Kappabashi Kitchen Town in Tokyo

If you like kitchen things, this street in Tokyo is for you. Kappabashi-dori is about four blocks of restaurant supply and specialty kitchen stores and I took my time looking at every item in Every Single One. Within five minutes of arrival, upon seeing the endless row of shops and my immediate distraction apparent, Nathan had the prescience to leave me to it with a handful of yen, as he left to explore another neighborhood.

You know you’ve arrived when you see the giant chef on top of a building at one end of the street. It’s a bit of sensory overload, but I had fun combing through all of the treasures up and down the whole street before deciding what I would like to bring home. I really wanted to find a good all-purpose knife, but was honestly so overwhelmed by the options, and the obvious language barrier, that I had more fun just looking. I settled for a great pair of scissors that I will use for clipping flowers, as well as a little pair of herb snips from the same shop.

Here you’ll find shops specializing in all kinds of ceramics, pots & pans, cooking utensils, restaurant supplies, and most bizarrely, plastic and wax models of food. Many restaurants in Tokyo have a window out front with their entire menu on display with a plastic representation of the food (which for some reason, really creeped me out?).

The closest station is the Tawaramachi Station on the Ginza Line. Most shops are open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.