Travelog: Omotesando- Aoyama

Omotesando. The very place for all things luxurious. I stand corrected. Ginza is the Rodeo Drive. Omotesando is what, Champs Elysees? These pictures should say it all.

Louis Vuitton—floors and floors full of Vuitton merchandise. Bag bar and all that! This is the biggest Vuitton store if I’m not mistaken (or is it the one at Roppongi?) The Tivoli was the latest bag that came out.

Nice!

Chanel. Silver Cabas Cruise. I also saw the beautiful purple crocodile quilt satin bag. I was tempted to buy it, but on second thought, I held back. I wanted to save whatever money I have left for that trip to Hermes… you never know what you can find inside the House of Orange 😀

In one of the smaller alleys of Omotesando, are the residential areas, but in every other street corner, there’s a nice little shop! There’s a nice building that housed a few shops. This one sold authentic Japanese chopsticks, and other knick knacks like pencils and stationary.
Another place sold Japanese plates (for kids!) and also a lot of these baby “mobiles” that you hang on the ceiling. I ended up with a pretty simple goldfish “mobile” display which set me back by US$300! *ouch* Figured I can put this in my “empty” house to liven it up, so I guess the US$300 display is a collective investment hahaha. Something that DH approved of, so we bought it 😀

In another corner was a bag shop!I loved that green shopper tote. Bag is made of “raw” leather, and was priced at almost US$400. *eeps* So again, I held back. It’s really interesting to see “shops” beside and below residences…
Samantha Thavasa is very big in Tokyo (and the rest of Japan). The brand is actually born in Japan and not elsewhere (not in Western countries as many would think). I’m not hot about the brand at all, if you must ask me. But boy does this brand spend BIG for advertising– you’ve got the Hiltons at one point, and well, there ya go, Lady Victoria Becks aka Posh Spice :D. That building houses the flagship store of Samantha Thavasa.

Here’s a very interesting bag but of course in retrospect, I have NO idea what the brand is. I like the cranberry colored leather though. Forgive thebaghag (tsk tsk behavior unbecoming of a baghag to forget the brand name!!). I think age is getting to me– I’ve become very, very forgetful! *psst, try having vials and vials of epidural inserted into your spine!!*

Fendi anyone? I saw a few variations of the reissued Fendi baguette. There was an interesting piece inside the store, but the ones on display were rather disappointing…

And another mutant Spy bag. Something super embellished in a large size just doesn’t work. As this Spy clearly illustrates. Anyone willing to pay over $4,000 for this?! Ok so I love the chinchilla coat (although I feel revolted with the knowledge that there were so many poor little creatures who got slaughtered to make that coat… it’s sad and even sadder is that, hate to admit it, but the coat is luxurious… but sad … sigh.. this is a chicken and egg thing for me and will remain an unresolved issue. And since it’s unresolved, I’d rather not pay for something like this… sigh– but then we’re talking about animals getting slaughtered for their leather to make bags…. sigh ok this is getting depressing, let’s not even go further with this discussion 🙁 *sob* )

Ok now a picker upper. Yoku Moku!! Apparently my DM had already purchased this brand of cookies at NM before my friend PT introduced the brand to us– and that’s when I consciously remembered the brand. Because PT has excellent taste and had gifted us with quite possibly the best cookies in the world, this baghag took notice 😀 And now, we were at Yoku Moku! Their cookies in a small tinbox are approximately US$25 each (Php 1000+). The macadamia and almond chocolate dipped ones are particularly delightful to the palate, and would make many people with that fateful sweet tooth flock back to this place for more.

Their deserts are heavenly as well. It would’ve been such a sin not to stop and buy something from this “bakery”. Each slice is about Php 250 – Php 300 (US$6+). Not cheap but definitely worth a try.

And finally, to end this post is a photo from the Prada building in Aoyama (this is such a beautiful neighborhood too– as in, I’d love to live in this area because it’s quiet and very peaceful. In fact, a few streets past Prada is a school even! Ok I think it would be tres cool to go to school there and pass by Prada everytime after school hahaha)

Anyway. I’m telling you hags, this Prada edifice is an architectural wonder. People who had no interest in fashion even flocked to see this building when it opened to the public. The interior is just as awesome as the exterior. My DH (who is so not into fashion and all that), loved the place and said it was very well thought of and he would in fact, consider this as one of the must-sees in Tokyo *hahaha*. On the other hand, I fell in love with a black dress. But I resisted the urge to try the dress because I obviously can’t pay for it if ever it crossed my mind that the dress looked nice on me– nice enough for me to take home hahaha.

One thing we did peruse was the Prada bathroom hahahaha. *Sigh* me and my current fixation on bathrooms eh? 😀 I likey this bathroom, it was soo sterile although the bowl itself reminded me of airline toilets hehehe… Ok forget it, nothing compares to my hotel toilet bowl 😀

P.S. I’ll talk about the second hand bag shops we visited (we got to see 2 places) in my next post. I made a very interesting observation but at the same time it was overall very disappointing… I had better luck at the official brands’ store in fact! *woohoo score* But, more on that soon!

SIX DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!!

xx
Mrs.T