Nakameguro

Nakameguro, located on the Tokyu Toyoko Line or the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, is one of my favourite Tokyo suburbs. Here you can stroll along the cherry blossom lined canal, flick through art books (in English!), buy vintage clothes by weight (more about these places in Hello Sandwich Tokyo Guide coming soon) and eat organic food from Kyoto at Aoya. Potentially Tokyo's hippest suburb, Nakameguro is super popular with designers, artists, musicians and all round creative types and is, perhaps, the best suburb to ride around on your (rented?) Mamachari.






BONILL CAFE
1-15-8 Aobadai, Nakameguro-ku, Tokyo

Bonill is a clothing select shop by day and quaint little cafe+bar by night. Definitely worth popping in.






Photograph courtesy of Martin Evamy


Photograph courtesy of Martin Evamy

AOYA
1-15-10 Aobadai, Nakameguro, Tokyo.

Aoya is a charming little cafe located in a Showa-era house tucked deep into Nakameguro's backstreets. Although it can be a little tricky to find (look out for the lantern just down the road from Bonill), you won't want to miss the 1200yen lunch set. The five grain rice here is to die for!






PASSE COMPOSE
1-1-52 Naka-Meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Pop into Passe Compose if you are in the market for some sweet French homewares and home accessories. Well, you can never have too many polka dot tea pots right?


More Tokyo tips like this will be in my Hello Sandwich Tokyo Guide coming soon! The Hello Sandwich guide will come complete with maps to make it much easier to get about! Phew!

Love Love
Hello Sando
xxx

Shimokitazawa

SHIMOKITAZAWA

If you like used clothing, vintage, thrift, zakka and antique stores then Shimokitazawa (or Shimokita) is the Tokyo suburb for you! Shimokita is a sweet little neighbourhood located in Setagaya-ku, only a few train stops away from Shibuya. In Tokyo questionnaire surveys about where young people want to live, Shimokitazawa is always one of the top three responses. It's packed with teeny tiny six-seater bars, adorable cafes, loads of cheap and cheerful restaurants, vintage and retro clothing stores, live music venues, secondhand record stores, homewares and vintage stores and is generally known for trendsetting in youth culture. Come here if you fancy an afternoon wondering around people spotting, stay until sundown, have a G+T at Mois cafe, and try some delicious okonomiyaki.







LOTTY
2-26-13 PACKAGE ONE 1F Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

I think Lotty is my absolute ichi-ban favourite vintage clothing store in Shimokita. The store styling is just adorable and the selection of items just perfect! Think vintage embroidered trims, retro postcards, crocheted throws and cushion covers, 1950's glassware and a huge selection of vintage clothing.















SOU
2-37-2 1F Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo.

One shop not to miss in Shimokita is Sou. Stock up here on MT tape, katakana + hiragana wooden stamps, hand-made fabric pocket tissue cases, Mori girls fashion pieces and loads of other zakka essentials. Also worth a trip for the custom made calendar given free to customers. I still have my one from 2008 up on my studio wall it's so cute. Perhaps it's time to replace it with my new 2010 one (below).

Sou is part of a family of three stores along with Five and Ten and Khopchai. You can shop online at all three of them at Five and Ten.






COMMUNE
2-33-6 2F Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo.

Commune is a mini-me shop stocking zines, art, and unique handmade goods along side it's teeny tiny gallery space. Look at these ear-rings (literally) that I found in there. Don't worry if you are not going to Tokyo any time soon, you can shop online here.



(Above Mois image special thanks to 8tokyo)



MOIS CAFE
2-21-26 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

Fancy an iced caramel latte? Lemon tea? Or just a regular coffee and cake? Or are you more a G+T and mixed vegetable plate type of person? Well fear not as Mois café has it all. Set inside a two storey old Japanese style house, this café is a super cool place to relax after rummaging through Shimokita’s vintage clothes stores. Cool electro music playing softly. Uber-cute Japanese peeps speaking as softly as the music. Couches and tables. Sneak peek online here or here.


Gracie's Mini Tokyo Potted Garden inside her Shimokita apartment

More Tokyo tips like this will be in my Hello Sandwich Tokyo Guide coming soon! The Hello Sandwich guide will come complete with maps to make it much easier to get about! Phew!

Love Love
Hello Sando
xxx

Hello Sandwich Tokyo

Hello Sandwiches!

Sorry for the delay in posting. I've been off sick with a really horrible flu which has left me feeling pretty sorry for myself but today I finally got some antibiotics which should help me feel better soon (Thank you everyone for your well wishes on Twitter too! xxx).

I've now sorted my Tokyo pics into suburbs, because, guess what, I'm currently putting together a HELLO SANDWICH TOKYO GUIDE. eeeep! I can't count the amount of times people have asked me for Tokyo tips so I thought it might be time to start making it easy for people!

The guide is a little while off so I'm going to share a little sneak peek with you over the next few weeks as I post about a few of my favourite suburbs such as Nakameguro, Gakugei-daigaku, Jiyugaoka, Koenji, Kichijoji, Daikanyama and Shibuya. First up is Shimokitazawa, but before that can I please just share a few fun Tokyo shots?

Tokyo Snow

Hello Sandwiches!
ただいま！I'm home!
Tokyo was so much fun!
It even snowed a lot while I was there. I felt extremely lucky as I am told it rarely snows in Tokyo - perhaps once every two to three years. It started snowing one night when I was in Shimokita with my dearest friend Gracie. It went a little something like this:
[walking to Mois cafe]
HS: 'Dude! It's snowing!'
Gracie: 'It looks like snow but it's just rain'
HS: 'DUDE! It's snowing'
Gracie: 'OMG! It's snow! It's snowing!' Dude look at my umbrella! There's snow on my umbrella'. OMG I can't believe it's snowing in Tokyo! We are so lucky!'







Walking home that evening through the quiet residential area where Mr Y's family home is located I noticed a single track of footprints etched into the snow which seemed to turn around and walk back over itself. 'Strange', I thought. Why would someone walk over existing footprints? And then I noticed some sort of marking under each light-post. Looking a little closer I discovered these markings were in fact the letter 'e' marked with an arrow leading to Mr Y's family home! Mr Y had snuck out in the cold to leave a little message in the snow! So adorable!





Well Sandwiches, I have so many pics and places to share with you and will keep posting about Tokyo this week. Hope you are all super well!

Love Love
Hello (omote)Sando.