Kappabashi (aka kitchen town) is the place to go and fossick for beautiful crockery and kitchenware.
Personally, I like a mixture of old and new pieces – and was delighted to see that the street has both to offer.
I recommend starting around Kamata Knife Shop ( 8 minutes walk from Asakusa Station, 8 minutes walk from Tahara-machi Station.) Then venturing a few blocks either way.
This is the Kappabashi mascot. You’ll see lots of these faces around the area.
There are lots of opportunities to see lots of the famous Japanese fake food that is normally in restaurant windows. A lot of it looks so real.
One of my favourite stores was Kitchen World TDI.
Mainly because there was so many retro pieces – mixed in with the modern and then some cool products that I never knew I needed.
A friend of mine put this in my shopping basket.
It’s so you don’t grate your finger at the bottom of the vegetable or the block of cheese. Genius! (Its also better for when I get my kids to help me cook too!)
And these smiley faced forks are about to teach me about the sunny side of life (or watch me when I’m sleeping.)
*Update: these forks can also be purchased at Tokyu Hands. My favourite Tokyu Hands store is the one in Shinjuku (details here.)
And these lunch bags are a bit cute.
They also sell these stainless steel straws in beautiful colours.
And these plates are all so affordable. 200-300 yen each!
And these stainless steel utensils are so beautiful (not the cheapies this time though)
KITCHEN WORLD TDI
台東区松が谷1-9-12, 1F SPK BLDG
1F SPK BLDG,1-9-12 MATSUGAYA,TAITO
OPEN WEEKDAYS 9:30AM-6PM
OPEN WEEKENDS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS 10AM-6PM
WEBSITE
And then some other shops down the street have these retro treasures. Check out this selection of cookie cutters!
And other Kappabashi finds include ….
And this is Kamata Knife Shop that I was talking about earlier. It’s always busy and very famous.
Knife prices start at 6800 yen and you can have the blades engraved too.
2-12-6 MATSUGAYA, TAITO-KU
OPEN 10AM-6PM
WEBSITE
For extra tips on caring for a good quality Japanese knive, please see my post here.
I also really loved a shop across the road called Fujita Shoji . It looks like a junk store from outside but inside were the most spectacular treasures.
Between Kitchen World and Fujita Shoji – this was what I purchased there last time.
Did you know you can also take a class in making the fake food you see outside restaurants? The store is called Ganzo Shokuhin Sample and is open from 1oam – 5:30pm. Classes are taught 3 times a day at 11am, 2pm and 4pm and cost 2500 yen per person. If you prefer not to make them you can also buy food samples in store.
And although I don’t really list Kappabashi as an amazing place to take kids (ummm…picture lots and lots of breakables and just rows and rows of ‘boring’ plate and cup stores , right?) but if you do manage it with kids there is a simple park around.
It is not a beautiful park – by any means – but it would definitely do the job in terms of making kids happy for a little while or to be used as bribery, if required.
There is also a public toilet here.
1-12-6 MATSUGAYA, TAITO-KU
I’ve yet to find a spectacular lunch option here BUT I do love the Japanese fast food chain ‘Mos Burger‘ and I did find one just around the corner from the park.
And if you’re looking for other things to do in the area I recommend waddling along to Asakusa (blog post here.)
And Ueno is not far away, either ( 20 mins on foot, 7 mins in a cab, 15 mins on a train) – post is here.
