FABRIC SHOPPING NIPPORI TEXTILE TOWN

There's a street in Tokyo where the fabric shops don't stop.

You come out of Nippori station, turn onto the main stretch, and it just… keeps going. Bolt after bolt, shop after shop. They call it Nippori Textile Town.

I told myself I was going to be sensible. I had a carry-on. I had a return flight. I had, I genuinely believed, self-control. I stood on the pavement, looked down that long ribbon of shopfronts, and said out loud like a fool, "I'm just going to look."

Of course, I did not just look.

THE WALK IN

The thing nobody warns you about is the pace at which your resolve dies. It's not one big dramatic collapse. It's a slow erosion, shop by shop.

The first place was all Japanese cotton — those soft, slightly dry-handed wovens that press like a dream and don't fight you. Fine, I thought. Looking is free. Then a few doors down was a shop that was essentially a cathedral of indigo. Every shade from barely-there to nearly-black, stacked to the ceiling. I loved all the indigo. I knew it was going to be trouble and I walked in anyway.

By the time I found the wall of sashiko thread — a whole wall, skeins in every color — the "just looking" plan was already dead on the floor and I'd stopped pretending otherwise.

THE HAUL

Here is the carry-on math I chose not to do until the hotel room:

Japanese cotton, more metres than a reasonable person needs. Indigo, obviously. Sashiko thread in colours I don't have and now can't live without. A couple of pieces I bought purely because the hand was so good I couldn't put them down, with no project in mind, which is the sewing equivalent of grocery shopping while hungry.

It all came home. I sat on the suitcase. It closed. We don't need to talk about the weight allowance.

WAS IT WORTH IT

Yes. Unserious answer, completely true.

These aren't fabrics I'll hoard and feel guilty about. The cottons are exactly right for the sashiko work I actually do — the indigo especially, which is practically made to have running stitch marched across it. 

If you're ever in Tokyo and you sew even a little, put Nippori on your list. Bring less luggage than you think you need, then bring an empty bag anyway. And do not, under any circumstances, tell yourself you're just going to look.

You are not just going to look.