Shimo-Kitazawa, a little hip, casual haven in Tokyo

Shimo-Kitazawa is a delightful area in Tokyo that is laid back and filled with sweet stores and dog friendly places. This is the place where the young Tokyoites most want to live. It has great cafes, restaurants,and music venues.

One of the attractions to Shimokita is that it has a lot of small streets and alleys where cars can't go and only small mom and pop shops line the streets, so walking around can be a real adventure.

tiny izakaya:


A favorite store of mine is Marble Sud, it's a small boutique shop carrying beautiful apparel and accessories. I got a pair of lovely wool fair isle fingerless arm warmers, and sweet mushroom key chain there, plus great pin buttons. There are also lots of vintage stores, selling from furniture, housewares, clothing, toys and lots of records. You'll be amazed that you can find some real amazing stuff for decent prices.

One of the many small store, cafe, and bar filled streets:


Another great place was a vintage store, unfortunately I can't find the business card,but it's filled with wall to wall furniture, housewares, toys and just everything you want from the 50's, 60's and 70's. I found I great Japanese ceramic dog from the 50's and my partner found a beautiful Japanese Blenko style blown glass bottle also from the same era. They owner is super cool guy.

A great way to take a break in the afternoon after weaving through all the streets is heading over to Bubbles/Cookie Lab, dog cafe for a snack, coffee, and doggy watching. This cafe is for people and their pooches, dogs are allowed inside the cafe and there is also a really nice outdoor area where you can watch the overly obsessed poodle owners pose their puffy pooches and snap away with their cameras. Next door is their grooming shop where you can look in at the pups getting primped, it's kinda sad to watch.

The train to Shimo-kitazawa


Outside the station:



Dog Cafe







Getting there: From Shinjuku Station take the Local Odakyu line to Shimo-Kitazawa station, it's two stops.

Marble Sud:
2-27-11 Kitazawa
Setagaya-ku
Tokyo, Japan 155-0031
phone# 03-3481-6001

Cookie Lab Dog Cafe:
D*O*G BLD. 2-38-Kitazawa
Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 155-0031
phone#03-3460-1139

Videos I took of Shimokitazawa:

Streets and stores:


Dog Cafe:


Cafes and stores:



***While writing this I just found out the Japanese Government has been planning on putting a large expressway through this lovely little neighborhood, please read more here and sign the petition to stop another neighborhood devastation.

Daikan-yama , Tokyo's Little luxury spot

"Daikan-yama"janneserojas©2008


"Proud" janneserojas©2008 (amazing building in Daikan-yama)

There's so much to write about my last trip this Fall, and I've barely scraped the top of my 2007 trip, there's so much information to share.
Tokyo offers so much shopping and so much variety, just stuff you'll never find anywhere else in the world. Every neighborhood is filled with great shops and places to eat.
Today I'll start with my favorite neighborhood in Tokyo, Daikan-yama, it's really easy to get to and there are so many amazing boutiques. When you first exit the station you'll see a VW van set up as a coffee stand, according to my traveling partner the best coffee she had in Japan. Then you'll also see a pretty popular cafe called "Sign", the prices are reasonable and the food is pretty decent, of Ameri-Euro variety. Smoking is permitted only inside, not in the outdoor seating area, which is strange to a New Yorker, it's the opposite here. Keep walking and you'll hit Hachiman Dori, this is the main drag, lots a high end stores. Hang a right and walk down the hill. Another really fun place to get a snack and a delicious cup of macha is a place called Suruga it's on the left side of Hachiman dori, it's upstairs and you can see it has a small terrace from the street, it's five minutes from the station also.My first favorite boutique is, CA4LA (pronounced Ka-shi-la, means the head, also the top), on the right side of Hachiman Dori. CA4LA has unique hats of every variety, from cold weather knits to fedoras, each is fabricated with something special, be it the materials or just amazing adornments. The store is on the high end market, like most of Daikan-yama, but you can pick up a really spectacular hat for about $50-$70, I bought two, I couldn't help it. Another really awesome little store is, Kutsushitaya , also on a corner on Hachiman Dori. This store carries socks,tights,leg warmers and other soft footwear for women and men. Lots of lovely knit and crochet socks and leg warmers, including really nice wool intarsia socks for men. I never gave a second thought to socks until I went into this store. You'll also find that this is one of the most dog friendly neighborhoods aside from Shimo-kitazawa (which will be my next post). You'll find several doggie clothing and grooming stores in the neighborhood and will see many a pooch taken out for their walks. There is a well known dog store were five corgi females work with their owner and we got to meet them they were totally amazing. Daikan-yama is also the home of the Blythe doll mecca, Junie Moon also located on Hachiman dori, It's a great store for Blythe and Blythe acoutrements but the staff is really unfriendly, unlike many stores in Tokyo where people are super polite and friendly. There are many little streets chock full of stores and cafes at every turn, so Daikan-yama is well worth the visit. If you have any questions please feel free to write.

Cutie Pie Corgi one of five



me in my new hat



Hat store:


Different Locations around Japan and London:


Sock Store:


Sign


Suraga



Getting there:

Take JR Yamanote Line to Shibuya Station,
Transfer to the Tokyu Toyoko line (follow the red signs)
It's two different companies so you'll have to buy a new
ticket at vending machines for the Toyoko line. Shibuya is the last and first station for this line so when you go up the stairs take the train that is on the farthest
left. Daikan-yama is the next stop after leaving Shibuya. Head out the Main exit you'll see sign cafe on your left.