Crazy Fabric Shopping in Tokyo-Nippori

" Guilty voice" Here is a post I put on my web before and I would love to share with you here too.😁

Hello? Welcome to my Japan travel blog. If you are reading this post, I think you love sewing & design just like me. Are you a fan of cute printed fabric like cats🐱, bear, fox illustration🦊...or traditional Japanese art printed cloth🍙🍤🌸? If yes, you gonna go to Tokyo-Nippori Textile Street for a crazy fabric shopping. Trust me, it is a heaven for designers and sewing lovers. 

During high school, I read a Japanese comic called “Paradise Kiss” by Ai Yazawa sensei. It is a story about a group of Fashion Design student and I first knew the place Nippori through this comic.

Until this year, I finally had a chance to visit Nippori as there was a sudden trip to Tokyo, yeah💖💖💖Now it’s time to share my Nippori shopping experience.

What’s so special about Nippori Textile street?

Nippori Textile street is not a super huge area but there are 92 fabric & trimming stores within this little place. I strongly  recommend you to get a official Nippori Sen-I Gai map ( Fabric Town) either online or hard copy at the Nippori Station. It is a very clear map with all 92 shops’ detail listed including their major content, phone number and day of closing. It gives you better idea of what kind of shops (fabric, trims, buttons, leather, yarn, sewing tools, etc)  are available and where you wanna go. 🧐

Official Nippori Sen I Gai Map 

Nippori Offical web: www.nippori-senigai.com/

If you plan to do a lot of shopping, you better bring enough cash since most of the stores only accept cash payment.

What shops did I visit?

Since I only had half day for exploring, I did my very best and visited 5-7 stores. Here are 3 shops that I spent most of time and money. (It’s such a dangerous place as the fabric is way too adorable and there are loads of cat prints!!! My wallet was nearly empty after this shopping day...)

no.53トマト本館(YAMAYO MAIN BUILDING)

Tomato is the biggest fabric retail on Nippori textile street and there are 5 stores selling different kind of fabric & sewing tools. If you want to buy fabric for making bags or clothes, it’s better to visit only the main building. 

In main building, there are 5 floors including imported fabric, huge variety of knit, both solid & printed woven, special material for stage costume and super sales section.😍😍😍 

On 5/F sales section, you can find a huge selection of small pieces fabric (usually comes in 50cm X 55cm) from 180 yen to 350 yen. (~US1.6 to 3.1) I guess that’s the heaven for quilt maker.  For me, I spent most of the on 1/F & 4/F where they put all the beautiful printed cotton canvas & linen cotton. Oh, they also have cute printed corduroy & peached fabric which are perfect for infant girl winter dress. 

And any Kokka fans here reading this post? Gonna tell you this is heaven for you. I didn't count how many Kokka fabric I bought. Their product is just amazing and when I was waiting in cashier, I suddenly noticed that 50% of my selection are Kokka's, haha.😘

BTW, the stores was packed with people during lunch time even though it’s Friday. I can’t imagine how crazy would it be on Sat. Although there are shopping carts available, it’s quite difficult to get one or use it in such crowded place. So better plan your visiting time carefully. Finally, If you don’t have much time for visiting Nippori, Tomato main building would be a nice place for you to start the tour.

Tomato Web (Japanese only): https://www.nippori-tomato.com/

no.26 やまよ支店(YAMAYO Branch store)

This shop is located in the starting section of the street , close to Nippori Station. Most of the adorable printed linen cotton fabric rolls are put outside the store so it’s difficult for you to miss it. For linen cotton,  I found some of the prints here only .🤨

And there are more special sale of those small pieces of printed woven. It is a very nice shop for a quick visit.

Yamayo Web (Japanese only): https://yamayo-nippori.com/

no.45 ツキヤス(TSUKIYASU)

Just the opposite of Tomato, Tsukiyama is a small shop which full of surprise. The options for small pieces fabric sales are huge.👏Although the retail price for regular fabric maybe not as good as Tomato, it’s good to have a look on the sale section. 

Something more about Nippori area:

Nippori is an old district in Tokyo and lots of railway lines go through this place, including the JR Yamanote line and Ueno-Tokyo line to Narita airport. 

Besides of textile street, Yanaka Ginza is also famous in Nippori. It is an old market area with lots of small boutique, grocery store and cat theme shop or cafe. As I read from other’s travel sharing, there are many cats in this area. And the mascot of Nippori is a cat too~!😼😼😼 I found its gashapon  inside Nippori station.

If you plan to buy a lot of fabric, staying in Nippori for 2 days would be nice. By my experience, I bought mainly thick woven which are quite heavy. It would be lovely to have a afternoon break, sent the morning shopping back to hotel and kept walking. (unfortunately I could only stay for 1 night and reach tokyo at 5:00 pm,I had been carrying 18 kg of fabric on the shopping day.) There are few hotels near the station and I stayed in APA hotel. The room is a little bit small but clean & tidy. And it’s very close to the Nippori textile street. 

There are lots of small restaurants & cafes around the station. I had Ramen for dinner ( perfect for dinning alone🍜🙆) and a lovely tuna toast as breakfast. Those are perfect resting places for a long shopping day.

This was my first visit to Nippori and really wish to explore it again! Hope you enjoy my sharing and find the info useful.  If you wanna know see my fabric haul, welcome to visit my Instagram (Eng mainly) or Facebook (Cantonese mainly). And I am working on developing new design by those fabric now. 

Hope to show you soon on Etsy Shop
Happy Travel Happy Sewing!