Day 4: Nippori (Tokyo) and Nagai Park (Osaka)

Nippori Fabric Town #

Because the only thing I’d planned for today was an outdoor art exhibition in Osaka that opened at 7 p.m., Van and I had the the majority of the day free. The only thing we had to make sure to do was catch the shinkansen down to Osaka in time for the evening art exhibit.

I love how a metropolis the size of Tokyo has specialized neighborhoods, in the way that there were numerous camera shops in the Shibuya area with new and secondhand goods.

This was an opportunity. If Japanese stationery was lovely, I reasoned, what would their fabric be like? When I looked online for ideas, sure enough, there was a neighborhood in Tokyo known for its fabric shops: Nippori Fabric Town.

So Van and I checked out of the hotel that morning and left our luggage in lockers at Tokyo Station. We hopped on a train to Nippori Station and walked the short distance to Nippori Fabric Town, where it was just before 10 a.m. and shops would soon open.

Nippori Fabric Town was maybe two or three blocks long but it was incredible to suddenly be on a street where almost every single shop was devoted to fabric and sewing. I had to fight down the wild-eyed urge to see all the fabric, which I knew was an impossibility, given that we were only there for the morning and that some of these shops were several stories tall. So we went from shop to shop, circling back when some opened later in the morning, and I gleefully just absorbed the beautiful designs.

I started out buying a sewing pattern for a Japanese-style apron. I actually already made one for myself last year, but I’m not crazy about the cut nor the fabric that I used (too lightweight), and have been wanting to make a Version 2.0. The pattern instructions were in Japanese, so I asked the women at the register to point me toward the length of fabric I’d need to get for my size. They helpfully pointed to the relevant numbers, dependent on the width of the fabric I’d be using.

Down the street, after much frantic deliberation, I chose some omamori-themed print fabric. Omamori are lucky talismans sold at religious sites in Japan. I really liked how the print choice immediately identified it as a Japanese fabric because you wouldn’t see this pattern in the United States.

I handed the apron pattern to the shop employee when he went to cut my fabric because I didn’t know the fabric width to be able to ask for a specific length. We figured it out together and at the end of the transaction the employee very sweetly said thank you in English to us.

Those two purchases still weren’t enough, even though I knew didn’t have all that much spare space in my luggage. But I just couldn’t help myself. Van and I discovered that there was a shop called Tomato that apparently was so expansive that it covered six separate stores along the street, each carrying different kinds of fabric.

We went to the main store, which was five stories crammed full of fabric and shoppers, where I ended up buying some carp-themed print fabric.

teamLab in Osaka #

Satisfied with my souvenirs, I returned with Van to Tokyo Station. We retrieved our luggage and hopped onto the shinkansen for the three-hour ride to Osaka. Our AirBnB was at Higashimikuni, one stop over on the Osaka Metro from Shin-Osaka Station.

We rested for a bit at the AirBnB until it was time to leave for Nagai Botanical Garden. I’d last visited Nagai park with my other sister An 20 years ago when she’d come to visit me in Japan. This time, however, I was going at night for the teamLab art installation, which has set up through a portion of the park with special lights and sound features.

Even with pre-purchased tickets, Van and I still had to wait a while before we were granted admittance. The staff let in limited groups of people at a time. Once you were inside the gate, they had you watch a short video explaining the art installation.

From there, we meandered the teamLab exhibit, which included two separate egg installations with different kinds of glowing, life-size eggs that changed color. Very Instagram-worthy, if I had an Instagram.

There were giant Brutalist structure in the water painted with coalescing pools of light, another nemophilia field (not as impressive in the dim night light) and and floating lantern-like sculptures.

On our walk back to the Osaka Metro station, Van and I passed by a big Japanese grocery store across the street from the park. We picked up dinner and snacks to bring back with us to the AirBnB.