Sunday, January 10, 2010

Fabric Street, Textile town.

No really - it is a real place!
It took a bit of getting to and on only a pastry for breakfast so we thought we ought to fuel up first because as I warned Dennis, I can get dizzy if I go too long without food. "So what's the difference?" he said,"You get dizzy when you go into to a quilt shop anyway." Huh.

Now, he has been avoiding Japanese food and doing a good job so far ( we have eaten Italian, Indian, French, Seven-Eleven and Oreos and Anzac biscuits imported from Hobart.). But, out in this area there is no catering for tourists. And after that comment it was perfect time to inflict on him my threat to go to a local restaurant and point and smile.
There was only really this local coffee shop staffed by smiling amenable Japanese speaking women. We swirled our finger in the air and randomly pointed at the no-picture menu. We smiled. They brought us two plates of spaghetti bolognaise. Ah well. It was not food I was there for after all.
Fabric street is just outside Nippori Station ( take East exit, come out opposite the Tully's coffee house. Go to the top right corner of that plaza (which is also a bus depot) and go straight ahead. You will see banners on the lampposts declaring "Fabric Street" and on the left a little way down the famous Tomato fabric store.)
Tomato is the best with 5 floors and 2 dedicated to craft fabric. I looked at the Japanese taupes and found them a bit dull until I found these two bolts of Japanese made and designed fabrics and suddenly there was two piles of beautiful bag making fabrics! But there are plenty of other stores too.
In Tomato Dennis was dutifully trailing, carrying my potential purchases as I scouted for more. I was a few shelves away when I heard him saying, "You look as bored as I am." By the time I got round to see him commiserating with a miserable looking bearded man, an Australian woman had started laying into him, "Well, do you end up with beautiful quilts nor not?" Both men looked like they knew the answer should truthfully be yes, but were afraid to say so because it would only result in the women buying more fabric! I rescued them by trading directions to a shop stocking Liberty fabric around the corner for her pointing me to the bag handle shelf. She declared that she liked me more than Dennis, "Or," she added, rounding on her husband,"You!" and off she went to buy more!
As Dennis is really very supportive I thought I would release him from textile hell so off we went to indulge a more jointly shared passion - collecting afternoon teas at expensive hotels. In particular the Peninsula chain.

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