Tokyo’s lesser-known gems: Yanaka Ginza & Nippori Fabric Town

 

If you’re a repeat visitor to Tokyo or in need of a break from the crowds, a visit to Yanaka Ginza is a refreshing change. This cute shopping street has lots of little cafes and shops that will definitely appeal to cat lovers! 

Yanaka Ginza is just north of central Tokyo, and if you’re visiting Ueno Park it only takes 13 minutes to get to Yanaka Ginza on the Yamanote Line. You’ll need to get off at Nippori station. (Nippori station is also really handy for Nippori Fabric Town, which is an absolute must-visit if you’re into sewing! More to come on that later).

You don’t need to spend a lot of time in Yanaka Ginza unless you’re getting something to eat at one of the cafes – under two hours will do.

(For full disclosure, if you click and make a purchase through some of the adverts on this page I may earn a small commission. This doesn’t come at any additional cost to you. Many thanks for your support, I really appreciate it!)

Shopping at Yanaka Ginza

This quaint little shopping street is lovely. Traditional buildings are home to shops selling pottery, cat-themed gifts, and jewellery with a catty twist, all of which I’ll go into a bit more detail about below.

Whilst your eyes might be looking at all the cat-themed items on sale, you might want to look up occasionally to see someone watching you! 

Kitty gifts and jewellery

Some of the shops selling cat-themed items include Nuno Fusen (below) and Neco Action. I do love the Shiba Inu-themed tote bags you can get in Japan, and the yellow one here featuring a maneki neko (lucky cat) is particularly adorable!

For jewellery-wearers, although Dekobokodou has branches across Japan, Yanaka Ginza’s branch in particular has an area with lots of kitty-shaped beads incorporated into the designs. I was good and didn’t buy any although it was hard to resist! You can find more of their jewellery and store locations here.

NB On their store website, the store is called ‘Tokobodo Yanaka Ginza’ but it has ‘Dekobokodou’ written on the sign outside.

Also, fun fact – the name ‘Dekobokodou’ in Kanji looks like this 凸凹堂. Whilst the third character looks very much like a Kanji character, I was shocked to learn that all the characters are, in fact, Kanji! It is semi onomatopoeic, in a sense, as dekoboko means ‘uneven’ or ‘bumpy’, which you can kind of see in the shape of the first two kanji together!

 

Pottery!

I also spent a large amount of time in Kanekichien, which specialises in pottery (although it is not the only shop along the street to do so). Here they had a range of different ceramic items to suit all tastes and budgets. I bought a little soy sauce dish although I could have spent pounds on some of the stunning mugs available. They also sell gifts and were one of the few places that stocked the Hamamonyo brand of tenugui towels, so I made sure to buy a few of these. (I use tenugui as wall-hangings mainly).

Get a personalised stamp…at the weekend.

I kept seeing the Shinimonoguri hanko stamp shop on social media so I really wanted to get myself one. Upon arrival though I was disappointed to learn that they only open on weekends!

If you are visiting on a weekend however, they have so many different fun and cute options to choose from! They have all of their designs on their website and I would advise taking a look online before you visit as there are a lot to choose from!

Ah well, one for next time! 

 

Other stores

There are also a range of shops in Yanaka Ginza selling bags, chopsticks, second-hand kimono, and even Persian rugs (if you can fit them in your suitcase, that is). There are also lovely cafes and places selling fruit and flowers too! 

From Yanaka Ginza, I walked to Nippori Fabric Town. If you’re not into sewing and fabric you can of course give Nippori Fabric Town a miss, but if you’re like me and like both cats and sewing things, it makes sense to combine both places. It’s only a 13 minute walk between each area. 

 

Score some fabulous fabric finds at Nippori Fabric Town

Nippori Fabric Town is more of a street than a town to be honest. It is home to all things fabric and trimmings and although the street is dominated by the three Tomato stores there are lots of places to rummage through. 

Everything is very reasonably priced and I got some offcuts of gorgeous Japanese fabric for about £9 /$12 (for both). As well as offcuts, you can get pre-cut 2 metre measures for around £10-15, and there are hundreds of rolls of fabric available if you want more than 2m. I could have spent hours here looking at and touching everything! Some shops also specialise in trimmings such as buttons and edging.

From Nippori Fabric Town you can also easily get the bus to Asakusa (home to the famous Sensoji temple), which only takes about 20 minutes.