The Vintage Marketplace

Hello Friends! Taking a break from my Tokyo adventure as I put pictures together for my next postings :) So what better news to share in between posts than "The Vintage Marketplace"!

The Vintage Marketplace is a seasonal vintage flea market in Fallbrook, CA. They have wonderful antiques, vintage goods, vintage inspired craft goods, and the cutest vintage booths ever! Me and my sister always have attended in the past, and we are actually going to be a part of the show this Winter (yippee)! So, if you happen to be around, save the date and stop by!

 

My sister has a flair for antiquing, re-purposing, and crafting. Our booth is called "Cream Cottage Chic". I will have more details to share with you in the upcoming months in regards to our booth, show specials, and a sneak peak of what our booth will entail. You can find further information on The Vintage Marketplace here or on their Facebook page.

CreamCraft

TOKYO PLACES - PART TWO

One of my favorite areas in Tokyo - Harajuku. Why? Because it was cute of course! We started our day off visiting the Meiji-Jingu, a lovely Shinto sanctuary with a 1,500 year old torii (gate?) inside of Yoyogi Park.

MEIJI-JINGU

Meiji-Jingu

Torii Entrance, Hand washing before you enter sanctuary,

Shinto Temple, Wishes for the monks

Now for the cute part....

 HARAJUKU

Takeshita Street, Cute Mori Girl Store, 

Harajuku Park, Harajuku Girl

Harajuku was oh so cute! Not what I expected, but even better! It had dozens of cute streets with adorable shops. A mix of mori-girl fashion, vintage clothing, a sprinke of high end, and a touch of hipster. I'd say this is the Melrose of Tokyo. You can spend the entire day here! My favorite street was Takeshita.It has a handful of Mori-Girl shops, cute crepe stands, and Lolita girls!

We didn't get to see too many crazy Harajuku peeps in their full regalia, just a few here and there.

TSUKIJI FISH MARKET

We had sushi for breakfast. It was the only food available at 9:00 AM. At first we couldn't find the actual fish market, but then we started seeing Japanese men riding a stand-on-a-forklift-contraption zooming here and there, then everywhere. We followed them and made our way to hundreds of fish stalls. Amazingly, it didn't smell so bad! This is a definite must see!

GINZA

 Ginza Street, Cartier, 

Cute Ginza Signage, 

Cute Tudor Building Smashed in Between

Ginza reminded me of the Matrix. Buildings as far as the eye can see. This is definitely the high-end shopping area of Tokyo. Food was a little more expensive here. Coffee and a fruit drink was 700 yen each (or $7.00 US)! The architecture here was AMAZING. My husband was in heaven (he loves anything design). Cute seeing ten foot wide buildings smashed in between bigger ones.

ROPPONGI

 

Roppongi Hills/Giant Spider

Roppongi Nightlife

So, the husband kept raving about Roppongi. He's former military and his military friends on leave from Okinawa told him to go to Roppongi for clubbing and nightlife. There really wasn't clubbing, but tons of bars and crazy drunk people passed out on the side walk. One thing we noticed in Tokyo, they can drink. Everyone seems to be dressed in their 9 to 5 uniform and headed to the bar. Good times!

CreamCraft

TOKYO PLACES

Tokyo has so many areas, you can spend the entire day in one little ward. 

SHINJUKU

Lit street, Tokyo Metropolitan Gov't Building,

Robot Restaurant, Shinjuku-Gyoen Garden,

Golden Gai, Drink Alley, Food Alley

We stayed in Shinjuku, which is probably the craziest and busiest areas of Tokyo. We were a 5 minute walk from the biggest train station in the world - Shinjuku Station. It has around 400 exits and over 4 million people pass through each day. Everyday, we took this train and ended up getting lost! I live in Southern California and sit in traffic everyday, but this was way different - body traffic! Best of all, it has a mall on top of it - Lumine Mall.

After shopping, we went to Shinjuku-Gyoen Imperial Garden for a boxed lunch.  It was a nice rest from all the shopping! Beautiful Japanese, English Rose, and French garden all in one. Nice place to rest after shopping.

The robot in the picture you ask? Me and the hubs really wanted to see a sumo match, but we visited before the sumo season began. So, he needed to see some form of entertainment and what did he choose, Robot Restaurant. It was weird, but fun. A giant stuffed panda, robots, laser beams.

We topped off the day at Golden Gai, a cute drink alley behind the bustling streets. There are rows of 4-seater bars. We met some great people and bought the whole bar a shot of Sake (good there was only 4 people).


CreamCraft

TOKYO TRIPPIN 2013!

Hello friends! I haven't made my official posting until now and what better way to start it off with my trip to Tokyo, Japan!

 Imperial Palace

I went on a 2 week vacation with the hubs (best husband ever to make this trip possible I might add). Wonderful places, food, people, and craftiness! 

My trip wouldn't have been possible without the help of cute and crafty blogs about Tokyo, awesome guide books, and word of mouth. I used a wonderful and cute guidebook from hello sandwich (sadly, it's out of print, but you can still purchase the pdf version on her website, hooray!). She lives in Tokyo, so she has first hand experience!
 

I will break down my trip with you in sections - places, craftiness,and eating, as well as a showcase of the cute things that I picked up! So grab a cup of tea and view along with me!

CreamCraft