A day in Shimo Kitazawa

One of my favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo is called Shimo Kitazawa. It's close to Shibuya but still very different. Shimo Kitazawa is way more quiet and cosy and sometimes reminds me of my hometown Reykjavík.

In one of Shimo Kitazawa's cute street

A friend of mine told me that very many artists and musicians live in this neighborhood and that does not surprise me.
The streets are narrow and filled up with small shops - vintage shops in particular! There are also many cafes, bars, restaurants and live spaces.
When we walked through there last week, I found an interesting theme on the streets - pandas!

They were located in front of various shops and restaurants, all doing different things. I snapped a photo whenever I found one.

Drunken panda outside a liquor store

Pill-panda outside a drug store

Studying panda?

Pants panda

Happy pencil panda outside stationery shop

This theme just made me love this neighborhood even more!

But I think my favorite discovery was a second hand store called New York Joe.

Entrance

You can see how the floor is very "bath house-y"!

In there you can sell your clothes, exchange them and then buy some new ones.
The inside of the shop is kind of cool and I didn't really know it at the time but this was a public bath house (sento) before.

The price was way lower than in other second hand stores I've found in Tokyo so far so of course I didn't go out empty handed! Got an American Apparel mesh shirt,  a dress and a cape/jacket all together for less than 3000 yen.

It was a wonderful day in Shimo Kitazawa and I'm actually really looking forward to go again and see what New York Joe has in store for me next time!

xx