Antiques

Saruyama
Joshidai Dori
Nishi Ogikubo
tel: 03.3395.2729

A prowl around the over sixty antique shops in Nishi Ogikubo ("Nishiogi" for short) on the Chuo Line, makes a fine outing. Pick up a free copy of the antique-shop map at the police box at the north exit. A particularly imaginatively arranged shop is Saruyama on Joshidai Dori, but you'll run into affordable curiosities everywhere, like a Japanese pub glass of the '20s, a time when the Japanese glass industry was in a learning mode, for 500 yen. (It's worth noting that most of the interesting shops are on the north side of the station.) A pasta lunch with a good salad can be had any day of the week at Tsutaya (tel. 5382.2066) on Joshidai Dori, where the last lunch order is taken at 2:30.

Fusa
2-38-1 Ebisu
tel: 03.3443.1945

Fuso is a small, creaking shop with items such as bronze and ceramic hand-warming hibachis (10,000 to 100,000 yen), illustrated Edo-period novels (5,000 yen), screens, scrolls, low reading stands, and pre-WWI kimono design stencils (500 to 5,000 yen) which make fine lampshades. Open only weekends. The owner spends the weekdays scouring the countryside.

Art supplies

Ito-ya (6th and 7th floors)
2-7-15 Ginza
Ginza
tel: 03.3561.8311


Ito-ya, like Tokyu Hands, caters to the Japanese love of gadgets and is particularly strong on things having to do with writing and keeping diaries and other records. A good place to buy "bushugi bukuro" -- the highly decorative envelopes used on ceremonial occasions.

Calligraphy supplies

Mitsukoshi Dept. store
1-4-1 Nihombashi Muromachi
Chuo-ku
tel: 03.3241.3311
http://www.mitsukoshi.co.jp

If for some reason you would like a writing brush made out of your baby's hair, take a handful of clippings to the stationery department on the ninth floor of Mitsukoshi's annex in Nihonbashi and they will arrange to have it done by a specialist either in Kyoto or Tokyo. It will cost 15,000 yen and take two months.

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