Now for some serious shopping. We are in Tokyo and have been holding out on looking for a few specific things because we didn't want to carry them all around Japan with us. We've been keen on buying some books about the work of Japanese woodblock artists in the Edo period for a while now. John had Googled the Tsutaya Daikanyama bookstore, said to be the biggest art & design bookstore in Japan, and we tackled getting there first thing after a sleep-in! After a solid walk, 30 minutes by subway to an outer suburb of Tokyo, followed by another decent walk, we finally arrived there.
It was worth the expedition. The bookstore included three large buildings, each containing different categories of books plus various nooks for sitting down with a book in a quiet spot, leather sofas, a cafe or restaurant, and in one building even a place for self-serve breakfast. The place was definitely geared towards giving its customers an enjoyable experience as well as browsing the aisles. There were some magnificent tomes on a wide range of topics, including architecture, fashion and travel. Unfortunately the specific book that John had hoped to find wasn't there, but we found a similar one of interest.
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| Tsutaya Bookstore (3 linked buildings) |
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| We would have loved to buy more books |
Undeterred, John tracked down the location of the overall largest bookstore in Japan. We made our way back to the train station and all the way back to Tokyo main station. Not far from there was the Maruzen Marunouchi bookstore. We again found some good books here but there were two we have now bought online for less cost in NZ. In the main, however, the price of books here is far less than in NZ bookstores.
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| Tokyo main railway station |
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| Tokyo station's route map. Now where was I going again...? |
With our purchases safely tucked away in a backpack we travelled the remaining distance back to our own neighbourhood, which is near the 'kitchen equipment' district. Here a particularly long street is lined on both sides with shops selling all manner of kitchen crockery, cookware and the like, intermingled with shops selling very expensive knives. Some shops also sell fake meals for display by restaurants outside their premises.
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| Plastic meals |
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| A shop which only sold brushes |
We trekked up and down the blocks and had some good success. Our bags are definitely starting to fill up, especially when John spied some sake he had Googled in a local supermarket. Two small bottles are now wedged inside John's hiking boots for a safe journey back to NZ.
We tried a little place for dinner tonight (having missed out lunch altogether) which turned out to be Korean, and it was good. Still only $10 per dish and the lovely woman running the place gave me a bowl of spring onion and black pepper soup for nothing. Maybe she thought I needed building up? It was delicious and it's a dish I'm keen to try when we get back home.
