Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Quilt shopping in Japan



This is a photo of the "small cuts" section in Yuzawaya. This is my MOST favorite place to shop. It's in Tokyo, in the Kichijoji stop. 7 floors of crafty bliss.

2 floors have pretty much only quilting stuff. 1 floor has small cuts, which are very small pieces, smaller than fat quarters, but each piece is marked with its size and priced according. Heaven to scrapy quilters. The other floor requires you to get at least a 1 meter cut of all the fabrics, but I had no problem doing that either. If you have their frequent buyer card, and pay in cash, they give you 10% off. If you're in the station looking for it, follow the signs of a red little knitting ram, that is shown at the link above, and you'll find it.

The other place I stopped was Cottonfield. This is more pricey, but has a better selection or a more funky smaller selection I guess I should say. It's cute, and much much smaller but I found some very nice fabrics there also.

Some kind soul make this map of the area, and both of these shops are listed here. It's old, but these 2 are still in existance. Don't get too excited about the Yama quilt house listed here, it's not in business anymore, so don't look for it.

As for books, don't forget to visit Kinokuniya book shop in Shinjuku station - selection is dangerously amazing.

This other shop - Blue and White - which is owned by Amy Katoh, an American, is somewhere on my list of places to stop next time, but I haven't been there yet. If you have...let me know what you think!

Happy shopping, and LEAVE A LOT OF ROOM IN YOUR BAGS FOR FABRIC!!!!!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Ohmygoodness, thank you so much for this information! I've bookmarked it and will put it to good use. I've got to say, that map is super cute, and the small cuts section of Yuzawaya looks so organized! The only bad part about my trip is that my "explore" time is before "visit the boyfriend's family" time, so that means I'll be lugging around all my loot!

Amy said...

Hi Marisa, love your blog! Check out the link to the feeling stitchy blog in my post and you can see how I made the embroidered buttons. I am still experimenting with supplies, however. I will be posting about the buttons again, lot's to try and figure out!

Donna said...

I'm ever so glad they don't have an outlet here in canada or I'd never have any money in my wallet!

Sarah said...

What a great looking shop. I sure you must have been over your luggage weight limit on the way back....;-)

Erin said...

Thank you so much! I'm going to have a half-day in Tokyo in July, and I was looking for great store recommendations!

Tania Ho said...

Thanks for these great tips. I hope to make a trip to Japan soon, and I'm taking an extra bag just for the fabric ;)

Shelina said...

My daughter is already in Tokyo, so it is too late to show her these directions, but oh, I certainly do hope she found the shop with the small fabrics!

Tips Of All Sorts said...

Thanks for sharing about the craft stores. Now I've got more shops to go to other than Tokyu Hands!

Unknown said...

Marisa, I happen to come across your blog and think you are amazing.I am in a quilting group in UK and we all love Japanese fabrics and books and am also very interestd in exchanging ideas, etc. with a quilting group in Japan. Do you know any ? We all wish we can dash across to the US for mega quilting retail therapy. j
Janet in Oxfordshire, UK

Marisa said...

Hi Janet, Marisa here.

Your profile didn't allow me to see your email address, so instead of emailing you, I'll reply here.

Thanks for reading my blog, it is very kind of you. I'm very glad that you are enjoying it.

I am actually involved in a newly formed Japanese quilt study group. We basically thumb through the latest magazine publications, and work on our our Japanese-related quilting projects. Send me your email address to quilt (dot) baby (at) hotmail (dot) com anad we can talk about an exchange if you're interested!

Cheers!

Risa said...

Hey, I was googling around for things to buy on my upcoming trip to Japan
and I found your blog
and had to post because we have the same name!
Marisa's of the world who love Japan unite
^_^