Kappabashi dori - 河童橋通り

If you like cooking and tableware, Kappabashi dori is a must go when visiting Tokyo. This street between Ueno and Asakusa is the home of many shops selling cooking gear and tableware for professionals. Most of the shops sell also to individuals (but it's better to ask before being disappointed). There, you can find pretty much anything from metal sakura shapes to amazing laqueware bowls. Crazy knives and delicates bamboo baskets. With Prunellia we spent a few hours there the other day, and got plenty of new things to cook with!

Go organic!

A few months ago my local grocery store in Koganei changed its branding (probably due to some group acquisition). After a few days a lot of the products I was buying vanished from the shelves, replaced by low quality products and I was left with almost nothing decent to shop there. No more delicious organic lemon, no more Italian honey soft candies... I started to shop elsewhere. 

A few weeks ago the shop went under massive renewal, and recently I've been checking in again and realized that they've completely changed their pitch: now half of the products are organic from fresh vegetables to smoke salmon, tea, spices... and they even have a nice selection of familiar imported products of good quality mainly from France and Italy!

It seems that the organic trend is finally making its way in Japan, after years of undergroud unlabelled existence... How good is that going to be?