Daiso: 100 Yen Store (Dollar Store)

Frances tipped me off to the 100 yen store closest to me: Daiso. Thanks Frances! She said it's similar to most dollar stores but that they have higher quality merchandise. I'm a dollar store fan, at least I am of some of the ones in the south (I haven't found any I like in SF even though I'm sure there are some I'd like), so I thought I'd check it out. The one I went to was in Harajuku, and more specifically in Takeshita Dori, a very popular shopping area for the young and hip, and conveniently located right by the train station (the main shopping strip is pictured above). Daiso was the best dollar store I've ever seen, of course, because it's in Tokyo! Three (or was it four?) floors of cheap stuff goodness! A lot of what they carry is made in China, but you can find some made in Japan things as well. Not everything was 100 yen, but close. These pictures are a very small sampling of what they have. I spent most of my time in the craft section, but they have kitchen goods, garden supplies, hardware supplies, stationery, toys, candy, and a whole lot of other things. Daiso, I will miss you when I go home. Check out their web site to see a little more.


These are coasters, but really they're just felt cutouts without any backing. I thought they'd make cute magnets for kids.

Felt leaves. They had other shapes too. This leaf is big--about the size of a placemat.

More felt! Different shapes and sizes and kits too.

Cute boxes.

Cute socks, and they're fresh!

Lace, or crochet, cup holders.

They had all kinds of dishes, most of which were really nice with pretty and interesting designs. And they seemed like they were made well.

Baking supplies. Cute cupcake / muffin cups.

Japanese Food is Good!

A few nights ago we ate at a lively restaurant called Kaikaya where the chef enthusiastically posed for me when I asked if I could take his picture. The restaurant is on the not so crazy busy side of Shibuya on a little winding side street filled with other nice looking restaurants. Andrew read some good reviews about Kaikaya online, so we thought we'd give it a try. We sat at the counter and were thoroughly entertained while we ate a delicious meal. The service was a little slow, especially when we were ready to leave, but we still liked the food a lot and had a great time. We're not sure just how Japanese this food is, if at all really, because there were more westerners eating there than any other Japanese restaurant we've been to. In any case, it was very good.

Andrew's sake. They let it overflow into the little square cup. So you get a big sake!


Andrew's sashimi. I didn't have any of it (or the sake), but Andrew said is was amazing. The baby isn't allowed to have any sashimi or sake.


Our fish in the broiler. Poor fishies.


Our fish before.


Our fish after. This was delicious! The butter, lemon, garlic sauce part was the best. We had a few other small plates--a salad and a prawn appetizer--but I didn't get pictures of those.

Cooking away. It was fun to sit at the counter and watch.

One nice thing is they have an English version of the menu. Not every place does, which can be fun if you're up for a surprise. But in my preggers condition, I'm not up for any raw meat surprises. Well, I'm not up for raw meat surprises in any condition. (We've found raw chicken and raw beef dishes on menus at a number of places we've been to.) Oh, and heads up to non-smokers--you're out of luck here. People can smoke in restaurants in Tokyo, and there seem to be a whole lot of smokers. Every place we've been to allows smoking in the restaurant, and a lot of places don't have a non-smoking section, which makes me fussy, but I'm trying to get over it. (I hate cigarettes, even though I used to puff away on those nasty cancer sticks myself.)

Tokyo Shopping

In Shibuya, where we're staying, there's lots of shopping but most of it is the big box, mall type shopping, and I was hoping to find more boutique type shops while I am here. Lauren let me borrow one of her Japanese magazines that lists lots of great shops, so I thought I'd try to find some of them. It's hard for me, though, when everything in the magazine is in Japanese. I met a really nice girl on etsy who lives here, Frances, who I wrote before I came here asking her suggestions for fabric and craft stores. She gave me the Yuzawaya tip and told me of a few other places as well. I sent her links for a few of the stores in this magazine, and she told me how to find them! The one I want to go to most, Orner, is the farthest away, near Kyoto, but we're going there for the weekend, so I might be able to find it (click on the link to see what they have--so many great things!). Frances and I spent the afternoon together yesterday in Jiyugaoka, a nice neighborhood with a lot of great shops. My camera was being fussy, and I didn't fix it until I got home so I didn't get any pictures so I'll have to go back before I leave to show you what I found. I could have spent hundreds of dollars easily (that is if I had hundreds of extra dollars), but I only got a few small things. I did get one little lamb for baby-to-be. It is soooo soft. I slept with it by my bed last night.

The pictures are fun to look at even though I can't read the words. See the cute faux lace green bike basket? That's featured in Domino this month on the last page of the magazine. I saw it in a store here as well. If I had a bike, I'd want one of those.

This is the store I want to go to most, Orner. Click on the categories to the left and you'll see why.

Another shop I'd like to visit.

Aww, little lamb for baby. At least I think it's supposed to be a lamb. They had a mouse too, which looked more mouse-like than this lamb even though this could be a mouse too, I guess.

Trains, Trains, Trains and More

Yesterday we went to a very pretty mountain town called Hakone, which is known for its hot springs and stunning views of Mt. Fuji (but it wasn't clear enough yesterday for us to see it well or get a good picture). We rode on a gondola over the woods, and over a funky sulfur mine and then arrived at a lovely lake. Our favorite part about the whole day was all the different kinds of trains (or train like kinds of transportation) we took to get there--5 different kinds of transportation total: the subway, the bullet train, a two car rickety train that wobbled its way through the mountains, a cable car and a gondola. The gondola and the bullet train were our favorites. I didn't care too much for the rickety two car train. I had to close my eyes as we edged along steep inclines--eek. But the bullet train, or Shinkansen, is bad ass! I love it. I'm not sure how fast our train was going, but I think it goes about 275 mph in general. It doesn't feel that fast when you're riding it, but watch one go by the station while you're standing on the platform and you might be surprised that it even stays on the track--it looks like it's going to take off into the air! It is so cool.

The little gondola cars.

Watching other people take pictures of our car dangling in the air while we took pictures of theirs was fun.

Me and Andrew on the gondola.


Interesting pirate ships were docked at the lake when we arrived. You can take a boat tour if you'd like, but we didn't do that because it was so cold.

Cute swan paddle boats.

Hmm, an interesting candy indeed! At least we think it was some kind of candy because it was in the candy section, but we have no idea what it could possibly be made of. The package says, "this is a delicious confectionery filled with gifts from the ground." Gifts from the ground? The mountain / woods / train scene doesn't give us any help figuring it out either.

The Tsukiji Fish Market

This morning we went to the Tsukiji fish market. It was crazy! From the pictures you can't tell what a madhouse it was, but trust me, it's a miracle we made it out alive. It was a very stressful outing, but totally worth going. The stress had nothing to do with the fish or the people shopping, but was all due to the guys on these little utility carts rushing around the isles in all directions to re-stock their spaces. But we got to see lots of interesting looking fish and a whole lot of things I couldn't possibly identify. We also ate lunch (well, it was 8AM, so breakfast) at a really yummy noodle stand outside the market. If you're squeamish about fish guts and the like, you might want to skip this post.

These guys almost mowed us over at every turn. You gotta watch out for them!

Octopus.
Tuna.

Tuna.

Big scary fish head.

Funky striped shrimp-like critters.

There's a farmer's market right down the street from the fish market with lots of produce, more fish, and all kinds of neat packaged goods.

Our soba noodle bowl with shrimp.


The woman on the fry side of the of the itsy bitsy kitchen who cooked our shrimp.

Our Hotel in Tokyo: The Cerulean Tower

I'm not too picky about hotels, but I can't say I mind a super nice one, especially during an extended stay. Our hotel is amazing, so I thought I'd give you a peek. I feel lucky when I get a comfortable bed and pillows (I am picky about pillows), but here, everything is comfortable, clean, modern and just overall great. Even the food at the main hotel restaurant is terrific (it's one of 5 restaurants in the hotel). There's also a gym, a heated indoor pool, jacuzzi, and sauna to mention a few perks. To use those, though, it costs $21 per day! So we're not working out or swimming. But if you ever come to Tokyo, I would recommend The Cerulean if your budget allows for it. Ours normally wouldn't--at least not for more than a few nights. It is pricey, but Andrew gets a corporate rate through his company, and his company is paying the bill anyway since he's here for work. The hotel is so nice that I actually feel a little guilty--I don't deserve this! You won't see pictures of our room here, though, because I haven't been able to to get good ones the last few tries, but you can see the rooms on their web site (our room is a queen double, with the two windows, which you can see there).

When you first walk into the hotel, you see the gift shop. Most hotel gift shops I've seen are pretty terrible and carry mostly touristy stuff, but this gift shop is just like a nice neighborhood boutique with housewares, clothes, bags, books, and bath goods. They also have really great vintage furniture and vintage books. I'm not sure if the furniture is for sale, but the books are. I only got this one picture. They asked me not to take more! Normally I ask if I can take pictures in shops, but since this was in the hotel, I just went for it. I probably should have asked.

Tea and a Manhattan in the lounge. The view is really dramatic from the main lounge. On a clear day, you can see Mt. Fuji along with the rest of the Tokyo skyline. This particular evening it was cloudy so we didn't get a picture of the view.


The lobby and the lobby lounge.


The front desk.

Our first two nights here we stayed on the executive floor because they didn't have any other rooms available on those nights. A delicious breakfast is included if you have an executive room, so we got to enjoy the fancy breakfast the first two mornings.

These are the cutest tomatoes I've ever seen, and they were on the vine! A tiny little vine.

Pastries! Yum.

One of the private dining rooms.

Magazines in the lounge.

These three pictures are from the executive lounge, but the other lounges are just as nice.


I like our "do not disturb" button. And I like the doorbell. Bing bong!