m goin in august to japan an dI was searhing dor some fabric shops and It’s to great know there is the Fabric Town in Tokyo.. really thank you for the information. Do you know if the shops are open on sunday??? thanks again!!!
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
OoooOOOooohhhHHH!!!
I can’t wait to go to Japan.
Fabric Town!!!??!!!! That’s awesome. I’m going to Tokyo in October and one of the big attractions for me (and I know this may sound a little crazy) was the prospect of buying cute and crazy Japanese fabrics..
I’m so glad I found your shopping guide – I can’t thank you enough!!
October 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
More thanks from me – I’m going to visit in a few days and can’t wait to hit ‘Tomato’. Thanks for the pointers.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
This is awesome, I’m off to Japan in November and am fabric crazy, so I will be taking an extra suitcase and buying lots and lots.
I will buy a copy of your guide closer to the time.
Thanks!
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Hello, could anyone please tell me if tomato carries purse frames. I am a purse designer and I am having a hard time finding frames in the U.S..
Thank you for your help.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
A friend in Japan told me about your website. I will be checking it out. One of my Japanese friends didn’t even know of this area. She is very excited for me to go there.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I do believe I saw some there.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:31 am
hey anyone know is there a fabric town or where i can get fabric in osaka or kyoto? i try google and nothing ! sad :(
February 18th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
There’s some info on Osaka here –
http://www.superbuzzy.com/?p=228
and Kyoto here:
http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+47087
If you ask a question on the Tripadviser.com forums you’ll probably get some better information.