From Tokyo, With Love (and shopping tips!)

There seems to be a unanimous answer whenever you ask cabin crew heading to Asian destinations “What are you going to do when you get there…?”

SHOPPING.

Followed by a close second. SLEEPING.

In Tokyo, despite the shopping appeal, I’ve spent most of my trips roaming around in search of cultural brain stimulation to make sure my grey stuff doesn’t vegetate due to the routine nature of my job. Temples, cherry blossom hunting, sushi bars, people-watching in Harajuku, ryoken, public baths… Doesn’t leave much time for shopping now, does it?...

Don’t ask how I managed it, but on my last Tokyo trip, post-elation on discovering cherry blossoms in Ueno Park, and before rushing back to the hotel (a trip which takes over an hour on the train), I took a stroll through the nearby city area to see what I could find. Some weird plastic food displays, the weirdest kinds of manga, and lots of teeny banzai trees later, I came across a small chinaware shop, tucked between a ramen restaurant and a shop selling a weird selection of DIY hardware and outdoor clothes…

This is Tokyo.

Strange. But true.

Enticed by the floral chintzy printed rice bowls carefully heaped outside, I unknowingly wandered in to Japanese homeware heaven. Yep, actual heaven. Teapots, teacups, rice bowls, bentos and everything else that the average tourist-filling-their-home-with-foreign-stuff would sell their grandma for.

I did some calculations and found the money I was carrying was not nearly enough to satisfy my greed.

Gentle Old Japanese Man behind the wooden desk in the shop helped me decide on the following pieces (all Japanese made) through a mix of hand signals and wonderful/hilarious one word explanations as to their purposes.

“Rice!”

And of course I just had to buy the set in pink and blue, plus the matching tea cups...

“Chai!”

Tea ceremony at my place anyone...?

“Chop!”

“Bento!”

A 'bento' is basically the Japanese equivalent of a lunchbox :)
Cute, non?

TIP! I like to buy products made in Japan, although there are many made in China too. I feel the Japanese-made are more authentic, but then I might just be another tourist sucker!

Leaving Darling Old Japanese Man to carefully wrap each piece, I dashed off to find an ATM / cash machine.

In the average capital city (of which I have encountered many), withdrawing cash is not difficult. In fact, every other supermarket will have one, ready to provide you with yet more cash to waste on weird snacks from the strangest corners of the world.

This particular area of Tokyo was not like that… at all.

After trying seven (seven!!!) different supermarkets, cash exchanges and banks, I finally located my cash supply.

TIP! Always, always exchange before you travel to Tokyo. Language barrier + lack of cash + waving dollars around with exasperated facial expressions = no fun.

TIP! Can’t find a cash machine? No matter. Do what I did and make yourself feel better by wasting some of your remaining cash on crazy kawaii nail gems! Yeah!

Random discovery = worthwhile cash machine-hunt ;)

Rushing back to the little crockery cavern, I whirlwinded in, met by Beaming Japanese Man and a large brown paper bag full of goodies. Bowing and smiling in a most excessive manner, I paid, told him his shop was the most beautiful thing after the cherry blossoms and bade him ‘aregato go sai mas’ for all his help.

Hope you like my little ‘Tokyo haul’. I love to collect cool things for my home on my travels, and I’ll show you some of my other wonderful little finds along the way :)

Have you been to Tokyo? What did you buy? Show me your travel finds people!

Love from Tokyo Shopping Dolly x