Let me skip right to the craft of Japan, since all of you are yarn addicts! It’s always very exciting when I visit a new place not knowing where can I find all these gems. I managed to find a few places in Google and also received some recommendations from my students. And off my venture into the motherland of amigurumi!

• Okadaya
• Kinokuniya
• Masuhisa Senshoku Kenkyūjo Nakameguro-Ten
• 2K540 Aki-Oka Artisan
• Tokyu Hands
• Puppy Yarn
• Keito
• Fabric Street
• Yuzawaya

Oh my! This is my favourite place. I visited twice. The first time was just to browse, and the second time was to do some serious buying. This building has sooooo many craft resources you can practically stay there for the whole day! And it didn’t look like a craft shop from the outside. I have passed by so many times since I was staying near Shinjuku.

FIY: It has SEVEN storeys. It’s quite a standard in Japan though. The yarn section

This is the most familiar name that everyone knows of! It’s 7-storeys tall too! I went straight up to the craft section. Please note that if you’re looking for amigurumi books, they can be found until this section called 手芸 (shugei) which also means handicraft. I was pretty lost in the bookstore. I was a little bewildered by the fact that I could find barely a handful of amigurumi books. I was really expecting a full bookshelf of them. Yes, there’s 2 full shelves but mostly books for bags and clothings. Bought some bag books instead because they’re very pretty =) You can browse there at our store!

We actually found this place by pure chance. We were visiting Meguro River Park for sakura and after that we were roaming around the area. It was a really nice walk around the neighbourhood and we saw the Exile Tribe Station. Many girls were screaming there so I thought it must be some well-known band.

To our amazement we actually found a yarn shop amongst the residential area! It is pretty much different from the usual ones you usually see. I couldn’t read the shop name and couldn’t find a translation from it. This is the Google translation result: Mizuhisa Textile Research Laboratory Naka-Meguro store. Due to our language barrier, I couldn’t figure out what she actually does. She has a pretty cool yarn machine whereby you feed wool in and spins out yarn! And their yarns are normally a mixed of different colours. They do not push their yarns out of Japan, mainly to keep the quality and the uniqueness to their own brand. The yarns are thought to be hand-dyed and hand-spun.

This place is equivalent to our Haji Lane, except that you have shelter. It is right underneath the train tracks so it gives a very unique vibe! There are many stores and you can only find unique handmade items. It so happens to have a handmade fair featuring only cats. Japanese really love cats right? =)

Very happy to have bought something pretty from the fair! And look at their packaging? Although simple, there’s still great effort put in!

Plushie on the left, amigurumi on the right. So cute right =))

Exterior of the cafe. I like all their mini figurines! All monsters

Even the signboard is so rustic

The cats look so real. But they’re actually selling bags. The cats are a decoy!

This is the cat craft event Every booth is done up very prettily

Got hold of the socks namecard. So cute!

Lotsa hats! All crochet/knitted ones

Having a cuppa here. The beans smells so good I couldn’t help it although I don’t drink coffee

Huge mascot to welcome us!

Even the letter on every unit looks so polished and handcrafted.

This is like heaven to me! I wasn’t convinced to visit Tokyu Hands as it didn’t really have things that I like for our Singapore branch. I thought that it should be around the same. I didn’t exactly chose to visit Tokyu Hands but we just found it while trying to navigate our way to Kinokuniya. Also 7 storeys. I wonder what’s with 7. Or perhaps I remembered wrongly since I wrote this blog 4 months later :O They really have EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN! So let me cut short to the craft section. There were around 3 levels of craft. Unfortunately they do not stock up much things for yarns and such. But if you’re looking to buy any sort of craft materials, that’s where you can head to!

There’s even a calligraphy workshop to teach people how to use the pen selling at Tokyu Hands!

 

This is a small and cozy shop that’s pretty far away from town. I remembered that Terrix and I got a little lost. We couldn’t find the correct side of the train to board… Anyway we managed to make our way there. All the owners are very lovely =) I didn’t take any photos in their shop, so I’m going to describe to you.

There are many European brands such as Rowan and Katia, and in fact I saw some of these brands at Okadaya too. But different shops stock up different things so you get to see something different in every shop that you go. Puppy Yarn is their own local brand and they do not export to other parts of the world. You have to buy them there! I only bought some home as I was still hesitating what can I make with these special and pretty yarns. They make lots of bags and clothings to showcase, mainly winter wear. Perhaps it was still spring that’s why I don’t see summer yarns.

We walked around the area after that and it’s quite an interesting area I shall say. We went into a bookstore nearby that sells everything.

Passed by a pet shop too.

Passed by this building. Their interior and exterior is so pretty! When can I have a shop like this? Hmmm…

Finally found Keito after walking a distance. It’s tucked in a quiet neighbourhood and it looks pretty! I realised that Japanese shops like to use warm light. Keito has many kinds of yarns and also many European brands. The stuff they carry are quite different from the others that I’ve been to. So if you have decided to buy something here, please do! No second chance

Shops I see along the way to Keito!

 

You can stroll through this town. There are so many shops along this road and you can find all the things you want for craft! But I can’t vouch for yarns as I only found 1 shop that sells crochet stuff. If you find out more stuff, let me know!

I haven’t been to this craft shop before, but my students managed to find this place and mentioned that this is a very big craft store! They have super lots of things. I had a short look on google map. Hope to visit this place the next time. Do share with me about your findings if you got there =D