Finger on the pulse

Beautiful Sunday morning so we went over to an area called Shimokitazawa, recommended by one of M's creative department. Turns out this is THE new area in Tokyo and I loved it. Not a whiff of English anywhere and we were the only gyges to be seen. The town is about 2km square, not far from Shinjuku. There were few chains, and mostly great clothing and design shops as well as cafes and galleries. There was also a market which reminded me of Camden. There were also an extraordinary number of opticians, I have no idea why! Many of the shops had an American Indian vibe which I couldn't work out was just because its cool here or something to do with the area.

Second House, a cafe (pictured) sold big fat slabs of proper cake, including Victoria sandwich, avoiding the normal use of beancurd with everything. We'll be coming back to eat at 'Sunday Brunch' with bacon and eggs on the menu. There were also hundreds of isakayas (bars with food) and I washed down fried fish and Camembert and beans wrapped in filo with a welcome beer in one on the main street with a open area at the front. We loved 'Flower Bar' which, rather obviously, sold flowers too. M bought t'shirts at Cune with the funny bunny logo in another shop come bar and added to his collection of ugly Sonny Angel baby dolls. We found a galleries showing student work and a great bead shop called 'Toodleoo Kangaroo'. Best of all I found 'Andes', a food shop, which, having spent time in South America this year, allowed me to lust over dolce de leche and buy a pile of freshly ground coffee that tastes like the real thing. I loved their huge display of Spam but couldn't help think it was slightly out of place!