Kitazawa Flea Market and shops

We have headed up to shitakitazawa to visit the flea market that is on today. This is a "thrift" town, but it really is more so a "designer vintage" town. Our friend Erin was bang on with her assessment of the gentrification of the area into hipster land, and there's a lot more tourists wandering around the area. It's still cool to wander around, and there are a few really quirky shops here and there, like this super cute cat store that I got some gorgeous discounted gloves from (they were in my colour season and under $10 and I have a wallet full of coins I needed to get rid of, so this was ideal).

The flea market, on the other hand, was a genuine mix of cool stuff, and wildly varying in vibes and price. Saw some super cool pieces and stalls, and it was also loaded with designer vintage, but wasn't the whole market, which meant some bargains.

Which boy oh boy, did I get a bargain. We are definitely going to be buying a third suitcase when back in Tokyo at the end of the trip (our airfares stipulate 60kg weight luggage between us, but no limit to how many bags, it's just a weight total that we discovered in Melbourne, much to our delight), but just in time for freezing temps and snow, and perfectly matching my new beanie, I scored this gorgeous knit coat for merely 2000 yen (that's under $20 AUD). I thought it was a typo given all the pricing i had seen in the market, but nope, it was just a girl selling her clothes. Michael also got a lovely tie pin, which also cost 2000 yen and has a crest of the Rampant Lion, which he thinks looks like the Botheras heraldry.

We also went to a big time and another genuine vintage place, and these shops were divine. Proper vintage pieces at maybe 80% of the price in Australia. Super good quality and so many gorgeous, unique pieces! Super nice to look at!Read more