Third Day in Tokyo

OK, so here we go, even thought the blog is not fully operational. First post!

I've been in Tokyo for all of 3 days now. 

First day was devoted to getting the lay of the land, silly me. This land requires a lot more than one day to find your way around. More on another post. Second day was a trip to Fabric Town, which deserves yet another post.

The major accomplishment today was navigating the subway and not ending up in Singapore. I wanted to check out 3 fabric/craft stores in the neighborhood of Shinjuku, home to the notorious Shinjuku Station. This is a the major transportation hub in the planet: 25 levels, 200 exits. Take a peek at the train service section here. This is just the train portion, does not show the subway connections. Frightening.

First stop was the Takashimaya Times Square department store, a monster building with very fancy stuff.

 A major tenant is Tokyo Hands, over 8 floors, but a disappointment, as there was no fabric to be seen. It's really a giant gift shop, currently full of Christmas displays. Funny, since Christmas means nothing to this country other than the gift giving, but they have certainly embraced THAT idea

The second target was the Yuzawaya store, in the same building. However, on the way there, I bumped into this stunning display:

These are kimono for graduation ceremonies, I was told. They are not silk, but who cares, I drooled all over their pristine floor. On the way out, I bumped into stacks of tsutsumi cloth, meaning they are meant to wrap gifts. The Japanese are so into beauty, the wrapping means almost as much as the gift itself. I purcha$ed more tsutsumi than was wise, but who can resist?

Finally got to Yuzawaya. Now we are talking: lots and lots of fabric. Having been to Fabric Town (yesterday's accomplishment, another post)  I suspected that a lot of the quilting-weight fabric would be from the US, and it was. I skipped those bolts and searched for the local stuff, toward the back of the store. You have to search for them, as they are mixed with all the Hoffmans, Michael Millers et al. Check out the cute carts to carry the bolts around. Yes, they look like hospital laundry carts, but are perfect for those awkward circular bolts that are taller than you.

Here I am auditioning some of the fabrics in the hallway:

After some trimming ($16 a meter!), here is the second haul of the day. These beauties are from a Japanese designer, Keiko Goke, whom I did not know at all. You must check out her quilt gallery.

The lunch paragraph. Can you tell the difference between these two plates?

The first one is a plastic representation of one of their dishes, the second one is what I had for lunch (pasta with Japanese vegs and chicken). These folk are masters at Nature imitation!

 Final stop: Okadaya. Finding this store, using the maps that I printed from Google, would have been impossible had it not been for a couple with baby who saw me struggling, then walked with me to the store, even though they were not going that way originally. One more instance of locals minding the lost tourist. The final stash:

The colors are quite a bit off, sadly. I thought the one on the left would be very interesting to use more or less by itself, as each block would be different enough from each other.

The day's definite miracle: I found my way back to the hotel through the Shinjuku maze, at Saturday rush hour, without incident. Weeee!

 End of the day. Can feet be cloned yet?