Scoring at the Salvation Army Bazaar

I believe I have previously mentioned the lack of charity shops in Tokyo. This post is about the one I've found. It's only open on Saturdays so this last weekend I pootled over there, taking care to leave Pooch at home. This kind of place is his idea of hell. It was the best part of an hour each way - was it worth it? Oh yeah.

This is not your average UK style charity shop - but much more like the american thrift stores. It was huge. Epic. Vast. There were leaflets in english at the door telling you how it all works but essentially about 10% of the stuff was priced, the rest was a guess. And then whatever it said on the label, they'd knock up to half off when you came to pay. You see the bottom right photo in the medley? That was the haberdashery and vintage kimono section. Mmmm.

850g of the green yarn for 500Yen (about £3.50), oodles upon oodles of buttons, drawers of fabric remnants (left) and handkerchiefs or wrapping cloths (right) - these are just what I brought home which barely dented the surface of what was there. There were much larger lengths of fabric too.

Unused vintage placemats with this lovely maple leaf design, random hair clips, 'thank you' cat and a juice flask and glasses still in their original box. My favourite item though is this lovely vintage kimono jacket.

This is a present for Mater. I think the body is silk and looks quite old while the sleeves have been carefully added later and are in a temari ball print. That was just under £10. Amazing. And as ever in Tokyo, the volunteers staffing the place were endlessly polite and kept thanking people for buying things. If I had known about this place when I was shopping for our house I would have bought all of our kitchen things, pots, crockery, glasses, from here and furniture too. Lovely solid wood 5' tall chests of drawers for £30? I would happily have had all the furniture I saw in my home.

For anyone who happens to be in the vicinity these are the directions. If you get lost and resort to google maps I suggest searching for "Salvation Army Suginami" which is the Corps building just next door. From there follow the people marching steadfastly towards it. It is only open 9-1 on Saturday mornings and, as with most of Tokyo, is cash only. I am definitely going to be going back!