Tokyo, Tokyo, It's No Joke-yo

I don't think Tokyo could be any more awesome if it tried. (Okay, perhaps if it stopped raining so much, but I am willing to give it a little leeway.) The past two days have been spent shopping, eating amazing "molecular food" and playing with our adorable friend Kyra (she's almost two and she loves bananas). Oh, and more shopping. Yesterday, armed with the Tokyo Luxe Guide, the Lucky mag shopping guide to Tokyo (March 2006 edition – just let me know if you should ever need a photocopy) and the list of all your fantastic recommendations, we started off our city tour with Shibuya, where many gleeful noises were made at Tokyu Hands, Loft and Picnic on Picnic. (I have been to these places before, on our last trip in January 2005, but enough time has passed to make me sufficiently giddy again.) I think we'll do a run down of the loot towards the end of the trip, but let's just say many adorable stickers were obtained.


Today was spent exploring Omotesando/Harajuku (where I kept finding great things in various branches of an amazing vintage store called Chicago. The vintage in this town is insane! Check out the rack of dresses from the Omotesando Chicago branch above.) We ate some fried pork chop and went to a six-floor toy extravaganza called Kiddyland and hit up Uniqlo (the Old Navy of Japan – and coming soon to New York, for those of you over there! Lots of nice basics, fyi.) Oh, and we also found what is reportedly the city's largest Daiso 100 Yen store, which is better (and cheaper, thanks to a good exchange rate at the moment!) than the one in Singapore. I now own Hello Kitty coasters. They are quite pink. We also headed to Shinjuku, but by the time we got there we were too tired to fully appreciate all seven floors of Japanese design-fashion-art booky goodness at Kinokuniya. A return trip is definitely planned before I leave.

Tomorrow! Off to buy knives in Kappabashi, followed by some Imperial Palace-ing and a visit to the city's largest Muji. I have just found what appears to be a really good undereye concealer at a smaller Muji (who knew Muji did makeup?) and so, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a blast.

Oh yeah, in case you were wondering: Everyone in Tokyo really does have a crazy, fantastic, original style, whether it's the elderly ladies in kimonos or the Harajuku girls in Little Bo Peep-ish ensembles. Also: You're nobody in Tokyo unless you have vintage cowboy boots, especially if you wear them with a kneesocks underneath. Cute!