Going off course in Tokyo’s Kappabashi-dori

On a recent week-long visit to Tokyo, I set aside a Saturday morning to look for a bamboo scraper for my ginger grater and a white earthenware bowl similar to one I had seen in Kyoto a month before.

The sky was covered with little fluffy clouds when I got off the Shin-okachimachi Station on the Oedo Line.

The weather was perfect for a stroll, so instead of transferring to the Tsukuba Express, I decided to walk the kilometer and a half to Kappabashi-dori.

It is also known as “Kitchen Town”, a kilometer-long strip between Asakusa and Ueno famous for shops selling kitchen supplies to the city’s restaurants.

With the spirit of a flâneur kicking inside me, I navigated the flat terrain, looking at everything I saw along the way.

I passed by an archery shop and thought of William Tell – the Swiss folk hero who is always portrayed in drawings holding a crossbow – until I got distracted by a row of stores selling altars in all sizes, incense, incense holders, lamps and offering vessels.

A block later, a store window made me pause and admire its display of brushes in different shapes, sizes and materials.

I have always been a fan of these utilitarian tools – all the more now that they are losing their appeal in this digital age.

I stepped inside and was greeted by two women: a mother who spoke no English, and her daughter, who also didn’t know the language but carried a portable voice translator with her.

She would speak in Nihongo into the machine, and it would repeat the sentence in English. It was enough to facilitate the sale of four brushes which were all exquisitely handmade on premises.

It was like being in a culinary Disneyland – and I wasn’t going to stick to one pony ride

Half an hour and several more diversions later – including a procession of men wearing yukata (cotton summer kimono) and children carrying small shrines on their shoulders as part of the two-day ancient Torigoe Matsuri festival – I finally found myself in Kappabashi.

I can still remember that blissful moment as I entered the first shop at the corner of Asakusa-dori and Kappabashi-dori.

It was an assault on the senses: Imagine being surrounded by a cornucopia of colorful ceramicware, kitchenware, glassware, pots, pans and kitchen gadgets.

It was like being in a culinary Disneyland – and I wasn’t going to stick to one pony ride.

I went to several stores that day, but one of the most unforgettable experiences was in an antique shop crammed with wooden boxes.

On top of them were tea cups, sake sets, ceramic bowls, dolls, scrolls, woodprints and other stuff I had never seen before but I immediately knew I liked: a ceramic oval-shaped vase, Hokusai woodblock prints (just like the ones I had seen at the Sumida Hokusai Museum) and a persimmon lacquer stand with three sake cups in graduated sizes stacked on its lid.

As my purchases were being wrapped, I spied the owner polishing a pair of blue-and-white tokkuri (sake flask).

I asked for the price and he punched the numbers on the calculator. As before, I took a deep breath before gesturing with my hand for a discount – and he changed the numbers. “I’ll take them,” I said with a smile.

I was about to cross to the Ueno side of Kappabashi when I looked at my watch: 4:15pm. With two shopping bags – one in each hand – I decided to skip the other half of Kappabashi.

It was only when I was back in my hotel that I realized I did not get the white earthenware bowl or the bamboo scraper. I guess I would probably be making another trip back.