Mogu Takahashi

I recently fell in love with Mogu Takahashi's blog, a wonderful Japanese artist. I love Takahashi's whimiscal work, especially when she uses materials like cookies and clothes pins to express herself. Here are few pics from her blog you should take a look. I wish I was in Japan to see one of her exhibitions, she's showing her solo show "Kawaii Ugly San" at Cafe Drole in Nakameguro. Watch her video below it's super cute!










Getting there:
Cafe Drole
1-23-4,1F, Nakameguro, Meguro-ku
03-5722-6083
Take the Tokoyu Toyoko line to the Nakameguro station.

A walk through Nakameguro

I put this little film together with some footage I took on my walks home from the train station while I was living in Tokyo. I messed with it a bit to make it look a little Super 8. Music is by Lullatone "Pajama Party Pop"

Tokyo Day 9: Clothing, housewares, and Zakka, OH MY! Nakameguro & Shinjuku

I don't want to take away form the seriousness of the events happening in Japan so I struggled with this post. In light of all that I experienced the last couple of days while in Tokyo I felt that I should remind myself of how much I love Japan and not to think of it as the scary place that almost killed me. With that said my heart goes out to all those who have suffered tremendous loss and those who survived at the epicenter of the disasters who now have to carry on and start a new life with heavy hearts. So here's my last day full good day before the earthquake and all the wonderful things I experienced. I will have one more post about the last happy events before the quake too coming up.



I started my day with a trip to Shinjuku to Odakaya one of my favorite fabric and crafting stores. The store is super easy to get to because it's right outside of the East exit at Shinjuku Station, near the Studio Alta building. Odakaya has two buildings, one consisting of 5 floors of fabrics and the other 7 floors of all sorts of crafting supplies, from felting to knitting to pattern books.






After my excursion through a crafters fantasy land I picked up lunch from the 7 Eleven and headed home to drop off my finds and eat. When I was satisfied, I grabbed my cameras and set off to the other side of the Meguro river for some more Nakameguro exploring. I found a slew of tiny stores mostly vintage clothing and housewares and some zakka stores. The buildings and small stores hidden from the main roads were wonderful to photograph and some of the popular places were a also a delight.
Before crossing over the river there were just everyday scenes of Nakameguro in the back streets of my immediate neighborhood and the main commerce street.

This was a great restaurant near the train station.








After crossing the river I found this store which I had scene on google street view before traveling to Tokyo I originally thought it was a restaurant but it was a men's clothing boutique called, VASE, they also carried handmade jewelry and handpainted bags for women, plus all sorts of cute little housewares. There was also, Tokyo Lampoon, a women's vintage clothing store.






If you walk along the river towards the train tracks and pass under them you will come to this Izakaya, which I wanted to try but didn't get a chance because nature had other plans for me. Anywho, if you make a left on this street and walk until you reach another underpass you will see a large ugly red brick building in front of you, this houses a few vintage stores and a cute Zakka store. Here you'll find, Attic Antiques, SIIGE, USA Sundance, Loop, and a few other places,one of the vintage stores had only wares associated with airlines and travel, plus they had a super cute dog working there.








After checking out the stores I came across I lovely cafe/bar called Square Hedges just past the underpass about two blocks. The proprietor, Marie, is a Japanese woman who speaks perfect English and her friend Chel from Arizona hangs out there all the time. They make a delicious Green Tea Latte. Upstairs she rents out to an Aussie, a New Yorker, and I think a guy from California and they have a bike shop/bar. They have total hipster bikes and at night it dubs as a bar.




Getting There: Take the Tokyu Toyoko line to Nakameguro, to cross the river- when coming out of the station cross the street to the opposite side of the station, then turn left and then make the first right and keep walking you will cross the river in about 5 mins.

VASE: 1-7-7 Kamimeguro, Meguro

More addresses to come.

Tokyo Day 3-Nakameguro, Daikanyama, and Beeru!

I spent the day trolling around Nakameguro and Daikanyama with my Canon and Nikon hanging from my neck. I walked along the meguro river in Nakameguro into Aobadai where I had a delicious lunch set at Aoya.



Aoya is located in a sweet Showa era house tucked away from the street with a lovely narrow garden path to it's wooden sliding door. The only way you know it's there is by a tiny lantern at the entrance. I was really fortunate that the young man who seated me spoke English so he explained the three options on the lunch set after showing me to the counter where I took a seat and I could watch them prepare the meal. The restaurant prepares Kyoto based food, and my choices where a one-plate Kaseki style dish with lots of veggies and a fish, a curry bowl, or a Korean inspired tofu spicy stew. I went with the Korean tofu stew and it was delicious. All the meals come with side dishes, mine had a bowl of 5 grain rice and a salad.





After my meal I headed out and walked some more around Nakameguro, I went to stop in at Nill style/Bonill cafe which is on the corner from Aoya but they were closed, it's one of my favorite stores/cafe.




Then I trekked up a very steep hill into Daikanyama where I saw the Egyptian embassy which is a very strange sight in the middle of Tokyo with all it's gold and Egyptian sphinxes and such. I walked a little fer onto the side streets filled with tiny stores and I went shopping for socks at Kutsushitaya where they carry all the Tabio socks which are made in Japan. I scored, they had 60% off all the winter socks! Then I went into CA4LA (pronounced Kashira), a hats-only store hoping to replace some of my older winter knit hats from here, but alas they were onto spring.




Next stop, Chez Luis, a patisserie, where I had me a sit-down with a cup of tea and a yummy custard filled pastry.

Time to head back to the apartment to relax for a bit before heading out for the evening. On the way back I stopped at the cutest looking take-out window from the restaurant Mahakala which seems to serve squid and chicken dishes including okonomiyaki and chicken sashimi, but the take-out window has a refrigerator filled with yummy puddings and custards in adorable containers. I picked up a matcha flavored pudding for after dinner.

Went home relaxed, then got ready to head over to the Taproom, a beerhall with twenty-something beers on tap, including a really good imperial stout which is what I had, I paired that with a nakameguro burger which was very seasoned and had onion rings inside. They definitely need to learn to make their fries better, they were steak-cut potatoes that were limp and wet with grease, yuck, left those alone. I sketched while I was there, not many people to sketch since it was early only 7pm, but there were interesting faces around including a lot of gaijin (foreigners). Around 8pm I strolled back to my place had my pudding and got to bed by 10pm, I know lame but I'm still jet-lagged.

More pics from the day walking around

AOYA 1-15-10 Aobadai, Nakameguro, Tokyo