Daiso on Takeshita Street

Now that we have a move in date for our new flat I am becoming quite single-minded about furnishings. We're trying to do it all on a budget and so I headed for Daiso on Takeshita Street, which is one of the huge 100 Yen shops. These are like the UK's pound shops but everything is about 80p.

The street it's on is like Camden Market - lots of small shops with their wares spilling onto the pavement selling things aimed at the youth market. You can get your psychedelic sweatshirt...

...next to a store selling gothic vampire lolita outfits.

Among many other shops there is even one packed with everything you never knew you wanted to do with Tamagochi. Remember those little keyrings with digital creatures in them that ate and poo'd then died? Yes those, except they evolved.

I happilly admit to not knowing what was going on in that shop except that there were some 10 year old girls who were really excited by it all.

Back to Daiso - 4 floors of poundshop goodness.

I shopped until my basket overflowed and I started wondering about how to get it all home but will need to go back for the cleaning things. As well as my own needs I was shopping for presents for my sister, sister-in-law and I Love Lucy Bee recipient. And in that order left to right here's what they are going to get.

Remember all of this was 80p per item. On top of all that and the boring stuff like plain mixing bowls, measuring jugs, teaspoons etc I got kitchen things:

Bins and clothes hangers:

It is going to be a colourful flat!

Daiso also does all sorts of things to do with pets, stationary, gardening, food and crafts - the latter being of most interest to me! Here is the yarn aisle (yes, a whole aisle! And not bad quality either.)

Plus all hooks, needles etc. Then opposite that are the sewing things.

I'm not saying this is the same quality as an actual craft shop, but it's above what we get in the UK from what I've seen so far.

Among the other tourists inside were quite a few russian women - when you think about it it's not that far to travel for a holiday if you live in the east of Russia - and when I finally went back outside there was a group of beefy Russian men scowling up at the shop and clearly waiting for them to come out. I could easily see Pooch standing among them were I so unwise as to take a trip here with him with me. It must be part of me turning into the perfect housewife that I would never think of doing such a thing and am making sure he's unbothered by the domestic shopping - leaving him to concentrate on earning the money I'm spending. I must make sure I do not get used to this...

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Pooch and I spent Sunday afternoon strolling around an idyllic part of Tokyo.

This park originally started in 1590 and belonged to one of the Shoguns during the Edo Period. Some of the trees were clearly hundreds of years old but it has been extensively landscaped since the original and is now a kind of cross between Regents and Hyde Parks in London. There were lots of family groups picnicking as well as pensioners painting the views (very well too) and young couples and groups of friends walking around. It is 200 Yen to get in so about £1.30. Definitely worth it!

With autumn, the leaves were changing and you got the most amazing colours and effects with the sunlight.

Lots of people were as fascinated by the sunlight's effects as I was so you got little groups of photographers all in the same places - as in to the left of the photo below.

The variety of plants was amazing. Apparently there are 64 varieties of cherry tree alone so the blossom in the spring will mean this is somewhere I will definitely be coming back to.

And yes, the weather does continue to be rather splendid! About 16 degrees and clear blue skies yesterday.

Cats and Magazines

Friday was a pretty good day for me. It all started with my first ever visit to a cat cafe.

I arrived about 10 minutes after opening and it was still breakfast time.

When I go again (when, not if) I will make it a little later as anyone who knows cats knows that they do not want to be stroked while eating and that after eating they just want to have a wash. The one little guy I'd spotted online and particularly wanted to look at was this one.

He hasn't got his ears down in anger - he's one of those cornish type cats who have folded down ears which I've never seen in real life before. So cute! But he was clearly not in the best of moods and took himself up to the highest possible perch and this is all I saw of him after that.

The place was very clean but with lots of toys and sleeping places for the cats. This is where folded-ears was - right at the top.

I positioned myself on the heated carpet (like an electric blanket but a carpet which are apparently quite coming in homes where carpeting is really unusual) and these two settled near me.

I mainly stroked the brown one who got more and more elongated as she got more and more relaxed.

Her buddy wasn't terribly friendly until the owner (who all the cats adored and who clearly adored all of them) came over to brush her. She rolled on her back and...

...then she just stayed like that! So adorable! She was quite happy for any of us to come and stroke her incredibly soft tummy and as for her pinkest nose and paws...squee!

Initially being there was quite bizarre and freaky but as my hour came to an end (I could have stayed longer but thought that was enough for a first trip) I felt much more comfortable.

After such excitement I thought I'd spend the afternoon curled up with a craft magazine and found a place nearby called Libro. Ladies with a penchant for japanese craft books and magazines may want to sit down.
Knitting and Crochet:

Sewing and Patchwork:

"Japanese Crafts":

That wasn't the whole selection either. There were so many more on every topic you can imagine. I went home with just one which I thought was amazingly strong willed of me.

Black Tie Boogie - More of a Wiggle

Hello! Thank you for visiting today as part of the hop or welcome back for regular visitors. Today is the last day of the Black Tie Boogie so thanks to XX for organising everything. You can see the full schedule here.

For those not familiar with my back story, suffice to say I move to Japan 10 days ago for my husband's work and am currently a first time housewife living in a tiny temporary flat near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. I've yet to visit the fabric district here but have been to a couple of craft shops and am looking forward to developing a more in depth knowledge of others in the near future!

My offering for the hop is only part complete. I am currently without a sewing machine so while I've used fusible webbing to layout my appliqué on some linen, apologies that I haven't yet had a chance to add the machine embroidered embellishment I plan on.

Cluck! I used these free templates as a basis and added two cats.

These are going to be coasters in our new home so I need to make sure they are finished by the 14th which is (fingers crossed) when we move in.

As I've only just arrived here I can't really offer a giveaway but I hope you'll visit the others taking part today:

November 29
Sew Incredibly Crazy

The Quilted Cat

Sew We Quilt

Crochet for a New Home

Our first choice flat has fallen through but we have an alternative that is looking good so far. This is the outside.

There is a fairly busy road one block away but as often happens in Tokyo, once you get even that short distance from the road the noise is barely audible. I have taken measurements for curtains and intend to get started on those as soon as I have a sewing machine handy. I'll be heading to the fabric district for all that.

I had a very pleasant few hours in Okadaya - an amazing craft shop over 4 floors - and came home with some yarn for my replacement babette type blanket.

Ten different colours of this lovely 100% wool which I think must be Japanese although the brand is "spectre modem" - I've yet to check it on Ravelry. It's a light aran and machine washable. I've sketched out a plan and combinations of colours.

I've done a series of small squares and started this bigger one.

I'm using the babette pattern for the squares as far as I can remember it.

I am heading for an outing this afternoon but have yet to decide where to go. Pooch is not keen on museums but does like gardens so I think it'll be one of the former. I had a visit to the most amazing pound shop you've ever seen the other day which had quite a few other goggle eyed westerners in it. (Actually a 100 Yen shop although with tax everything is Y105. £1 is about Y150 so it's really less than a pound.) I will be going back once the move in date is confirmed as it had lovely kitchen things which will do us very nicely. I must take some photos on my next visit and share them with you!

Tokyo Update

When I first said I was coming here a lot of people talked about how odd some Japanese ways of life seem to us. I have always been clear that I don't want to point and laugh because there's probably a good reason for a lot of them, but then I saw these 'traffic cones'.

I really can't see why they are pink rabbits, but then the Japanese do definitely seem to love to turn everything into a character. As I said in my last post, all the shops have their own creature/sprite type thing and lots of everyday items have bears or pandas or cats on them - not that I'm complaining about the latter. Even Father Christmas is caricatured.

This one saw him as a kind of professor while there were others of him in different guises.

Today being Monday Pooch's official first week started this morning and over the weekend we came across this window display of his game.

Pro Evolution Soccer is called 'Winning Eleven' in Japan. Meanwhile our boxes that were shipped by air arrived yesterday - on a Sunday in a 2-hour timed slot which is amazingly efficient - and so I have the few craft supplies I packed which has meant I've been able to get on with the bloghop I'm in on Friday at last. Talk about leaving it to the last minute! I thought about pulling out several times but was determined to fulfil the requirements. The theme is chickens and we need some coasters so...I'll reveal what I've made on Friday! Meanwhile you can see what others have made using this timetable:

November 19

Selina Quilts

Sew Peace To Peace

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
The Quilting Queen Online
Marla's Crafts

November 20

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Seams To Be Sew

Robins Fabric Nest

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

November 21

                                          Pigtales and Quilts ~ Happy Birthday Thearica !

Just Let Me quilt

Quiltscapes

Life on the Farmlet

November 22

Vroomans Quilts

Meadowbrook

Janes Quilting

November 25

Stitchin by the Lake

Georgia-Girl Quilter
In the Boon Docks
More Stars in Comanche

November 26

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much?

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Bumbleberry Stitches
Words & Stitches
Quilting, paper piecing and crafts

November 27

How Art you?

Living with Purpose

Sew many yarns

Grandmama's Stories

November 28

Celtic Thistle Stitches

Crafting 365 Days

Hill Valley Quilter

Thimblemouse & Spouse

November 29
Sew Incredibly Crazy

Lixie Makes It

The Quilted Cat

Sew We Quilt

 

Welcome to Tokyo!

To my amazement and shock, we are actually living in Tokyo.

I was working until the Friday and we left on Tuesday so there was really no time to think about what it was going to be like or plan what i was going to do when I arrived. Pooch of course started work the morning after we arrived - poor thing - but that left me as a sudden housewife with everything that gave my day structure taken away in the blink of a 12 hour plane journey. Bit Freaky. However, we have a lovely lady helping us with the transition who dropped Pooch off at work (after taking us to register as Aliens) and then showed me around the area before taking me to the supermarket to pick up some basics. I was very grateful for this since buying things like vegetable oil when the labels are all in Japanese would have been a bit of a gamble without her. I have since been shopping a couple of times by myself and have got to know the neighbourhood around our temporary flat quite well. This is our road.

It is all, naturally, a little bit different to what I'm used to but I'm getting used to it. Characters play a large part in most shop windows and some have physical representations of their icons or of something more traditional like the lucky cat - my favourite! This one is outside a photography shop on the corner.

There is less cross over between shops so you get shops just selling cigarettes for example and others just selling alcohol. I have no idea what the World Liquor System is.

And space is at a premium. Everywhere. The solutions to this vary from supermarket aisles so narrow you have to go down them sideways to things like this - a petrol station.

You may have noticed you can't see any pumps on the ground and that is because there aren't any. Look up though and you'll see them dangling down by the smaller Eneos sign. They are lowered to you once you have parked. Parking itself is at a premium so a lot of places have multi-story parking by which I mean you park on the ground floor and a mechanism then stacks your car on top of another one with just an inch or two between them. You get a ticket and when you scan the paid ticket later the mechanism trundles your car back to you. This was a huge skyscraper so large it had a ring road inside it which had a version of this parking.

You park your car in the perspex bay and it trundles into the wall cavity on rails. It gets whisked below the building somewhere and I mean b.e.l.o.w. Most of these large buildings have 4 basement levels so I can only guess how far down the cars are kept. All to minimise the space they take up.

This temporary flat was provided by the company so is a little small - like a studio flat - but has the benefit of being very central. We are about 6 minutes walk from the Imperial Palace Gardens. I tootled up there yesterday and visited the Craft Gallery which was wonderful but I'll save that for another time. The walk there showed the pressures of space with wooded walks surrounded by major roads.

The rest of Tokyo is nowhere near as leafy as this but there are small parks spread around and you are usually protected from the noise of the traffic, even if it is still visible.

We went house hunting yesterday and struck gold on our second viewing - just as well since our first had polished concrete walls and was like someone's garage - and about the same size. So we may well be living in an area called Hiroo (pronounced h'i-roh) after this first month. Today we are going shopping for mobile phones and possibly a bank account for me. I get to choose my debit card colour from 32 different options. Next week I plan to make my first craft foray although the craft gods have been smiling on me - there is button shop about 2 minutes walk away. I have yet to visit but have stood outside and oogled several times. A love of buttons goes beyond language barriers.

The Rainbow Sphere

Finally finished this EPP beauty. The pattern is from Geta's Quilting Studio.

You can see the mess of packing around it. I've almost finished attaching it to where it was being finished for. I might have a pic of that before I go. Meanwhile a close up.

It could definitely do with an iron but the iron's gone. Ah well.

The rest of my free time is spent packing or saying goodbye to people. But I do find a few moments for aimless patchwork. Results so far...

No idea what I'll do with them. Pretty though.

The flights are now booked for the 19th so I'm on a countdown. Bit odd but will be good to get there and start setting up a new craft lair!