Freezing Rain in Kappabashi

One of my favorite Japanese suffixes is "-bashi". The literal translation is "central location" but I read it as "shopping district". While I'm not much of a shopper back home where the stores have taken on a tedious sameness for me, exploring the little specialty shops here is often quite an adventure.

The Explorers' expedition to Kappabashi this past Tuesday was an adventure for sure. Kappabashi is Tokyo's kitchen shopping district in the Asakusa neighborhood. Small shops selling restaurant supplies, dishes, knives and other utensils, pots and pans, and all sorts of nifty gadgets stretch for about a half mile along both sides of a broad street named Kappabashi-dori.



Winter is not a good time to visit Kappabashi because more than half the shops are open to the elements, meaning the front wall is essentially a garage door that is raised during business hours. When Artistic Explorer suggested a trip to Kappabashi last November, I insisted we wait until March when we could count on warmer weather.



A cold front carrying freezing rain rolled up Tokyo Bay just as the Explorers exited the Tarawamachi subway station. Of course. While the three serious cooks poked their heads into every store on the east side of the street, Novice and I hustled down to Kappabashi Coffee, our rendezvous point at the far end of the street. The restaurant offers tasty coffee from every point on the globe, buttered toast with jam, and - most importantly that day - heated toilet seats. I really can't say enough good things about heated toilet seats. Why aren't they readily available back home?



My kitchen is already stocked with more gadgets than I will ever put to good use so I had no intention of buying a single thing in Kappabashi. A cookie cutter and a few salt and pepper shakers, however, seemed a small price to pay for brief respites of warmth in some of the enclosed shops we found as we worked our way down the west side of the street toward the subway station and home. Best of all, I found the Japanese version of paper plates, disposable plastic rectangles with five food compartments in a cheerful pink and green flowered pattern. If spring ever arrives, I'm ready to throw a party.