Comments (0) Best Place to Shop Like You're in Tokyo - 2013
Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle Outlet
Everything in Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle Outlet is small, cute, weird and expensive — exactly, as the name suggests, like Tokyo itself. The Sawtelle branch, in particular, is the perfect place to visit after gorging on that 2,000-calorie bowl of ramen across the street at Tsujita. Here you will find, if not every single manifestation of the gut-wrenchingly cute bear Rilakkuma, then pretty damn close to it: Rilakkuma notebooks, Rilakkuma oven mitts, pencil cases, cellphone covers, even trash cans. In the kitchen section, there are bento lunch boxes, mandolins, rice molds and tiny little pans for frying one tiny egg. In the home decor section, there are small armies of Maneki Neko lucky waving-paw cats. In the beauty and grooming section, bedazzled false eyelashes seem to be the thing. Items are jammed close together — as if shelf space were measured by the square millimeter. This isn't just shopping, it's cultural anthropology. 2109 Sawtelle Blvd., Sawtelle, 90025. (310) 914-5320, tokyojlsusa.com. —Gendy Alimurung
