It’s been a while since I posted some Tokyo links but with my own Japan trip only a few months away, here’s some things I’ve bookmarked recently.

- The always awesome Maki of Just Hungry and Just Bento has been posting loads of informational stuff from her  recent stay in Japan, including these great Postcards from Kyoto. We’ve only got one day there on our next trip so I’m taking notes! I also liked the post on the Ghibli Museum and her round-up of bento box shops.

- Lis at Sashiko Started It is currently posting about her short trip to Tokyo, including a great post on Fabric Town.

- Leeanne’s Travel Blog is a great foodie trip report from Tokyo – if you’re interested in Japanese food you’ll be drooling on your keyboard after reading this.

- Ismoyo finally made it over to Tokyo after winning my shopping guide in a giveaway ages ago and posted a great series of posts about what she got up to. Lots of kawaii photos too!

- Emma at NeverEver is also just back and posting her trip reports. I also really liked her reading round-up of books about Japan.

- Fellow Mafioso Chloe of Kuro-e also finally made it over and has been posting lots of interesting things she saw and bought on her blog Peach Blossom Purple.

- and finally, if you’ve been to Tokyo recently (and it looks like everyone has!) then add your shop photos to the Tokyo Shopping Guide Flickr group. There’s a few I really need to check out next time. The photo at the top of this post is also pretty good example of what shopping is like in Japan – completely overwhelming.

I’m not sure I can wait another 5 months.

(Photo by CiaLiLuvly 凹)

It’s not laziness, honest, but a response to a request I get all the time – can I make a PDF version of the Tokyo Shopping Guide? Well, apparently I can, so you can now buy one in the shop, download it and print it yourself!

It’s great for last minute travelers who only discover the guide just before they jet off to Tokyo, don’t have time to wait for the postman and would prefer not to print out a pile of web pages. I’ve streamlined it for printing so it’s got all the same shopping information as the pre-printed version but none of the extras and only includes images of the shops and their logos to save you some ink. It also includes a special discount voucher in case you want to order the real thing, or the Ten Days in Tokyo zine on your return.

The main reason I haven’t done this sooner is that I knew eventually someone mean would get a hold of it and print copies or resell it for their own gain. But with this cut-down version, you’re not getting anything that isn’t available in the online version – it’s just edited and laid out better for quick printing.

One question I do have though – the PDF is laid out for A4 paper but I know Letter size is very popular in the US. Would a Letter-sized version be a good idea or, indeed, any other international paper size? Please let me know in the comments!

DaWanda is probably my favourite of all the marketplace sites I sell on so I’m extra-glad about their new offer. All this week, if you buy from a shop for the first time, you’ll get 15% off your order!

Obviously, you can choose something from my shop, but you might be surprised how many of your favourite Etsy sellers are on DaWanda too, not to mention lots of Europeans who don’t sell elsewhere. Go have a look!

As an extra bonus, every order I get from DaWanda this week will get a free Cakeify postcard.

In other news, I am a bit sunburnt and my purse is a lot fuller after a lovely Saturday doing Bungo in the Back Lanes. We basically set up in the back garden of  GCM member Rosie and then sat around in the sunshine selling stuff. Lovely!

I won’t be doing any more markets until August so that gives me some time to play with new product ideas and build up my stock. I have lots of ideas too so watch this space.

The print version of my Tokyo Shopping Guide has now been updated and will be sent out for all future orders (outstanding orders will be posted tomorrow!). I really appreciate all the feedback you guys send me after using the guide and there are a few clarifications and updates to the information. I make sure to keep the online version as up to date as possible so it’s always wise to do a bit of checking before you leave.

Some of the updates include:
- Tama Depa now in Harajuku beside Nakamise Dori
- Updated directions for Loft and other shops that people were having difficulty with
- A branch of Lemmon is now beside Sunshine City
- Itoya in Ginza is now just 2 buildings with washi now in Itoya 1

To celebrate, let’s have a giveaway! Leave a comment on this post and tell me something you’d like to do in Japan. I’ll pick a winner who will get a copy of both the shopping guide and my Ten Days in Tokyo zine, plus some other random stuff. You’ve got til Monday 16th to enter and everyone is welcome!

After the jump is some more detailed feedback sent to me by Katie. She got one of the prototype zines and kindly tested it out for me when she visited Japan. You can see more of her photos from the trip on Flickr. Enjoy!

AKIHIBARA

I agree that’s hard to get lost there. Wandering the side streets was great, we found a brilliant DVD shop on a corner opposite a KFC. We went here twice because there was so much to do! We found the place very easily from your instructions. I never got a chance to look at the interactive map online though.

Kotobukiya
We couldn’t find this at first, and only came across it by accident the second time. The sign was very small and I didn’t notice it until I’d already been sucked in by the plushies in the window.

Super Potato
I never found this. We looked everywhere for a potato character on the signs, but couldn’t find it.

Aso Bit
We found a huge, 6-floor on a small street running parallel to the main street. It was easily visible by looking down a side street to the left as you walk away from the station, after the first set of lights. It was fantastic!

HARAJUKU/TAKESHITA DORI/OMOTESANDO DORI

We found everything very easily here, only we came out at the wrong end of the station and did everything in reverse. The right exit for Daiso and Takeshita Dori would have been the East one.

Daiso
We came across this from the other direction, but I still think your instructions would have been very helpful.

Kiddyland
We found that very easily. (I loved it!!!)
The only drawback was that I didn’t know they only take 100 yen coins, and there was no coin machine. So I only got about half the gashupon I wanted. (We had only just arrived in Japan.) I quickly learned to save up those coins!

We would never have found the Ukiyo-E Museum if you hadn’t mentioned it, so thank you for that. And lunch at Shakey’s was great too.

SHIBUYA

Being on the Yamanote line, it was easy to find. But the signs in the station didn’t match your instructions for the exit, so it was very confusing. They just said East and West. I got so lost I’m not sure which was the right one. We wandered around for ages.

LOFT
I’m very glad you mentioned the Starbucks and then the Tower Records, otherwise we would have had no clue. We couldn’t see the Loft sign from the main road at all. It wasn’t until I just happened to see the logo on the Seibu store directory sign that we found it. The lane is actually between Seibu A and Seibu B stores. Perhaps it would help to mention that.
Boy I’m glad we did find it though! I bought a bento box there which I use every day for lunch at work. Plus tons of other stuff!

ITOYA AT TOKYU DEPARTMENT STORE
Had a lot of trouble finding this. We had to cross under the railway line before we could even see signs for the store. The entrance was pretty easy to find from there though, as there were lots of signs. The Itoya was a little disappointing though, it was quite small. I really wish we had had time to go to the proper one. Just as we were leaving we saw the RanKing RanQueen store. Very strange!

NIPPORI

Easy to find again on the Yamanote line. The building works were no longer there, but your instructions were still pretty good. The street started on the other side of a bus terminal (complete with fountain) so it might be helpful to mention that. I was a little worried I had the wrong street because the pennants didn’t start until the next block. They are green and yellow now!

TOMATO
Very easy to find once I had the right street. Fantastic! The discount shop opposite didn’t have anything good while I was there though.

LEMMON
I found a shop called Lemmon, but what it had didn’t fit your description at all. It just seemed to be crammed full of very low-quality baby clothes, like a particularly bad $1 shop. I didn’t go inside though, so perhaps there was more up/downstairs?

IKEBUKURO/SUNSHINE CITY

Very good instructions here. The giant Hello Kitty head was a very good marker. Plus about a hundred signs in the station itself saying “Sunshine City this way!”

SUNSHINE CITY
I had a lot of trouble getting around inside as well due to all the signs being in Japanese. There was a Loft on the 2nd level, but I was pretty unimpressed with it. The Shibuya one just blew it out of the water! There was a Lemmon store as well just opposite, and that had all the sort of stuff you described in the Nippori section.

TOKYU HANDS
Absolutely brilliant!

MEGURO

Very easy to find, Yamanote line again!

PARASITE MUSEUM
The best part of the instructions was to go down the hill, past the bus stop. Otherwise we would have had no clue. Going past the temple and crossing the river was helpful too. I knew I was on the right track when I saw the Lucky Star.

LUCKY STAR
Oh my gosh, what a gem! He still has that rickety old cash register

Thanks Katie!

I am so pleased to finally announce the print version of my Tokyo Shopping Guide. It’s by far the most popular thing on my site and makes me happy every day to see how many people find their way here from search engines, and knowing they’ll find the answer to their query. I get so many people emailing and commenting saying they’re going to print out all the information and take it with them so I’m happy to be able to help out even more by providing a pocket-sized print version. It’s A6 size so will fit in any pocket or handbag ready for consulting as you travel. It contains most of the information available online along with a few little extras. I really want to stress that the online version will still always be available for free – the printed version is an accompaniment, not a replacement.

Also available is Ten Days in Tokyo, my new zine about all the fun and adventures we had in Japan last October. It tells all about our sightseeing, shopping, eating and general fun times and is full of photos. We literally went everywhere in Tokyo so it should be a good read for anyone planning a trip or wishing they could go someday.

Both are now available in the shop for PRE-ORDER. Printing up zines costs money upfront so I’m doing a pre-order period while I do the proofreading and final tweaking. Pre-orders give me an idea of how many copies to get printed as the initial run and also help cover the costs. All pre-orders will ship in a couple of week’s time and you’ll get a free gift in your order as a thank you, yay!

So, what are you waiting for? Get ye over to the shop!

Good news for anyone planning a trip to Japan (like you need any more good news) – there’s a new blog called Japan Craft Journal where some awesome crafty bloggers have joined up to collect together all the info you might need about Japanese crafts and shopping. They’re already posting up some great tips for shops and neighbourhoods to visit so it’s definitely one to bookmark. There’s also a Flickr group so go add your pics.

Coincidentally, I tidied up my Tokyo Shopping Guide just the other day so there’s a few more useful links in there.

(and yes, my Bangkok Shopping Guide will be starting very soon)

Oh, Kiddyland. Even with my love of Japanese fabric, computer games, bento, washi etc. there is still one shop that is number one on my list of things to do in Tokyo and that is shopping in Kiddyland. Probably the most astonishing thing is that we managed to wait a whole 24 hours before going there. Less astonishing is that we also returned there on our last night to blow all the rest of our cash.

Kiddyland is basically kawaii heaven – there are 6 or 7 floors crammed with cuteness and it stays open until 8pm. A few of the floors are devoted to western characters like Disney, Spongebob Squarepants and the like but there is plenty Japanese joy. The best floor is the Sanrio/San-X floor where we are guaranteed to spend at least an hour. A good 50% of the floor is Sanrio stuff and most of that is Hello Kitty getting her face into an increasingly bizarre series of designs. If you want a Hello Kittified souvenir of anything you’ve seen in Japan, whether that’s a place, a foodstuff or a mode of transport, then this is the place to go. Some of the Sanrio stuff can be very expensive though. There’s also a real lack of stuff featuring the other Sanrio characters which is always disappointing.

The San-X area always leaves me a dribbling wreck with Mamegoma and Rilakkuma items that just get cuter and cuter. You will never be more tempted to buy a cuddly seal the size of a car, possibly wearing bunny ears. Round the back of the San-X area are some lesser-known characters and I immediately fell very hard for Onsenmanjukun, a group of steamed dumplings with adorably cute faces, and bought a pile of stuff (returning on our last night for more!). We were also very taken with Usurasan, a bunny rabbit that somehow got trapped in a monkey suit. Oh, Japan. There are also racks and racks of cute stationery on this floor – stickers, letter sets, notepads, pencils, calendars and so much more.

Best of all are the tv screens dotted around showing adverts for the various characters in front of you. Wondering what the deal is with Rilakkuma wearing a bunny outfit, or indeed why Usurasan is stuck in a monkey suit? Well, you will not be much nearer understanding but your brain might explode from the sheer insanity. Search for San-X on YouTube for some clips. Each floor also has matching gashapon machines so you can pick up some related random cuteness for 50p-£1 including my favourites – stationery gashapon which wind out packs of paper, envelopes and stickers for 50p a go. They usually spit them out in order as well so 3 gos will get you the full set.

The top floor has some cool blind box toys, Gloomy Bear and the like and the lower floors have a few gems including a big display of Ghibli stuff, but most of the other floors are western toys which are understandably very popular in Japan. The ground floor has all the latest bits and bobs where you can get everything from sweets to the newest crazy phone charm to pretty patterned tenugui, thin Japanese towels that are way too lovely to use.

Downstairs in the basement is the video games floor which is full of Nintendo joy, from DS and Wii games and accessories to all things Pokemon and Mario including a large plushy electronic Pikachu with changeable expressions! The one on display wasn’t working but that was probably for the best as it might have pushed us over the edge.

Prices are pretty cheap in Kiddyland, as long as you stick to the smaller things and don’t buy that car sized Mamegoma or Hello Kitty TV. I went pretty mad on both visits and still only spent about £30 altogether. If you have even a fleeting interest in kawaii then GO GO GO. Seriously, it’s one of the most fun things you can do for free in Tokyo (if you hide your purse from yourself).

I love these onsen dumplings. They make me cry…

Cute Mamegoma and Rilakkuma washcloths

Tenorikuma letter sets from a gashapon

Pretty bunny tenugui

Greatest washcloth ever with Domo-kun

I love watching the San-X adverts. They’re always insane.

Looooook at all that kawaii. This is just one corner of one floor!

How to get there

PLEASE NOTE: The Harajuku store will be closed for refurbishment from September 2010 until Summer 2012. Please check the Kiddyland website for details of the temporary store, and other stores in Japan.

Kiddyland is on Omotesando, one of the main shopping streets in Harajuku. From JR Harajuku station (on the Yamanote Line), take the Omotesando exit and walk straight ahead down the main road. This is Omotesando. Kiddyland is just past the first main crossroads on the right side of the street. You can also get the subway – Omotesando and Meiji-Jingumai stations are at opposite ends of Omotesando.

What else to do in Harajuku?

Well, there’s Daiso and Takeshita Dori, as posted previously. Omotesando itself is full of shops but mostly designer clothes and suchlike. There are a few gems so explore if you have time.

The Ota Memorial Museum of Art is in a small street just off Omotesando to the left just before the main crossroads. It’s well worth a visit – a tiny old fashioned museum of ukiyo-e woodblock prints. You even have to swap your shoes for slippers in the entrance as the museum has tatami.

Less traditional but hugely fun is Shakeys, an “American pizza” restaurant that does a bargainous all you can eat buffet lunch deal for about £4 per person. I really feel for any Japanese people who make it over to America as the Japanese idea of American pizza includes toppings of octopus, bacon & scrambled eggs and bizarre dessert versions with marshmallows and custard. It’s all really good though and you also get curry, rice, fried potatoes and pasta. There’s a branch just next door to Kiddyland and others around Tokyo.

A little futher along is Oriental Bazaar – in all the guidebooks as the best place for affordable traditional souvenirs. Unfortunately it’s closed on Thursdays, the day we were in Harajuku, so we didn’t get to have a look.

[Kiddyland interior photos by Nicolette]

Loft was probably my favourite new discovery this visit as it incorporates lots of my favourite things – stationery, homewares, crazy cute stuff and bento. You can tell it was good as we visited three times in ten days! I’d seen Loft recommended for its stationery section, and particularly for deco tapes, but there really is a whole lot more to it than that. Pitched as a shop for young homeowners and hobbyists to pick up some accessories, it mixes lots of cute fun items with more general practical office supplies and kitchenware.

The Shibuya branch was about 5 minutes walk from our hotel and the first stop on our itinerary. We had quite a lot planned for that morning but ended up spending way more time in Loft than we expected. The first floor we entered was the stationery floor and we almost fainted at the racks and racks of cute diaries and schedule books adorned with every character imaginable. There were also several million sticker sets which we went a little crazy over but who doesn’t love cute stickers? Really, there was all the stationery we could want – writing paper, notebooks, stampers, pens, clips and even cute book covers. The one thing they didn’t have, despite us scouring the shelves, was deco tapes! Maybe they have fallen out of fashion.

Upstairs we found the kitchenware floor which had so much cute bento stuff I nearly cried. From cute plastic character sets to sophisticated adult sets, there really was something for everyone. Most interesting though were the aisles of packing and prep accessories – I got a furikake shaker in the shape of a bunny, some adorable plastic dividers and onigiri wrappers to make your rice balls look like bears and footballs. Too cute! There was also a kind of gifts and wrapping floor with gift bags, elaborate wrapping packs and cards for every possible occasion. Since it was nearly Halloween, there were loads of cute Halloween sacks and a whole range of desk and wall calendars for the new year.

The other floors had things like home furnishings, travel goods and a toys floor with things like jigsaws, fancy dress and phone charms. Despite visiting three times and spending at least an hour in Loft, I actually only spent about £30 altogether. It really is very cheap if you’re not after anything too big! There are branches of Loft all over Tokyo so definitely worth looking out for.

Milk bottle post-it notes and amazing diary

Bento accessories – furikake shaker, dividers and onigiri wrappers

A tiny fraction of the cute stickers I bought

The cutest Halloween bags ever.

How to get there

The Shibuya branch is close to the main Shibuya Crossing. Take the Main or Hachiko Exit (West Side) from JR Shibuya station and cross at the main crossing where Starbucks is straight ahead. Loft is in a lane to your left in between the Seibu stores A and B.. There is also a branch in Seibu in Ikebukuro which is part of JR Ikebukuro station. See my Sunshine City post for more on that area.
View Google Map of Shibuya branch with street view!

What else to do in Shibuya?

There’s a great map of Shibuya shops here. Shibuya is probably my favourite area of Tokyo – there’s a huge range of shops and restaurants and it’s always buzzing with people. Lots of the shops are open til 10pm some nights and the streets are full of shoppers. Tower Records is open very late and has an excellent foreign language floor at the top with English language magazines and books – American magazines were cheaper here than in the UK! The J-Pop floor is also well worth a look. Three Minutes Happiness is a cheap clothes/homewares/accessories store that is a little difficult to give directions for. We couldn’t find it the first time and then stumbled across it another day – its close to Tokyu Hands. I got two lovely dresses in there for about £10 each and some cute socks. Rather unnervingly, everything in the shop was marked as a Medium size.

More generally, there are loads of huge department stores dotted around Shibuya station (there’s a branch of Itoya inside the Tokyu department store) as well as lots of designer stores and places like the 109 building for trendy teens. The smaller streets are packed with convenience stores, pachinko parlours and random little stores and definitely worth a wander. Our hotel was situated in the Mark City shopping mall, to the left of the station which has a pretty good selection of shops and eateries. On the ground floor by the station entrance is RanKing RanQueen, a strange top tens shop where they display the ten most popular snacks, perfumes, chocolates, cosmetics etc.

Food-wise, we had an amazing meal at Botejyu which specialises in okonomiyaki and yakisoba. They have an English menu and do the cooking for you (normally you would do it yourself) so it’s very easy. It’s quite small, quiet and dimly lit and a lovely retreat from in your face Shibuya. A meal for two with drinks cost just under £20. It’s on the main road to Shinjuku, Miyamasusaka, which heads right from Shibuya Station. The restaurant is on the left, just past the post office. I really recommend it! There is also a branch of Cold Stone Creations in Mark City who sell the most amazing ice cream combinations, made right in front of you by cute singing girls.

Caramel Turtle Temptation ice cream from Cold Stone Creations

As long time Nintendo fans, we were literally aching to go to Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronics/gaming/anime/geek area. Our guide books were utterly useless for this part of our trip only ever mentioning Akihabara for its discount cameras etc. so instead we brought with us some pages torn from an old issue of NGamer magazine which pointed out some of the places worth visiting and off we set.

Akihabara is MENTAL. Even at 2pm on a weekday it was busy busy and full of noise and flashing lights. When it started to get dark and all the neon was turned on it was like being in a movie. Definitely worth a visit just for the atmosphere. The area is a bit of a maze but quite small so you’ll have a hard job getting lost if you wander round the side streets. And that’s the best way really. Also, make sure you bring lots of ¥100 coins for the gashapon – there are hundreds of them around Akihabara.

Anyway, these were my highlights:

Kotobukiya
our first stop as it is right beside the station exit. The front of the store dragged us in with huge San-X plushies and lots and lots of cute kawaii bits and pieces. There were also cool Nintendo toys and down some stairs at the back they have shelves and shelves of boxed collectibles and, even better, trays of opened ones so you can get the ones you want without buying 20 random boxes! I was delighted to pick up the crazy panda set I was after and a hilarious miniature crocodile bento box set. Each set only costs about £1 or £2 each but they are so addictive! Out the back they have rows and rows of gashapon machines and our special ¥100 coin purses started to empty.

Super Potato
Pretty much heaven for retro gaming fans. It has about 5 floors, each dedicated to a different console/manufacturer. The Nintendo floor is near the top and was crammed with secondhand games for the whole history of Nintendo as well as toys and other merchandise. I was very tempted by the huge squashy Mario & Luigi hats – they were hilarious. We managed to cope with just getting some awesome peg board toys with various Nintendo characters which were reasonably priced at about £5 each. The top floor is the most exciting though, full of arcade machines and vending machines and a great place to stop and rest your poor feet. There was even a huge original Game Boy and a chair made out of game carts. Amazing. It’s in a side street behind the main shopping street and all upstairs so look out for the potato character sign, and listen out for the Super Mario theme!  Japanese website

Aso Bit
There are loads of branches in Akihabara selling everything from kawaii toys and computer games to Pullip/Blythe doll parts and huge Gundam models. Not to mention hundreds of gashapon. We got some great DS accessories, Zelda gashapon figures, more hilarious boxed toys and, yes, a pink cushion of Rilakkuma’s friend dressed as a fuzzy bunny.

Hilarious miniature crocodile bento picnic set

My day’s haul of boxed toys

Super Mario toys from various shops

Adorable Rilakkuma cushion

Super Potato! Old-skool gaming heaven

How to get there

Akihabara is on the JR Yamanote Line and just a few stops away from Tokyo and Ueno stations. Take the Electric Town exit to find all the goodness. There is an excellent interactive Akihabara map on Akihabara Channel – click into your area(s) of interest for a list of shops and information on what they sell in English. They also have a printable version available from the map page. I higly recommend you print this off if you want to be sure of finding anything in this post.

All other directions are now pointless so just use the map!

(No ‘what else to do’ as it is all in here or the map!)

[gashapon photo by Nicolette]

The one shop we didn’t manage to find on our first visit to Japan was, inexplicably, a 100 Yen store. We were told these were everywhere but we didn’t spot any. Even doing my research for our next trip, everyone just said they were everywhere which wasn’t a lot of help.

Luckily my brain does retain lots of random information and when I spotted Daiso in Harajuku I remembered it being mentioned on bento sites as a 100 Yen shop. We eagerly entered and found it just okay – some sweets, cosmetics, cute tissue packs and a wall of quite cute appliques. And then we realised there were 3 more floors!

Once we’d explored fully we had baskets of great stuff and all for under £1! The homewares basement was probably the best floor, stacked full of bento accessories and silly but cute stuff. I got an elastic bento band for keeping boxes shut tightly, panda coasters and a hilarious crochet panda bowl as well as a monkey washglove for Claire. The top floor was also fantastic with aisles of cute stationery and packaging and some hilarious foodstuffs including a microwaveable Hello Kitty cake mix complete with a mould of her head! We also found another smaller branch in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro where I got the great fruit animals notebooks.

There are branches of Daiso all around Tokyo (and worldwide now too!) so keep an eye out for the logo – you can get lots of great gifts here and for practically nothing! Daiso has also just opened its first UK branch, as part of the new expanded JapanCentre in London. Looking forward to visiting that soon!

Notepads – orange kitty and watermelon pig!

Hello Kitty cake!

‘Fancy paper’ and bunny letter set

Cute appliques

Silly crochet panda bowl

How to get there

The Harajuku branch is on Takeshita Dori, the teenage fashion street of Harajuku. It’s very easy to find – just take the main exit from JR Harajuku Station (on the Yamanote Line) and the entrance to Takeshita Dori is directly opposite. If in doubt, just follow the teenagers! Daiso is a few hundred yards along on the left. See my Sunshine City post for how to get to that branch.

What else to see in Takeshita Dori?

Takeshita Dori is lined with cute shops so just have a wander. We particularly like Cola Connections, a Coca-Cola themed shop that also sells lots of cute things. The main floor has cute charms and the tiny basement is crammed with character goods. There are more Harajuku ideas in my post on Kiddyland.

[Daiso photo by trulicami on Flickr]