Not everyone’s kappa tea…

Wandering around the streets of Tokyo looking at kitchenware may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I discovered it was mine two weeks ago. I had never visited Kappabashi-dori before, as I really couldn’t see the attraction of shop upon shop full of kitchen goods and restaurant supplies. However, once you get there it’s clear that there’s a lot more to Kappabashi than pots and pans…

You can buy everything from popcorn and candyfloss (cotton candy) makers:

To cookie cutters in all shapes and sizes:

Traditional Japanese lacquerware:

Authentic American diner goods:

Takoyaki plates:

Chopstick rests in various designs:

Lanterns, blackboards and whiteboards:

Fake cherry blossom:

Chinese goods:

And giant shark heads to decorate your restaurant:

So where does Kappabashi get its unusual name?  Well, according to Wikipedia:

The street’s name is believed to come from either the kappa (raincoats) of nearby residents which were hang out to dry on the bridge, or from a merchant named Kihachi Kappaya who funded the project to build Shinhorikawa River for water management. However, due to the homophone with the popular mythical creature, Kappa, the group of shops along the street officially adopted kappa as its mascot.

And there are kappa everywhere! There are statues:

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Lanterns:

Vending machines:

Even inflatable kappa:

In fact, there’s even a small temple in one of the back streets which is dedicated to the strange little creatures. The temple is called Sogenji and I first found out about it here. The temple itself is really not anything to write home about:

…but it does have these rather peculiar little kappa statues that took me by surprise and made it worth the visit:

It seems to wrong to have statues like this in a temple, right next to a Buddha statue:

Naturally, along the way there are a few places where you can stop and buy kappa souvenirs. I liked this shop:

I bought myself some cute kappa sweets there:

I’m really glad I took the time to wander down Kappabashi-dori. I saw some interesting and curious things, and even got a glimpse of the new Tokyo Sky Tree as I was walking:

I walked from Ueno Zoo to Kappabashi-dori, and then on to Asakusa and Senso-ji (more info on Asakusa and Senso-ji coming soon!). If you like walking, I highly recommend this route. I did it all with the aid of Google Maps and the GPS on my phone, and it was very easy to navigate. You can see the location of the places I’ve mentioned on a map here.

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This post is a Show Me Japan entry for this week. Don’t forget to check out the others! 🙂