By Lucy, founder of Souvenir, who travelled with her two kids (5 and 1)
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of a trip coming together. Here is the full itinerary below with all our insider notes.
HIGHLIGHTS
Lots of independent stores
Order coffee from a furry green bear paw that reaches out of a hole in the wall. Predictably, a hit with the kids
An 5-course ice cream dinner date with my daughter
Vintage kimono and ceramics shopping
The perfect mix of old and new, shrines and shopping, small moments and big experiences
"One of my favourite finds this time was a graphic design studio-turned-rice shop in Azabu. Select your preferred texture and sweetness from rice sourced across Japan and it will be freshly de-husked in a rickety vintage machine ready to take home."
Tokyo
Days
4 Days
Stay
An apartment in Higashiazabu that makes you feel like you're a Tokyo local
Best Age
1 to 12
Getting Around
Tokyo has an excellent metro system
When
Any time of year
SWEETS, RICE & A VERY GOOD PLAYGROUND
A white bean sweet with tea at ShiroikuroFeeling like a local in HigashiazabuChoosing small-batch rice at Kome Marche
MORNING
First stop our local bakery, Luposto, for some breakfast carbs, stashing some away for emergency snacks later. Then a 5-minute walk to Nissin, the international supermarket, to stock up on familiar ingredients for the next few days of breakfasts, home-cooked dinners and on-the-go snacks, which we dropped off back at the apartment before heading out to explore our local area of Azabu.
LUNCH
A bit of aimless wandering to get under the skin of our area led us to brunch at Label, a super cute, hidden, very Japanese café (no need to book).
AFTERNOON
We soaked up the backstreets of Azabu heading in the general direction of Roppongi, stopping for a rest, green tea and a pretty Japanese sweet at Shiroikuro. A little more wandering took us to Kome Marché — a graphic designer studio-turned rice shop. We ogled at the brown paper sacks full of brown rice from different regions of Japan, and their pretty labels explaining their taste and texture profiles, before ordering a couple of bags of 'Milky Princess' rice from Akita Prefecture. The kids watched open-mouthed while the owner poured our rice into a rickety machine that spat the husks out leaving a pile of perfectly polished white rice to take back home. We gave the kids some playtime at Sakurazaka playground, then headed on to the Mori Art Museum.
EVENING
We closed out the day with a quintessentially Tokyo experience: hailing a taxi home.
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