Sew Sweet :: Cashless capers in Textile Town

And so here we finally were. Nippori Textile Town in the outer Tokyo suburbs. With quiet anticipation of the fabric discoveries we would make and armed with this map, we exited the subway and followed the signs to a main street full of fabric stores. It's a rather non-descript street in a residential neighbourhood where everyone rides on bikes. The stores also look rather non-descript, but that didn't matter when there was fabric goodness to be found!


We wandered up one side of the street, scanning a few things we planned to come back for. We didn't want to laden ourselves with goodies too soon, but already there were lots of "Wow's!", "Look at this!" and "Oh my goodness, I NEED to have that!" After lunch in an Italian cucina called Cinderella (ok, so there wasn't much choice in the eats department on this street & the air-con was highly appreciated!), we headed down the other side of the street.

And this is where we discovered the store of all fabric stores...Tomato. This place is split into several shopfronts, one specialising in soft furnishings, another in trimmings & sewing accessories...but the best was the main store. 5 storeys of the most amazing fabrics at amazing prices! It was Tokyo's take on our Spotlight stores...but on steroids! Ok, so Spotlight doesn't even compare. We knew there were bargains to be had when we could see the masses of women rifling through fabrics on the ground floor.

We systematically scanned every floor, so we could see what we wanted to buy. And believe me, there was SO much we wanted to buy. And that's when we came to a little problem. After finding some amazing fabric for our business, we proceeded to the counter with all 12 rolls. We'll have 3m of each thanks. After cutting the third roll, I see a sign...it's Cash Only. What?? Yes, all 5 floors we're told...Cash only. Stop, stop...no more cutting we say! Neither Tiff or I had too much cash on us, so while Tiff waited with the fabric, I dashed down the street, trying to find an ATM that would accept my card. No such luck. I had an inkling getting cash out of Japanese banks could be difficult & we were in the 'burbs. It wasn't gonna happen.

So there we were, shaking out our coinage to pay for the 3 pieces that had already been cut. We must have looked like we couldn't afford the stuff! Here they are:


We couldn't believe our luck. We just couldn't believe a big place like that didn't accept credit cards. We'd come all this way to stock up on fabric for our business & our own personal stash...only to be stumped up by a lack of cash. And I think it was pretty much the same for all the other little shops on the street. I did manage to scrape together some cash to pick up these goodies, also from Tomato - a few trimmings and French-inspired fat quarters:


So everyone, the moral of the story is...if you're heading out Nippori way, be CASHED up or you'll find yourself commiserating all the way home! And the upside to this story...we saved a lot of pennies including excess baggage fees! N