colorful things from japan

The thing about Japan is they have significantly more variety in things that Australia. With six times as many people as Australia, there's more demand and more choice. Often this leaves me troubled as to what to buy, so I get one of everything in every color.

Surprisingly, I was running low on washi tape. While I can buy it locally at Kinokuniya and Borders (at $9.99 a roll... *gasp*), I much prefer to buy it in Japan. Finding red washi tape is always hard. When I found three rolls of red stripes, I bought them all. I felt my purchase of 14 rolls this trip was rather restrained.


About half of the packages leaving Badskirt have stripes of washi tape on them. Did you know it's mostly reusable? Next time you see some, peel it off the envelope and decorate something in your home!

And Japan has some really nice cotton webbing too. The 25mm pieces are standard Japan faire that I use for making my keychains for markets. The thicker colours are from Echino and are as dear as their name implies. I've got dreams of messenger bags, so I bought some great gunmetal grey buckles to go with them.



I do very little shopping in Nippori, as I find the quality to be hit or miss. One exception is On Travelling. It's my favourite button store. They have an assortment of wooden buttons and embellishments, as well as ribbons trims and crocheted linen. They aren't "Nippori-priced", but I believe in this case you get what you pay for. On Travelling is a tiny shop a block or two off the main road. If you're there, don't miss their "upstairs" which is a second door over to the left up a steep stairwell.

I'm not sure why I thought I needed a half dozen wooden black bird cages, but I'm sure the perfect project for them will come to me soon.


Aside from restocking my usual Mokely Adventure yarn, I decided to try a few other types. I wondered just how small I could crochet my little mushrooms and trees, so I bought a skein or two each of several yarn types and extended my range of Clover hooks into the smaller sizes. I've decided I didn't go quite small enough, so I'll be on the lookout for more tiny hooks soon.


Each time that I've been in Tokyo, I've looked fondly on the colours of the Pom Beans range from Hamanaka. I don't particularly like to crochet with wool so I picked up just a few (or few dozen) skeins to have around the house in case I decided to give it a go.


And then in a completely frivilous purchase, I decided to get more Perle 8. I had bought four skeins a few weeks ago when I suddenly decided I was going to be a Perle 8 quilter. To date, I've made exactly zero stitches with Perle 8 floss. That didn't stop me from bringing my skein count up to 13.


And that's just the tip of the iceberg on my colorful Tokyo shopping... can you believe there's more to come?