AFTERNOON IN YANAKA #2

AFTERNOON IN YANAKA #2

Monday, 15 April 2013

I said that Yanaka (or Yanesen) is full of beautiful traditional stores but there are also some really interesting shops and galleries run by young creatives. Seen in the first 4 photos is a new art house that had just opened when we went there called HAGISO (thanks to Ros for finding out about it!).

HAGISO used to be a shared apartment which had been loved by students of the neighbouring Tokyo Geidai (Tokyo University of the Arts) for a long time but this 57-year-old building was planned to be demolished to be a car parking space after the 3.11 earthquake from 2011.

Fortunately, the demolishing plan was replaced by a huge renovating project by some of the graduates of the Tokyo Geidai and the new life was put into the beloved HAGISO! Now it has a cafe and gallery space on the ground floor, and on the second floor houses an artist's atelier, hair salon and a design office. This is a really interesting space that is innovating and so modern yet mingling well with the local community in this lovely shitamachi atmosphere.

In the Yanesen area, you can also find some cute & pop retro shops including Biscuit Yanaka and Hitoyasumi Kichi Nanaco.
There are so many more shops I want to check out in this area so I really need to go back for a good exploring around Yanesen soon!!

HAGISO
3-10-25 Yanaka Taitou-ku 110-0001 (google map)

Comments: 12

AFTERNOON IN YANAKA #1

AFTERNOON IN YANAKA #1

Thursday, 11 April 2013

OH I AM SO IN LOVE WITH YANAKA!

Yanaka made me feel as if I were somewhere like Kanazawa, it didn't feel like Tokyo at all to me and that feeling was quite interesting. It has all the shitamachi (areas where we find old Tokyo*) feel everywhere, but still it felt so much different from other shitamachi areas that I have seen in Tokyo like Asakusa, Nihonbashi, Kanda etc. Not just because there are many traditional shops, but there is definitely something that is so unique about Yanaka, I don't know what it is I need to go back to get to know more about this lovely quaint neighbourhood. (I should probably say Yanesen area not just Yanaka, which stands for Yanaka, Nezu & Sendagi.)

I enjoyed strolling around every street around Yanesen Area with Ros and Kat, what a fun afternoon we had there!
There are so many traditional shops scattered around everywhere, 2 of my favourites seen in the above photos are Isetatsu - lovely washi chiyogami paper store since 1864, and Koishikawa Kintaro-ame - the. best. lolly. shop. ever!  We all loved that man at the lolly shop he was so sweet.

Matsuno-ya (top photo) was one of the shops I had always wanted to check out. Great place to find non mass-produced well crafted daily goods for home made by Japanese artisans.

More from Yanaka in the next post!

Isetatsu
2-18-9 Yanaka Taito-ku 110-0001 (google map)

Koishikawa Kintaro-ame
1-22-12 Nezu Bunkyo-ku 113-0031 (near Nezu Shrine) (google map)

Matsuno-ya
3-14-14 NishiNippori Arakawa-ku 116-0013 (google map)

Comments: 22

SAKURA IN YANAKA

SAKURA IN YANAKA

Friday, 5 April 2013

Last week I went to Yanaka with lovely Ros and Kat, Yanaka is a really charming little neighbourhood near Ueno I can't believe it myself but I finally went there for the first time in my life (and yes I am from Tokyo!)!. I totally fell in love with this area, it's my new favourite neighbourhood now!
I got there early for our meeting time so I wondered around the sakura filled Yanaka Cemetery on my own and explored this absolutely gorgeous surrondings!! I LOVE YANAKA SO MUCH!!
 I will post about our fun afternoon from Yanaka in the next post :)

Comments: 18

ku:nel vol.61 & ku:nel wear vol.2

ku:nel vol.61 & ku:nel wear vol.2

Thursday, 4 April 2013

So enjoying the latest issues of ku:nel and the new ku:nel wear. ku:nel vol.61 features two of my favourite creative people, Peter Ivy the glassware artist and Ms Yoko Omori, one of the top Japanese fashion stylist - I have lucky enough to have met her in person but she. is. sooooooo. lovely!
Both available here.

Comments: 1

SAKURA IN YUTENJI

SAKURA IN YUTENJI

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

It's raining all day today, which means almost all sakura blossoms will be gone. It always feels sad when the sakura season comes to an end after only about 10 days or so but I was lucky enough to be able to enjoy this year's sakura as much as I wanted to. Although sakura came in full bloom so fast, they seem to have stayed longer.

One weekend morning, I left home early and stopped by at Yutenji temple before I went to my shoppe. I had discovered it the night before while walking home, although I always pass by this temple I never realised that all these trees here were sakura trees. It was all too dark to photograph at night, but oh it was so breathtakingly beautiful seeing so many sakura in the darkness! Everywhere it's often lit up at night time where you can see many sakura blossoms but here they only have little foot lights along the main path to the temple from the gate. It was incredibly beautiful in the day light also, but that sakura in the dark were just gorgeous!

I hope you won't mind me doing a couple more posts on sakura here!

Comments: 6