Rice and Ramen

Some of you might know that I have a Thing for stationary. I could spend hours in Papersource looking at all the different cards and thick, crisp cardstocks; stamps, stickers, expensive washi papers, you name it I've probably gone through a phase where I was (or still am, who am I kidding?) obsessed with them.  Inks, however, have always been a bit of a challenge to me. I love the concept of ink and fountain pens, but as a lefty actually using said pens is a bit hit-or-miss. Sometimes the angle at which I write means a fountain pen won't even work for me while other pens end up smearing down the side of my hand instead. Go figure.  But when I heard that  there was a place in Tokyo you could mix your own custom ink , I was sold.  So a few Saturdays ago I made my online reservation and headed over to Inkstand by Kakimori, in Kuramae.  The process is pretty simple. At your designated slot you sit at a counter. In front of you is a pad of paper, s...

Sometimes it feels like Tokyo has more fashionable areas than you can shake a stick at (side note: where does that idiom even come from??). The most well-known, at least from an international perspective, is likely  Harajuku , the "kawaii capital" of Japan. But did you know that there is, in fact, a "second Harajuku" in Tokyo? Several stops north of Ikebukuro on the Yamanote Line is  Sugamo , an area colloquially known as the "Harajuku for grannies." Sugamo is a shopping district where everything moves at a slower pace. The main street is lined with stores, many of them specializing in things that, well, old people would need or want: specialty Japanese ingredients, visors, canes, and special red underwear. (I'll come back to that in a moment.) One really interesting thing I noticed walking up the street was how accessible each of the shops was. All of them were wheelchair and walker-friendly: there were no steps and the aisles were wide and...