Tokyo - Day 3

After a leisurely breakfast I headed into the Tokyo American Club to set up my stall. It's always lovely to see the friends I have made there over the years, and it makes it all so much more special.

It's also great seeing my bags on display. The colours are stunning and work so well together - like a box of jewels!

After setting up my stall, we walked to Roppongi to seek out some tonkatsu (breaded pork) at Tokyo Midtown. The pork has a lovely thick dipping sauce and comes with shredded cabbage which you can smother with sesame dressing.

After fuelling up we headed back to Omotesando to check out the mayhem of Kiddy Land and of course I couldn't pass the Oriental Bazaar without having a quick look. Needless to say, I came out with a purchase! This stunning green and gold obi.

I was pretty impressed with these samurai suits too, but won't be taking one home with me.....

After an evening of selling at the International Bazaar, we headed to Gonpachi for food.

We loved the deep fried shredded squid and yakitori chicken.

Tokyo - Day 1

The great thing about jetlag is that you wake up nice and early! This meant that we were out of the apartment by 8.30 and on our way to a shrine sale at Hanazono shrine in Shinjuku.

It was a lovely bright sunny morning and perfect for a meander. I love the lanterns and wooden prayer requests you see at all the shrines.

I managed to sniff out a kimono and obi stall where I did some foraging....

....and came away with this stunning kimono in shades of purple and red.

We then walked to Shinjuku Gyoen to take in the foliage. I've never been there as the gates were opening!

These young girls were dressed in beautiful kimonos and waiting to go to a tea ceremony at a traditional tea house in the park.

I love to check out the food halls in Tokyo department stores so we headed to Isetan department store in Shinjuku to see what was on offer.

The fruit is perfect but comes at a cost! The melon below even came with its own wooden box.

We then headed to Omotesando for a wander. A trip to Daiso, the 100 yen shop is a must. It's on three floors and is great for picking up fun gifts.

While we were in Omotesando I also dipped into some fave shops to pick up some fabrics. I came home with a lovely green decorative obi....

...and a stunning red stork kimono piece.

Lunch was a steaming bowl of spicy tan tan men. Yum Tum!

After a much needed nap at the apartment, we headed to the Park Hyatt hotel in Shinjuku to pay homage to Bill Murray and Lost in Translation.

The cosmopolitan was lovely, as was the view!

The evening was finished off with okonomiyaki, one of my favourite Japanese foods. It's a pancake made from a mix of cabbage, flour and egg. You can then add meat, fish or more veg.

You mix up your pancake mix and then cook it on the hot plate.

Once it's cooked, finish it off with smothering it in scrumptious sauce, bonito flakes and mayonnaise, washed down with a glass of cold beer.

Tokyo trip - Day two

I'm afraid it's been a bit of a frustrating day today! I was all organised this morning to go to the Oedo antique market, a lovely twice monthly market in the shadows of the International Forum. It's usually held on the first and third Sunday of the month but I turned up, all eager to forage for fabrics and spend some money and nobody was there! After a quick Google search, I found out that Machida shrine sale is on the first of the month so I hopped on a half hour train ride out to Machida only to find that wasn't on either! I even managed to find out that another antique market was supposed to be on back in Shinjuku, only to turn up and find that wasn't on either! Something was definitely against me.

I was a woman on a mission though. I had to head to Omotesando for a hair appointment and managed to find a good stash of fabrics in some of the shops I know in that area. Phew! Here is a little taster of what I got.

The two obi fabrics above are both heavily metalliced but quite different in styles.

I really love a bit of green mixed with decorative metallic.

As an antidote to the heavy gold and weave of the obi fabrics, I went for some soft, pretty kimono pieces at Gallery Kawabo, a lovely little kimono shop down a backstreet in Omotesando.

I love this simple purple floral kimono piece.

You can't come to Tokyo without picking up something cute and these bouncing bunnies do the trick!

I already have some of the galloping horse fabric, but thought I'd stock up on more. You never know when you might need it...

I love the funky stags heads. Can you see that some of them are wearing glasses?!

I do love a cat print and couldn't resist these black cat heads on hot pink.

After dropping my bag loads of fabric at the apartment, I headed back to Omotesando to meet friends for dinner and scoff on MORE tonkatsu. I'm going to have to be rolled home at this rate....

Fave Fabric Friday

I always gravitate towards the kimono fabrics and this week's favourite fabric is a beautiful red silk kimono piece that I have had for a while but am loathe to cut up. I bought it at Gallery Kawano, one of my favourite kimono shops in Tokyo, tucked down the backstreets of Omotesando. The pieces are good quality and displayed in colour sections. It was always a pleasure to go there and forage for a while, serenaded by the jazz music they play in the background. This was often followed by a trip to Omotesando Koffee, the best coffee in Tokyo, served up in a 60 year old Japanese house.

This kimono piece combines classic Japanese images of flying storks and blossom sprigs, two delicate motifs on a vibrant red ground. I love the fact that negative space plays just as an important role as the design itself in Japanese art, and this has been used to great effect here. Instead of cutting it up, I may use it as inspiration for a new fabric design group I am in the process of creating.